Carrie

Year: 1976

Director: Brian De Palma

Screen play: Lawrence D. Cohen

Tagline: Take Carrie to the prom. I dare you!

Inspirations: Undertones of Hitchcockian themes. E.g. Psycho strings, use of mirrors and blood in the bath/shower.

Carrie is first conveyed as a shy young girl who doesn't have any friends. She is innocent and has a lack of experience in boys and growing up (e.g. she doesn’t realise menstrual blood is natural).  When she is taken to the prom by the class hunk, the votes for Prom Queen are rigged and a particular girl plays an evil trick to embarrass Carrie in front of the whole school. Carrie uses her special ability to abolish everyone at the prom and finally kills her absurdly superstitious mother.

I feel that ‘Carrie’ is one of the scariest films about the difficulties of high school and puberty. If you think your teen years were bad, they probably can’t compete with the cruelty that Carrie endured.

The finale certainly pays off and the final sequence pops into my head every time I pass a cemetery. It’s simply powerful filmmaking. If you're looking for an intelligent, heartfelt and simply scary flick, then Carrie gives you this, all in one.

Watching and Analysing the infamous Prom Scene in 'Carrie':  

Carrie