The Prom from Hell

Imagine being excluded from every single group in your high school. Every member of your senior class thinks you’re weird and makes jokes about you every chance they get…behind your back and to your face. To top it off, your mom is an overzealous nutcase who thinks Satan has cursed you when you get your first period. Welcome to the world of Carrie White, the main character of Steven King’s first novel. Who knew a novel turned into a film would turn out to be such a hit? But here we are, over thirty years later, and Carrie has become one of the classic horror movies of the 1970s.

With all of the horror and dread that surround her, there’s something about the character Carrie that hits home with a lot of teens. She’s socially awkward and, because of that, her classmates tease her mercilessly. Her mom has horrifically strict and antiquated ideas about parenting, which she believes are God’s way of keeping her “little girl” safe from the wickedness and depravity of the world.

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of seeing Carrie for yourself, I’ll give a brief synopsis of the story. The film opens with Carrie, a student at Bates High School (Norman, anyone?) getting her period for the first time in the shower after gym. She goes crazy thinking that she’s bleeding to death and screams at the other girls in the locker room to help her. In true teen fashion, they mock her by throwing tampons at her and yelling. The commotion causes Ms. Collins (gym teacher) to come running. Turns out that Carrie’s mother Margaret had never let her in on the fundamentals of the human anatomy.

Ms. Collins comforts Carrie and promises the other girls they won’t get away with their cruelty (a little foreshadowing anyone?) Anyway, Ms. Collins goes to the principal’s office and Carrie’s called in to give her a little comfort. The principal calls Carrie the wrong name, and for the first time we get a glimpse of Carrie’s powers—she breaks the ashtray on his desk using telekinesis (the movement of objects without using physical force).

On her way home, Carrie passes a smart aleck boy riding a bike. He makes a comment about her being creepy and Carrie, with one look, sends the boy and his bike flying into the grass. When Carrie gets home and asks her mother why she let her be embarrassed instead of letting her know about what to expect as she grew up, her mother makes her go into a room and pray for forgiveness…and tells Carrie that her period would never have happened if she hadn’t sinned. Carrie looks in the mirror and, on cue, it shatters.

Ms. Collins punishes the girls by making them attend gym for almost an hour a day for a week straight. Not too surprisingly, the girls aren’t pleased—especially Chris, a stuck-up popular girl. She smarts off to Ms. Collins and ends up being banned from the prom. Vowing revenge, Chris stalks away.

Meanwhile, one of the girls involved (Sue) is feeling a little bad about the situation. She convinces her friend Tommy to take Carrie to the prom. He approaches Carrie as she is looking up telekinetics and miracles in the library. At first Carrie is apprehensive, thinking they’re all out to trick her. Ms. Collins reassures her, and Carrie makes the decision to take a step in the big, bad world and go to her senior prom.

Not surprisingly, Carrie’s mom isn’t thrilled with the idea and forbids her to go. But, as we know, teens will be teens. Carrie tells her mom that she is most definitely going to go, and (when her mom tries to stop her) Carrie uses her powers to knock her onto the bed. Twice.

Tommy and Carrie arrive at the prom and have a really good time…until it comes time for the king and queen to be announced. Unbeknownst to Carrie, Chris (who vowed revenge), Chris’s boyfriend Billy, and best friend Norma have an evil plan in the works.

As it turns out, the group found a way to switch the voting ballots, making Carrie and Tommy prom queen and king. The happy couple is announced, and they make their way to the stage to be presented in front of everyone. As Carrie stands there (in front of the whole senior class) with her sash and roses, tears of happiness running down her face, Billy pulls a string from underneath the stage, unleashing a bucket of pig blood. Carrie stands shocked and covered in blood, recalling her mother’s words, “They’ll all laugh at you!”

Carrie snaps and begins using her telekinetic powers to wreak some major revenge. She begins by slamming the gym doors, preventing anyone from leaving and crushing a few students. The stage lights flicker and give off an eerie red glow (visions of Suspiria). Carrie turns on a fire hose, spraying and knocking people unconscious. She pins Ms. Collins to the wall via basketball rafter. Eventually, she causes the whole place to go up in flames, then proceeds to walk home.

Chris and Billy, who managed to escape the gym unharmed, try to run Carrie down in their car…not the best idea. Carrie uses her power once again, flipping the vehicle and causing it to explode. She arrives home, washes up in the tub, and cries to Margaret about how she (Margaret) was right about everything. Her mother says that, for the last time, they should pray. As Carrie cries, Margaret pulls out a knife and stabs her in the back. Carrie falls down the stairs and, when her mother corners her, uses her powers one last time to stab her mother many times, pinning her to the wall (remarkably in the same position as the crucifix in the “prayer room”) and, ultimately, causing the whole house to burn and sink into the ground (and presumably hell). The film closes with Sue having a nightmare about being at Carrie’s grave where the house stood. As she reaches down to lay flowers on the ground, Carrie’s bloody hand reaches up and tries to drag her into hell. Sue wakes up screaming in her mother’s arms and the film credits roll.

I’ve always found Carrie to be an effective character…namely because she’s the average American teen. She just happens to have a crazy mother and a knack for telekinesis. Also, Carrie doesn’t seem to be the typical horror movie. Unlike Carroll’s usual model, there is no real discovery, confirmation, or confrontation scene until the end of the movie, when Carrie unleashes her power on the school the brought her so much torment. Also, I don’t know if it fits Carroll’s idea of a real horror movie…because the “monster” ends up being the original protagonist…and she’s actually a sympathetic character. I still think it’s one of the better horror films made in the 70s.

I think Carrie, pig’s blood and all, contains a pretty important lesson—the good ol’ Golden Rule. Carrie’s mom and classmates treated her with disrespect and abhorrence, and in the end they paid dearly for it. We could all take away a different outlook on the shy, withdrawn people we come into contact with every day. Besides, who wants to end up attending the prom from hell?