My Favorite Horror Movie – ‘Carrie’ (1976)

Being a huge horror buff, I was having a hard time deciding what my favorite horror movie was. I love horror so much that nine out of ten times, I am watching horror in my house. However, we all have that one favorite, the film that we keep going back to, time and time again. For me, that movie is Carrie. This film is one of my favorites because I feel that it’s a coming of age movie with a horror element added in just for fun. It’s one I can relate to, which makes it even more appropriate to mark as a favorite. Carrie has had two different adaptions and a sequel The Rage: Carrie 2. I like all three of them, but I feel Sissy Spacek in the 1976 version will always be the original Carrie. Her role as the bullied teen with the religious fanatic of a mother is the most memorable for me because I watched this for the first time as a kid.

Carrie is based off Stephen King’s novel which was released in 1974 and directed by Brian De Palma. It tells the story of a shy, nerdy girl who doesn’t fit in with her classmates. The reason I call this a coming of age horror movie is that, along the way, Carrie (Sissy Spacek) discovers she has telekinetic powers. They can benefit or hinder her, depending on the way you look at it. With an abusive, religiously obsessed mother and her classmates picking on her, she can no longer control herself. Her mother, Margaret White (Piper Laurie), is puritanical to the point where she won’t help Carrie understand anything but religion.

Carrie opens with a locker room scene, seemingly innocent at first. Girls throw towels at each other and mess around while Carrie is in the shower. She starts her period and freaks out because she doesn’t know it’s part of becoming a woman.The girls in the locker room take advantage of this and begin throwing feminine products at her, laughing and screaming, “Plug it up!” They bully her because to them, Carrie was stupid for not knowing that this just happens to girls. The opening scene is brutal and disturbing. It shows lack of heart with each of the girls, and makes the audience feel bad for Carrie right away.

Favorite Scene

Besides the iconic ending where she killed everyone who bullied and picked on her, Carrie has a lot of other memorable scenes, like when she first discovers her telekinetic powers because you weren’t expecting the light in the locker room to burst. It later builds up when the principal, Mr. Morton (Stefan Gierasch), sends her home for the day. Mr. Morton refers to her as Cassie, and in frustration, Carrie busts the ashtray with her powers. This is one of my favorite scenes because this is when Carrie realizes that these events were not just a coincidence. She begins researching and figuring out her telekinetic powers. It helps shape who she becomes later in the ending scene.

Ending Scene

Fellow student Sue Snell (Amy Irving) feels bad about the shower incident and thinks it would be an act of contrition to give up her own senior prom and let her boyfriend, popular jock Tommy Ross (Michael Katt), take Carrie instead. Of course, the antisocial Carrie questions Tommy’s motives but eventually agrees to go. This gives the girl a confidence boost, and she goes from abused child to a more confident young woman. She even talks back to her mother, insisting that Tommy “is a nice boy,” with her mom begging and then demanding that she stay home. Surprisingly, there seems to be a connection between Tommy and Carrie and he may even enjoy taking her to prom.

The dance seems to be going well for Tommy and Carrie, but they have no idea there is a plan to embarrass the poor in front of the entire prom. After refusing to appear for detention for the shower incident and being banned from prom, student Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen) gets her boyfriend, Billy Nolan (John Travolta), to kill a pig, collect its blood in a bucket and hang it over the prom King and Queen stage. The plan is for Carrie and Tommy to win Prom King and Queen so when they are up on stage getting their rewards, the bucket gets dumped all over them. Unfortunately for everyone in that gym, the trick works. Most students and teachers stand in silence, but some begin to start laughing and Carrie loses control. She loses control of her powers and kills everyone at prom. Then she goes home and kills her mother because she’s tired of being looked at as a sinner. As she’s dying, her mother stabs her in the back because she believes her daughter is the devil. The house collapses, killing Carrie as well. The only survivor of the tragedy was Sue, but she has to lives with survivor’s guilt everyday. All of her friends and boyfriend were killed by someone she was trying to help.

Final Thoughts

As mentioned before, Carrie is one of my favorite movies because I relate to the film in many ways, although sadly, I don’t have telekinetic powers. But I feel the film is a coming of age movie because the teen changes drastically as she starts getting more confident. Tommy and Sue just wanted to make her feel special, something that everyone in the world wants. I love Carrie most of all though because it’s based off the most realistic thing – not fitting in, and finally developing enough guts to defend yourself. Of course, we shouldn’t kill each other to prove a point, but Carrie had no control. Let this be a lesson: be nice to everyone, or they might just set you on fire with their thoughts!