It Was Just Her Period, For God’s Sake!

Carrie (Movie) (11/3/1976)

Photo Credit: United Artists

Spoilers ahead!

The one that started it all, and the beginning of Stephen King’s prolific run of adaptations.

This is my first time seeing Carrie, and holy shit. I think it’s a perfect movie. I also think it’s very ballsy but fitting that they lifted the music from Psycho, another groundbreaking horror movie with a famous shower scene.

The novel is great, but some things are just far scarier onscreen than they are in text. The shower scene is upsetting in the book, but in the movie it is traumatic. And the climax of prom! Sissy Spacek’s wide open eyes will haunt me.

Sure, the shower part is a little gross and porny. I’ll defend it by saying that the whole telekinesis is a metaphor for nascent womanhood, and what’s more womanly than boobs and butts? But it’s certainly overkill. Ah, well. It’s from the Seventies. I mostly appreciated that all those women were rocking a full bush.

Miss Collins

Miss Desjardin becomes Miss Collins, because French names are hard. Miss Collins starts out mostly the same, albeit a little more hardcore, smoking in the principal’s office and declaring, “It was just her period, for God’s sake!”

We see a lot more of the gym teacher, who apparently feels obligated to stick her nose into Carrie’s prom invitation, admonishing Sue and her bashful boyfriend for their effort to do a nice thing for Carrie. And she ends up becoming a kind of surrogate mother to Carrie. At first I didn’t get why they shoehorned her in so much. But thinking about it more, I think it’s because so much of the novel’s plot takes place in characters’ heads. Miss Collins is the reason certain plot devices are articulated.

Too bad she gets crushed by Carrie at prom for laughing at her, even after she shared her very charming prom story. That’s what you get for helping the outcast! (Also notable: Betty Buckley said that she decided to play Miss Collins as a lesbian. Points for that.) 7/10

Carrie White (Sissy Spacek)

Sissy Spacek isn’t exactly the Carrie I imagined in the novel. (For one thing, novel Carrie is described as “chunky,” while Spacek is slender.) Movie Carrie is a little more hysterical than Novel Carrie — Spacek said that she looked up pictures of people who had been stoned to death to know how to react to the scenes of her abuse and humiliation. She also takes a more academic approach to her psychic powers, and is happy to let Miss Collins comfort her, rather than isolating and fortifying herself. Also, WOW. A VERY revealing prom dress, nips showing and all. I’m shocked Margaret didn’t explode on sight. I’m shocked Tommy didn’t! She’s the sexiest girl at the prom!

I took hardly any notes during prom, Spacek was that arresting, that striking, that terrifying.

It’s not fun watching Carrie get abused by her mother. In the novel, Margaret’s death is cathartic. But here it hurts, because all Carrie wants is her mother to hold her. She’s finally getting the love she always wanted when she’s stabbed.

Slightly different than the source material, but I can’t imagine anyone else playing her. Can’t wait to judge all the remakes against her. (That’s right, we’re doing them all.) 1000/10

Sue Snell (Amy Irving)

It’s clear that her participation in the group humiliation of Carrie is out of character for Sue, as soon as we watch her delighted giggle transform to a dawning look of shame. Here, Sue’s moral compass points straight North, and is uncomplicated by thoughts of popularity. She’s not afraid to tell Chris to shove it, and she appeals to Tommy with her prom penance immediately. And fine, it was remarkably sweet to watch her smile as she watched Carrie be crowned Prom Queen.

That said, I don’t actually think it makes any sense for her to sneak into prom. She just wanted to watch the Prom Royalty be crowned? Random. Ultimately I liked her more in the book, where she’s a little deeper yhan she is here.

MAJOR points for the terrifying scream at the end, though. Maybe the movie’s only jump scare. 6.5/10

Chris Hargenson (Nancy Allen)

Super hot, constantly crashing out, mad as hell at Carrie. When she’s punished for her crimes, she enlists her hot asshole boyfriend John Travolta to destroy her. And I gotta say, the scene where she gives Travolta head and then suddenly says, “I hate Carrie White” destroyed me.

Chris is far more one-dimensional in the movie. She’s got her flaws, and is definitely a bullying ringleader, but she second-guesses her cruel prank and is only convinced to continue when Billy forces her. Here, she’s basically pure evil. She cheers Billy on while he kills a pig, then later tries to run Carrie over with a car. I get there wasn’t room to explore Chris’ complexities, but she definitely doesn’t have any redeeming qualities. Still, she’s fun onscreen! 4/10

Norma (P.J. Soles)

During the English class scene, my first thought was, “Why is Super Mario in this class?” Little did I know that was Norma, who is so dedicated to her red baseball hat that she even wears it to prom. I can’t even describe how insane that is.

Chris has more lackeys in the movie, and Norma is enlisted to help fix the election. She’s also the first one to burst into laughter. Good thing she’s DEAD. 5/10

Frieda (Noelle North)

Another girl swept up in the shower scene. Just like in the book, she’s the first person to accept Carrie at prom, taking her by the arm and giggling about her prom date. It’s the first time it seems like prom might be okay. 7/10

Helen (Edie McClurg)

Book Helen is beautiful, with a much bigger role. Here she’s done up in unfortunate clothes and glasses, and her only real scene has her with her hair in curlers. What happened to Helen the prom queen nominee? Justice for Helen! 3/10

Margaret White (Piper Laurie)

I gotta tell you, I was shocked when our intro to Margaret White is her knocking on the Snell’s door and evangelizing. Book Margaret does not give a shit about anyone’s soul but her own.

Don’t worry, she’s still quite good at abusing her daughter, locking her in closets and forcing her to confess to sins she didn’t commit and whatnot. She’s so creepy, yammering about “after the blood come the boys like sniffing dogs” and “dirtypillows.” Not a stable woman. And when she’s standing behind the door? Scared the SHIT out of me.

When she confesses her own sin to Carrie (which is either sleeping with her husband or being raped by him, neither of which I would classify as a sin) it’s actually quite sad, because it’s the first inkling we get that she doesn’t hate Carrie at all. She hates herself. The look of peace on her face when she’s stabbing Carrie is because she thinks she’s doing her a favor. Carrie will never have to become a woman and experience all the world’s cruelty. She SPOOKED me. I was glad her death was bloodier here than in the book.

Fun fact, Piper Laurie insists this movie is a black comedy, which — what? She’s still a 10/10.

Mrs. Snell (Priscilla Pointer)

Amy Irving’s actual mother got to play a character who isn’t present in the book at all! She only gets two scenes. In the first, she’s the unlucky recipient of Margaret White’s gospel, which she chases away with money. In the second, she’s sitting at Sue’s bedside, comforting her after a nightmare. I think it’s notable that the final scene of Carrie shows a loving mother, who doesn’t stab her daughter when she’s distressed. 8/10

Most Random Scene: I don’t know why they included a scene where Tommy and his three friends try on tuxedos like the Three Stooges, but I loved it so much.

*For more Stephen King Writes Girls reviews, click here.*