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You’ve heard it before: “high school is hell!” Well among the countless teenaged horror stories out there, there’s one that sits high atop the monstrous peak as arguably the most brutal, heart wrenching “high-school-as-horror-story” of all time, and that’s Brian DePalma’s 1976 classic, Carrie. Not only did it literalize the horrors of growing up and being different, it turned dousing a person in pig’s blood into a bonafide pop culture symbol that still exists to this day
In this chilling adaptation of Stephen King’s horror novel, withdrawn and sensitive teen Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) faces taunting from classmates at school and abuse from her fanatically pious mother (Piper Laurie) at home. When strange occurrences start happening around Carrie, she begins to suspect that she has supernatural powers. Invited to the prom by the empathetic Tommy Ross (William Katt), Carrie tries to let her guard down, but things eventually take a dark and violent turn.
Join Clay and Amanda as they get into the finer points of weaponized tampons, gratuitous John Travolta, baseball caps as formal wear, potato peelers as weapons, what to do when everyone in your movie is an awful person, and the triumphant return, and gold star example of questionable parenting!
Between Carrie, It, and a slew of other stories ruminating on the terrors of being young, it’s easy to think Stephen King just hates kids, however what he’s managed to do is tap into a universal truth: that growing up is hard. Paired with a stunning performance from Sissy Spacek, and expert suspenseful direction from DePalma, Carrie deserves her place as the queen of the teenage tales of terror. So take a steamy locker room shower, put on your best prom attire, and join us for a nice bucket of room temperature pigs’ blood with Carrie…if you DARE!