Carrie (1976)

Based on the novel by Stephen King - his first big success as an author, a book his wife, Tabitha, literally rescued from the garbage - "Carrie" is, in a nutshell, the story of a sheltered misfit who uses her telekinetic powers to exact revenge on her classmates.

Everyone is familiar with the imagery: Carrie (Sissy Spacek) standing on stage at her high school prom, drenched in pig's blood that was dumped on her by her biggest tormentor, Chris (Nancy Allen) and her boyfriend Billy (John Travolta). Carrie's date for the prom is Tommy (William Katt), who took her at his girlfriend's (Amy Irving) insistence because she felt bad for what had happened to Carrie.

Carrie's devoutly religious single mother (Piper Laurie) has literally kept her in the dark - she locks Carrie in a closet, under the watchful, glow-in-the-dark eyes of a bloody Jesus on the cross, for hours - so when she starts her period in gym class (of course), she becomes hysterical because she truly believes she's dying. Her ever-helpful classmates throw pads and tampons at her, chanting "Plug it up!", until the gym teacher (Betty Buckley) puts a stop to it.

For their punishment, the girls get a week's detention with Buckley, who makes them work out (much like Carrie's mom makes her pray) while holding refusal of their prom tickets over their heads. When queen bitch Chris refuses, Buckley cracks her one across the face (which today would be caught on cell phone and end up with her fired and sued) and says "No prom ticket for you!". Miffed, Chris hatches the bucket-of-pig's-blood plan and enlists the help of boyfriend Billy.

What they don't know - what no one could know - is that Carrie has discovered that she has the ability to move things with her mind. She can shatter a mirror and piece it back together just by thinking about it. When Tommy asks her to the prom, and Buckley gives her encouragement to go and have a good time, Carrie is both emboldened and empowered. She's terrified, but she goes - against her mother's wishes - and has a magical time right up until someone dumps a bucket of blood all over her, in front of everybody.

 

You can see her mind snap.

In true Brian De Palma fashion, Carrie uses her mind to kill every last person at the prom - sympathetic gym teacher included - and burns the school to the ground. She drifts home - dispatching Chris and Billy, who are trying to make a run for it, on the way - and comes home to a house ablaze with candles packed on every surface. Mom's mind has also snapped, it seems, and she's decided that the only thing to do is kill her daughter who is clearly a witch.

Not a good night for Carrie.

"Carrie" was re-made in 2013, starring Chloe Grace-Moretz as Carrie, Julianne Moore as her mother, and Judy Greer (who I swear is the female Kevin Bacon of movies) as Carrie's gym teacher.

 

It's been updated - there is the bucket of pig's blood plus cell phone video of her meltdown in the girls' shower - and CGI has been added, of course, but my big issue with the re-make is Chloe herself. Sure, she's not athletic. Sure, her mother dresses her funny. But Chloe Grace-Moretz is entirely too pretty to be universally disliked and picked on. She just is. Sissy was great, because she looked like an ordinary high school girl. With all her freckles, Sissy probably was picked on in high school. It's possibly/probably my own ignorance, because I don't know what it's like to be beautiful. I do, however, know what it's like to be a walking target...

Anyhow, the original "Carrie" is a classic because 1) it did it first, and 2) the imagery and the lines ("They're all gonna laugh at you!") are memorable. For Halloween, put on a pink dress and dowse yourself in fake blood and everyone will know you're "Carrie."