The Big Scene In Carrie Is Impossible To Spoil Even After 50 Years
The climax of Carrie will still hit you like a bucket of pig blood.
There are certain horror movie scenes or images that are so striking that they're well-known outside of the context of the film they came from. How many people haven't seen Psycho but can still hear Bernard Herrmann's screeching score as the shower curtain opens and the knife comes down? Or what about people who skipped The Blair Witch Project but have seen the ending shot where Mike stands in a corner? These moments are iconic, but there's a reason why they're so famous: they're great scenes, and knowing about them beforehand does nothing to undermine how chilling they are when you actually see the film. Perhaps the greatest of all horror scenes like this is the blood-soaked ending of Carrie.
Carrie, Brian De Palma's 1976 film version of Stephen King's first novel, came out 50 years ago today, kicking off a half-century of King movie adaptations. Because of the film's place in horror history, not to mention its critical success (stars Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie both got acting nominations at the Academy Awards, a rarity for horror films), Carrie has become a pop culture reference point. It is a seminal genre film, and as a result, its legacy looms large. Even if you're not a fan of scary movies, it is all but impossible to not be aware of Carrie's climax. In a crowded field that includes countless high school movies like Back to the Future, Footloose, and Mean Girls, Carrie might just have the most memorable prom scene despite — or because of — how grotesque it is. Cultural osmosis means it's impossible to go into watching Carrie for the first time fully blind about the ending, yet no amount of pre-existing knowledge can "spoil" the impact of actually watching Carrie's betrayal and subsequent rampage play out.
After being relentlessly bullied by her classmates and abused by her religious fanatic of a mom, Spacek's Carrie White thinks she finally thinks she's found a friend in Sue Snell (Amy Irving), another girl who feels sympathy and remorse for Carrie. Sue tries to make it up to Carrie by encouraging her boyfriend Tommy (William Katt) to go to prom with her, and though she's suspicious at first, Carrie accepts. At first, it seems like this could be the greatest night of Carrie's life. She's elected prom queen, and she's overcome with emotion up there on the auditorium stage. From ostracized victim of bullying to prom queen… it's too good to be true. And it is. Other bullies rigged the vote, and they humiliate Carrie by dumping a bucket of pig blood all over her. It's at this moment that Carrie snaps, and the telekinetic powers she's been developing all film come out in full, horrible force.
The image of Carrie covered in blood, shocked and embarrassed, is a memorable one. In the context of the full film it's so much more than that. Having seen Carrie's struggles leading up to this point makes the betrayal so much worse. Standing up on that stage moments before disaster, Spacek perfectly conveys Carrie's complex emotions. She's letting her guard down, finally allowing herself to believe that something good has happened in her high school life and that people are finally being nice to her. The dreamy way De Palma shoots the scene heightens this feeling, and it makes the transition to nightmare all the more effective. The resulting telekinetic rampage is horrifying, often shot in a split-screen that showcases the extent of the bloodshed and Carrie's broken psyche. It's a much more visually bizarre scene than what a first-time viewer who really only knows about the moment in broad strokes might expect.
This is how it feels to actually watch Carrie.
It isn't some great revelation that actually watching a movie in full will make for a more effective experience than just seeing out of context clips or merely hearing about the plot in general details. With Carrie, though — and with the best of these horror movies whose most famous scenes have broken through to become general pop culture touchstones — it's an important reminder that what makes them scary isn't just these images, it's how they make us feel. No amount of secondhand knowledge of Carrie's ending can diminish the experience of watching our bullied protagonist experience the worst night of her life, nor can a still visual of her covered in blood convey the uneasy feeling of having one's empathy tested. Carrie is a masterpiece beyond this one scene. Even if you think you know how this prom night from hell ends or have seen Mike Flanagan's TV adaptation on Prime Video, Carrie will still hit you like a bucket of blood.
