Carrie (1976 film)
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Carrie (1976) is an American film directed by Brian De Palma and based on the novel by Stephen King.
The film and the novel deal with a socially outcast teenage girl, Carrie White, who discovers she possesses telekinetic powers after being subjected to both physical and mental harassment by her peers, teachers, and her mother.
The film stars Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Betty Buckley, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, William Katt and John Travolta.
Plot
Shy 16-year-old Carrie White, who lives with her fanatically religious and unstable mother Margaret, is a loner and bullied by her peers. When Carrie experiences her first period in school, she panics, having never been told about menstruation. Carrie's classmates laugh, throwing tampons and sanitary pads at her, until the gym teacher, Miss Collins, intervenes. Margaret tells Carrie that her menstruation was caused by sin, and locks Carrie in a "prayer closet" to pray for forgiveness. At school, Collins reprimands Carrie's tormentors, punishing them with exercise detention, threatening to stop them going to prom if they refuse. Carrie's longtime bully, Christine "Chris" Hargensen, eventually refuses and gets kicked out of the prom.
Plotting vengeance against Carrie, Chris and her boyfriend Billy Nolan break into a farm and kill pigs to drain their blood into a bucket, which they place above the school's stage in the gym. Meanwhile, Sue Snell, a remorseful classmate, asks her handsome and popular boyfriend, Tommy Ross, to invite Carrie to prom. Carrie believes the proposition is a prank, but he insists that it is genuine. Carrie discovers she has telekinesis. Despite Margaret's protests, she prepares for prom. Margaret sees Carrie's telekinetic powers and denounces her as a witch.
During prom, Chris and Billy hide under the stage while the other conspirators switch the ballots to ensure that Carrie wins the Prom Queen title. As Carrie stands onstage with Tommy, finally beginning to feel accepted by her peers, Sue realizes Chris and Billy's plan, and tries to intervene. Miss Collins spots Sue and, thinking that she is up to no good, throws her out of the prom. Chris and Billy douse Carrie in the pigs' blood before sneaking out of the school. The empty bucket hits Tommy in the head, and he faints. The crowd is left shocked, speechless, and sympathetic to the prank, but Carrie hallucinates that everyone is mocking her, believing it was their plan all along. She telekinetically seals the exits and injures the students attempting to escape. Miss Collins is crushed by a falling basketball backboard and she electrocutes her principal and teacher, setting the gym on fire. She exits the gym and seals the doors behind her, trapping staff and classmates. As Carrie walks home, Chris attempts to run her over, but Carrie causes the car to explode, killing Chris and Billy.
After Carrie bathes herself at home, Margaret reveals that Carrie was conceived when her drunk husband Ralph raped her, an act that Margaret shamefully admits she enjoyed. She stabs Carrie in the back with a kitchen knife. Carrie sends knives flying toward Margaret, killing her; then, she destroys the house and perishes.
Some time later, Sue, the only survivor of the prom, has a nightmare in which she goes to lay flowers on the charred remains of Carrie's home. Upon the remains stands a "For Sale" sign vandalized in black paint with the words: "Carrie White burns in Hell!". Suddenly, Carrie's bloody arm reaches from beneath the rubble and grabs Sue. Sue wakes up screaming as her mother tries to comfort her.
See also
