Seems the time is right for me to roll into the seventies here and present the fifth part of my thesis, my discussion of Carrie and the shift that occurs from the women of Psycho and Rosemary's Baby.  Today's cited works include the film itself, Vivian Sobchack's essay "Bringing It All Back Home:  Family Economy and Generic Exchange" from The Dread of Difference:  Gender and the Horror Film, Shelley Stamp Lindsey's essay "Horror, Femininity, and Carrie's Monstrous Puberty" from the same book, and Joseph Maddrey's Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue:  The Evolution of the American Horror Film.  Next time:  Halloween.

The 1970s: Independent Female Protagonist
     In the 1970s, the female protagonist began to become stronger and more able to protect herself. While some qualities of the main female characters of the milestone movies of the 1960s were apparent in the new horror actresses, it was a slightly greater degree of self-awareness, depth, and inner strength that set them apart from their predecessors. This change in traits was particularly seen in the female leads of two movies from the latter half of the decade. The first of these films, Brian de Palma's Carrie, has been analyzed in multiple pieces in terms of how the film discusses teenage and societal fears about growth, sexuality, and repression. De Palma also has been praised for crafting a movie that so effectively conveys the all-to-human desire to belong, while clearly and accurately describing high school life. At the same time, it is interesting to note De Palma's masterful ability to control his audience, eliciting just as many feelings of sympathy for Carrie because of the heinous actions of the high school clique as it does feelings of disgust and disdain at the murderous rampage that occurs as a result:
      "Adolescent Carrie is a pitiable victim of her culture who evokes sympathy. She is a nerd whose outrage, however horrific and excessive its expression, is a response to a comprehensible betrayal. [...]Carrie's fury is as justified as it is frightening-irrational in its power and force, perhaps, but rationally motivated" (Sobchack 151).
It is this interesting sympathy and empathy that make the character memorable and separate her from those who came before her while simultaneously moving toward the traits of those who would follow in later decades.

     Sissy Spacek's portrayal of Carrie White is different from the two aforementioned female protagonists for a multitude of reasons. In fact, one might interpret the overall performance as a microcosm of the evolution of the female lead from weak victim to stronger, more active heroine/anti-heroine. At the beginning of the movie, Carrie is spiritless, shy, and vulnerable. The more popular girls in the teenage hierarchy prey on her mercilessly, taunting her and throwing tampons at her in response to Carrie's reaction to her first period. She cowers in the corner of a shower while the twisted version of "hazing" continues. Visually, the viewer can see Carrie becoming more and more desperate for a way out. She screams for help and her eyes grow wide as she progresses further and further into hysterics. This event culminates in her first telekinetic feat, an exploding light bulb overhead. This scene is the first clue to the viewer that Carrie is not like her predecessors much less the average young woman. Where Marion and Rosemary were either helpless or could not effectively respond to changing surroundings, Carrie has supernatural powers that make her stronger and more dangerous than the rest of the girls. It is important to note, though, that she is not fully accustomed to this newfound energy and strength, needing to be "saved" and protected by the gym teacher during this particular scene. The movie addresses this fact by later showing Carrie researching telekinesis, miracles, and powers of the mind in the school library in an attempt to gain a fuller understanding of her abilities.

     A similar reluctance is shown when she tries to explain the fear and embarrassment she felt over her first period, the reaction of her schoolmates, and the exploding light bulb to her hyper-religious mother. Her mother responds by trying to make Carrie realize, through biblical readings and fundamentalist catholic literature, that these are all signs that something is wrong with her and that the devil is acting through her. "And God made Eve from the rib of Adam. And Eve was weak and loosed the raven on the world. And the raven was called Sin. Say it. The raven was called Sin!" (Carrie). When Carrie resists this idea, her mother responds violently, attempting to impose her will on the still-weak Carrie and force her to say exactly what she wants her to say. In so doing, Carrie is forced to admit to committing all the perceived "Sins of Women", as the title of the chapter in her mother's book says. In many ways, this particular scene shows the height of Carrie's vulnerability, ending with her being forcibly locked in a room filled with disturbing religious paraphernalia.

     The middle portion of the movie then appears to show the slow growth of Carrie's self-confidence and inner strength as she prepares for the climactic prom scene. This includes a series of scenes in which Carrie disobeys her mother's wishes and snubs her attempts to shame Carrie and restrain her from going to the dance. At one point, Carrie uses her mind to close windows and force her mother to talk to her, thus revealing "the power of the Devil" to her mother for the first time. Later, she would defuse her mother's final attempt to prevent her from going to the dance by actually using her powers on her mother, twice knocking her off her feet and onto a bed.
     However, overall, the prom sequence is the quintessential barometer of Carrie's growth as a protagonist and as a form of anti-hero. In it, Carrie is tricked by many of the same girls who mocked her in the opening scene. The girls nominate her prom queen only to dump a bucket of pig's blood onto her. Parallels can be drawn between the blood used in this action and the blood associated with the misunderstood period that was the impetus of the initial confrontation. (Lindsey 289-90) By this point in the movie, Carrie has honed her powers and inner strength and responds in an exponentially greater manner; much like the bucket of pig's blood could be seen as a much more serious insult than the initial hazing. Carrie's fiery, cataclysmic destruction of the gymnasium represents a form of filmic rebirth of female protagonists in which the previous weak, one-dimensional characters (including Carrie herself at the movie's beginning), are left behind. In their place is a character that reacts against oppression and punishes those who attempt to restrain her. (Maddrey 61-2) This particular idea is seen in the numerous murders and killings that occur in her initial rampage, the car she runs off the road with her mind as she walks home after the prom, and her mother who is killed with Carrie-controlled kitchen implements that stab her in such a way that she mimics the crucified statue seen in the fateful religious room. This final murder in particular can be seen as Carrie attempting to deliver a metaphoric fatal blow to a person who attempts to foster within her the restraint and weakness seen in many of the characters who preceded her.