For those growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, there is no film quite as horrifying as the Stephen King novel-based movie, Carrie. Nobody wanted to be Carrie in their high school. The thought of having to endure the horror Carrie went through was enough for any girl to think twice about attending her prom. While I have only seen Carrie in reruns or on DVD, having been born in the late 1970s, I still found the film to be scary. It isn’t scary in the typical “horror” type of way. There are so many aspects to Carrie that are frightening it works to make the film a true horror classic.

Carrie revolves around the life of a sheltered girl named Carrie (Sissy Spacek). The movie begins with Carrie in her school locker room after gym class. As she is showering, she realizes she’s bleeding. Since her ultra-religious mother never explained to Carrie what a period was, she thought she was dying and started freaking out, getting the attention of the girls in her class including Sue (Amy Irving), Chris (Nancy Allen), and Norma (P.J. Soles). The girls start chanting “plug it up” and throwing maxi pads and tampons at Carrie. That is until her gym teacher, Miss Collins (Betty Buckley), who is protective of Carrie, intervenes.

While Carrie is in school, her mother is out “promoting the word of God” to her neighbors including Sue’s mother, who gives her $10 to get her to leave. When Carrie returns home, she doesn’t tell her mother about her period. The school calls her to let Carrie’s mother, Margaret White (Piper Laurie), know what happened to Carrie. Margaret is furious. She has Carrie come down from her upstairs bedroom and start reciting passages about how Eve sinned and the first sin was intercourse. Carrie keeps insisting she did not sin, but Margaret tells her that had she not sinned she would not have gotten her period (aka “the Curse”). She hits Carrie and locks her in the prayer closet until she prays for forgiveness. When Carrie comes out, she thanks her Mother for steering her in the right direction. It’s pretty clear why Carrie is so mousey.

Back at school, Miss Collins is punishing the girls in gym class for what they did to Carrie. They have detention with her and she is going to work them until they are bone tired. Chris says she won’t show up, but decides to when she hears she’ll be suspended for three days and won’t be able to go to the prom with her date, Billy Nolan (John Travolta). She eventually tries to start an uprising, to fight Miss Collins, but the rest of the girls do what they are told. Chris ends up quitting and losing her chance to go to the prom.

In the meantime, Sue feels really bad about how she treated Carrie. She convinces her boyfriend, Tommy Ross (William Katt), to invite Carrie to go to the prom with him. He agrees since he is a nice guy. After talking to Miss Collins and convincing her they aren’t doing it to hurt Carrie, Tommy tries to convince Carrie to go to the prom with him. She eventually agrees and the rest of the movie is the start of a downward spiral for nearly the entire cast. Since Carrie has special powers of telekinesis (her mother calls them Satan’s work), whenever she gets upset, things go haywire. That just adds another level to this movie.

Carrie is one of Stephen King’s best novels. He truly is the master of horror, so it is no wonder this movie was so successful. Carrie was the first adaptation from one of his novels to film. Since then, there have been multiple other horror movies created from his works including Children of the Corn, Firestarter, Cujo and Pet Semetary. However, Carrie really set the stage for both Stephen King adaptations and horror movies in general.

The acting, for the most part, is good for Carrie. Sissy Spacek is amazing because she really takes on the part of a mousey, unattractive, shy, abused girl. Her mother, Margaret, is insane and at times gets overly annoying. Of course, she’s so far gone as a religious nut who hates men that you fear that people like this really do exist. This means Piper Laurie does a good job by being so over the top. The cast is made up of so many well known actors that it is hard to criticize any part of the acting. With direction from Brian De Palma (Scarface, Carlito’s Way), the film really comes together.

This Halloween, if you’re looking for a movie that is filled with gore, you won’t find it with Carrie. If you want to watch something creepy with several psychologically disturbing elements, this movie is perfect. Carrie is a classic horror film that shouldn’t be dismissed for its “over the top” nature in some scenes. It was developed in the style of old horror films and the pan in flashes and over-exaggerated facial expressions just add to the horror of this movie.

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