Carrie stars Sissy Spacek (Coal Miner’s Daughter) in the title role and is the first cinematic adaptation of a Stephen King novel. Carrie is a shy, soft-spoken teenager with a domineering religious zealot for a mom. Because of her sheltered upbringing and introversion she is an easy target for her tormentative classmates. Carrie’s naivety becomes apparent when at 16 she is panicked by her first menstrual flow. Her menarche is also the awakening of telekinetic powers, which manifest initially with her exploding the light bulbs to avoid prying eyes in the school locker area.
Her gym teacher takes pity on Carrie’s innocence and explains the facts of life to her. When Carrie goes home and tells her mom about her life change, her mother freaks out like the girl had been selling herself on a street corner. This condemning, violent over-reaction (Her mother equates menses with sin) is very traumatizing for Carrie who can think of nothing to stop her mother, and who is obviously unable to control nature taking it’s course.
Meanwhile the girls who had teased Carrie in the shower, are being given detention, with the threat of no prom if they fail to go to detention all week. Christine (Nancy Allen) the class bully and instigator to the attack, storms out regardless. Sue (Amy Irving – also in Carrie2), one of the other girls, feels horrible when she realizes that the poor Carrie had no idea what was happening. She wants to make things up to her by forgoing the prom and having her boyfriend (William Katt- Greatest American Hero) ask Carrie instead. He talks a few times to “the weird girl” discovering that she is just shy and innocent, so he agrees to do as his girlfriend has asked. Unfortunately unbeknownst to them, Christine, now banned from the prom, is planning a wicked revenge with her boyfriend Billy (John Travolta – Grease).
