Third Film Review: Carrie

Carrie: (1976)

Ah, yes, Carrie, what a wonderful movie. It's the classic story of boy meets girl, boy takes girl to the prom, girl becomes prom queen, gets a bucket of pig's blood thrown on her, and her latent telekinetic powers go ape shit!

Yeah, if you're looking for a typical romance movie, this is so far from it that it's not even funny. The plot involves a young high-school girl named Carrie White, played by Sissy Spacek, who is constantly picked on and abused at her school by almost everyone in the place, except one teacher Miss Collins, played by Betty Buckley, her only friend Sue, played by a young Amy Irving, and her love interest, Tommy Ross, played by William Katt. These three people are the only ones in the movie that seem to give a damn about Carrie as a person.

Of course, every decent protagonist needs to have antagonist, but poor Carrie has it in spades. There's a pair of bullies at the school, Chris Hargensen and Billy Nolan,  played by Nancy Allen, who most people recognize as Officer Louis in the Robocop films, and a young John Travolta. They're just a pair of wise-cracking total brats that are so cruel you want them to bite the bullet. The only person in the film to top them is Carrie's own mother, played by Piper Laurie. She's an over-protective, self-righteous, religious zealot who is constantly abusing and tormenting her daughter, even going to far as to call Carrie's breasts "dirty pillows" and declaring Carrie's telekinetic powers as the work of "Satan".

So, Carrie keeps get harassed, ignored, and abused throughout the film, until the last 20 to 30 minutes, where she tells her mother off and in one of the most simple and chilling lines ever given to a daughter in on film, her mother spitefully declares "They're all gonna laugh at you". She goes to the prom with Tommy. She gets crown prom queen, Chris and Billy dump a bucket of pig's blood all over her, and Carrie completely snaps, thinking that everyone is laughing at her when in reality few are. She goes on a rampage, electrocuting people with microphone stands, crushing them with doors and bleachers, and setting the entire gym on fire. Somehow, Chris and Billy manage to get away, but not for long, as they try to run over Carrie as she's walking home, she cracks their windshield, causing the car to flip over and explode.

The last part of the film involves Carrie and her mother talking. Her mother acts like she's reconciled with Carrie, only to literally stab her in the back. Carrie returns the favor by pinning her mom to the wall, and telekinetically hurling a butcher knife into her chest. After that, Carrie causes the house to collapse, killing both herself. Carrie's friend Sue, finds out that she was the only one who had survived the massacre Carrie had caused at the school, thankfully because Miss Collins had kicked her out because she thought she was causing trouble. I won't spoil the ending, but I will say that if you have yet to see this film, you are truly missing out. This film not only launched both Sissy Spacek's and John Travolta's careers, but both Spacek and Piper Laurie were nominated for Oscars because of it.