Bullying is an issue that has, unfortunately, stood the test of time. New avenues exist for it to be enacted in today’s technological age. Words hurt no matter how they are said, though, and the emotional and mental damage from this can scar a person for life. It’s a problem that has been portrayed in countless movies, television shows, and books and is addressed seriously amongst schools, clubs, and sports to combat it. Of all the countless depictions, one of the most brutal and heartbreaking, that continues to hold up today, is 1976’s horror classic Carrie.
Based on Stephen King’s novel, which, incidentally, was his first published and first to be developed into a movie, it starred Sissy Spacek as the tragically shy and repressed teen Carrie White. Relentlessly bullied by her classmates, Carrie leads a lonely, depressed life with no friends or allies except for her gym teacher (Betty Buckley), who attempts to thwart her tormentors.
Carrie’s home life is not any better. She lives with her fanatically religious mother (Piper Laurie), who not only shelters her from knowledge of the outside world but also emotionally abuses her by constantly suggesting that everything Carrie does is a sin. To make matters more complicated, Carrie discovers that she exhibits telekinesis traits, which only further perpetuates how different she is from the average person her age.
Things come to a head when a horrific prank by her classmates to trick her into believing she’s won prom queen goes catastrophically awry. Feeling as though she may finally be accepted by her peers, Carrie steps on stage to accept the award, and for the first (and only) time in the film, we see her actually happy. It was all just a horrible ploy to get her standing in the right spot, however, and she’s consequently doused in buckets of pig’s blood.
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This is the final straw for the abused girl, as it sets off her rage and sadness in uncontrollable ways. She uses her telekinesis powers to lock everyone inside the gym and set fire to it, killing all but one student inside. Although she’s able to leave the carnage behind her, Carrie is later killed by her mother.
From a storyline and character arc perspective, it’s about as dire as could possibly be. The emotional abuse and the toll Carrie endures are distressing to witness, particularly given her age and the fact that she literally has no safe place to go. It’s a toss-up whether the mistreatment she suffers is more damaging from her peers or her Mother, but both play major roles in the events leading up to the disaster at the end of the movie.
In many ways, this makes Carrie the ultimate antihero. The audience spends the entirety of the film feeling sympathetic towards her and all that she goes through, only to feel conflicted when she loses control of her abilities and kills an entire gymnasium full of students and teachers in the process. It’s a paradoxical series of emotions because one could argue both ways on whether she was justified in her actions or not. Furthermore, there’s the discussion that needs to be had on if she even had any control at all over her powers. She had only recently discovered her telekinetic abilities and didn’t really have a grasp on them at any point in the movie.
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Emotions and how we handle them are tricky. Some individuals are better equipped to handle strong emotions than others, and it’s clear that Carrie hasn’t been taught any coping mechanisms at all. It’s a frightening prospect to see the effects of overwhelming emotions combined with otherworldly powers and how easily both can spin out of control.
Ultimately, we are all just fragile beings, attempting to do our best every day. It’s easy for any of us to say what we would do if we were in Carrie’s position, but no one could truly know unless they have lived that exact life with those exact circumstances and powers. Even 45 years later, it’s a bold and heartbreaking statement on the impact the actions of others can have on us and just how far we are capable of being pushed to the brink.
