Carrie

In the film, Carrie, directed by Brian De Palma there are many connections that can be made between the film and Shelley Stamp’s article, “Horror, Femininity, and Carrie’s Monstrous Puberty”. Throughout the film, horror is depicted through Melodramatic family drama. “…the eruption of violence and sexuality into the domestic sphere through supernatural forces that invade the family home or render its inhabitants monstrous.” Vivian Sobchack calls this depiction of horror, “familiar and familial.”

Stamp’s article says that “Carrie’s supernatural talents are a displaced eruption of the sexual repression enforced by her mother.” Carrie’s mother, Margaret, throughout the film is seen by the audience to be the monster. She neglected to inform her daughter about her maturing female body. This led to Carrie being both scared and horrified when she had her first period in the girls locker room. Unaware that she had just gotten her first period, she thought she was dying. This caused the other girls in the locker room to taunt her by throwing tampons and sanitary pads. Carrie’s introduction to womanhood was surrounded by “demons hurling tampons and abuse in a swirl of close-up fury.”

Carrie is given two different views on her introduction to womanhood. The first view is from her mother, who sees menstruation as both a monstrosity and a curse. The second view is from her gym teacher, Miss Collins, who sees it as “the promise of femininity”. “Carrie subsequent path to womanhood is presented as a treacherous course that must be cautiously navigated by either of the two possible routes she’s offered; the sexual repression demanded by her mother, or the promise of femininity volunteered by her gym teacher, Miss Collins.” Miss Collins offers Carrie femininity free from the sexual repression forced upon her by her mother. She teaches her to embrace her womanhood and to feel good about herself.

Despite listening to Miss Collins and embracing her femininity, Carrie succumbs to the prophecies predicted by her mother. The masquerade that she had made for herself falls apart when Chris ruins her prom by dumping pigs blood on her after she has won prom queen. This action sets up Carrie for a downward spiral using her “telekinetic wrath”. She rebels against both the views on her introduction to womanhood by eliminating both Miss Collins and her mother. The audience watches as she destroys everything she’s familiar with. Eventually eliminating herself because she sees herself as the monstrous femininity that her mother warned her about.