Continuity mistake: When Norma and Helen are in the salon, and they are talking about Carrie going to the prom with Tommy, Norma is getting a fancy hairdo done for the prom. But in the next gym scene, she has her plain braids and a cap on. (00:48:20)
Carrie (1976)
1 review
Directed by: Brian De Palma
Starring: Amy Irving, John Travolta, Nancy Allen, P.J. Soles, Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, William Katt
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10/10. A masterpiece of horror movies. Carrie is scary, sad, and relatable all at the same time. Sissy Spacek's masterful performance as Carrie White is one to be remembered. She plays the character with such skill that I felt sorry for her within minutes after the opening credits. Nobody else could play the role as excellently as she did. A few have but not with that same pizzazz as Spacek. People remember the prom scene mostly. I remember the build to this like a bomb ready to go off. If anything. Carrie represents how man can only take so much cruelty from both people and the world itself before snapping. This movie's a must see for horror fans during the silver age of horror going from the 1970's to the early 90's. I really liked Sissy Spacek's performance in it, she's talented and gorgeous.
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Suggested correction: When you watch the movie leading up to that event, it's obvious that Norma is a tomboy, and is always wearing a ball cap and wearing her hair like that. It's who she is and perhaps decided after her hair was done that it didn't feel right and decided to go back to her look.
Margaret White: Carrie, you haven't touched your apple cake.
Carrie: It gives me pimples, Mama.
Margaret White: Pimples are the Lord's way of chastising you.
Trivia: Betty Buckley really slapped Nancy Allen across the face during the detention scene. Brian DePalma wanted the right reaction.
Answer: A combination of factors is at play here. Carrie's mother, Margaret, is mentally unstable. She is a staunch fundamentalist Christian. Her daughter, Carrie, is a product of forced intercourse by her drunken husband which her mother admits to having enjoyed, regardless of its sinful nature. Carrie exhibits telekinetic powers, which Margaret labels witchcraft. Carrie goes to the prom against her mother's wishes, which Margaret considers sinful. Margaret ultimately sees her daughter as an evil spawn, imbued with Satanic powers, who is also beginning to assert her independence and defy Margaret's Christian principles. It was probably part of Margaret's delusion that killing her daughter in the midst of prayer (they are reciting "The Lord's Prayer" when Margaret stabs Carrie in the back and continues to attack her) might facilitate her possibility for redemption.
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