One girl in particular, Chris, blames Carrie...

...so much and doesn’t want to take responsibility to the extent she wants revenge. She enlists the help of Tommy while Sue, feeling guilty about her part, enlists the help of Tommy to make it up to her. Sue devises a plan for Tommy to ask Carrie to the prom, her staying back, because it is clear to Sue that Carrie has a crush on Tommy. From the very beginning menstruation and the “Original Sin” from the Christian bible are big parts of the plot and driving force behind a lot of Carrie’s inner turmoil. Christianity and the concept of sin in general are key elements to her relationship to her mother, believing Carrie to be born out of sin and that things like a period are the fault of sinful women. 

Due to Carrie getting her period her mother’s religious fanaticism reaches a fever pitch, believing her daughter to be in need of saving from some sort of sin. It doesn’t help that Carrie intends to engage in a girlhood right of passage, attending the prom with a prom date. The themes of puberty/womanhood, Christian religious elements, and bullying are all interconnected and feed into one another, often in negative ways, to drive the story forward. Carrie’s coming-of-age story devolves into a rage story when Chris and Billy dump a bucket of pig’s blood on her head when she is receiving the Prom Queen title. Not only did they collect the pig’s blood and sneak into prom to place it but they also had some friends rig the vote so that Tommy and Carrie win prom King and Queen. 

When Carrie realizes what happens and the crowd breaks...

...into laughter she snaps, attacking the prom goers with electricity, items in the gym, bleachers, and eventually fire. Sue is spared, being pushed out of the gym as things kick off and then Carrie shutting the gym doors in order to carry out her massacre. Sue being the popular, attractive girl that relinquished her power and reformed is spared and the ultimate final girl of the film, Carrie who is virginal and sheltered but abuses her power when she becomes a woman is killed by that very power.  On the flip side to the story endorsing those two characters Margaret White, Carrie’s mother, abuses her daughter and struggles with a lack of support system in a partner and Chris Hargensen who bullies and lashes out with anger without accountability. Both women are killed in brutal ways by the end of the film, both by Carrie in revenge for what they’ve done to her. 

Carrie is an essential horror movie, the first but certainly not last of Stephen King’s works that went on to be classics in the genre. Meeting success upon release this movie has always been a horror hit and maintained that status over the years. In part the talent in the cast alone gives this movie a leg up in longevity and recognition throughout the ages. The side by side shots in the end to show both Sissy Spacek’s performance as Carrie and the destruction she’s unleashing on her classmates come off a little goofy now, it’s still worth noting the benefits to that aspect in having made it so popular at the time.

The movie begins by focusing on one of its core and central themes, a song about a girl asking her mother what kind of woman she’d be. With an automatic nod to the fantastical one of the opening shots is Veronica buried up to her neck in her lawn, a croquette ball having just bounced off her head. She immediately breaks the fourth wall looking directly into the camera and saying, “Dear Diary,” before the scene changes to Veronica writing in her diary while scenes from what she describes play out. The initial catalyst event for Veronica introspecting about her climb to popularity and the friend group she’s a part of is explained, at lunch that day they played a cruel prank on Martha Dunnstock, an overweight girl at their school.

We learn that McNamara and Duke are...

...Chandler’s followers, Heather Chandler is always red, McNamara yellow, and Duke is green, whereas Veronica is blue. Veronica and Chandler vie for control of the group and what direction their clique will take, forcing Chandler to do their lunch poll with all types of cliques rather than those they deemed socially acceptable for their reputation. At this same lunch we’re introduced to JD, who locks eyes with Veronica as soon as she enters the lunchroom in a very love at first sight way. As we meet more characters and see the lay of the land we come to find out that Veronica is really unhappy with her friend group, feeling they are cruel and vapid and that she sacrificed to get there for no real benefit. She and JD express their interest for each other and share a moment at a seven eleven before the second catalyst event takes place.

By the college party Heather Chandler and Veronica are on thin ice with one another, and after neither girl approaches sleazy college boys in the same way they get into a friendship ending fight. Chandler threatens to tell everyone at school that Veronica is lame and embarrasses her at the college party by being unwilling to hook up with her date’s friend. This fight and friendship slightly ends with a dumpster fire figuratively and literally. JD convinces Veronica to get revenge on Chandler by giving her a gross concoction under the guise of a hangover cure. The hangover cure is switched with antifreeze sort of by accident and sort of intentionally on JD’s part. Heather Chandler drinks the antifreeze after some mild coaxing and jeering from JD and Veronica about her pride. 

Heather drinks the blue liquid, chokes, says, “Corn Nuts,” and crashes through her glass coffee table to her death. They not only kill Heather Chandler but then they decide to cover up the murder by Veronica copying her handwriting, a skill mentioned to us earlier in the film, and creating a suicide note. 

In an attempt to make it believable they...

...add literary references and have Chandler admit her insecurities. This backfires when the town reads this letter and thinks of Heather as a victim of a growing trend of teenage suicides in America. Themes like the youth committing suicide at increasing rates, murder and physical violence, homophobia/sexuality, and bullying within the high school social hierarchy. A few of the best scenes of the movie in general but also that illustrate the themes well are the funeral scenes when we get insight into what the characters are thinking, able to eavesdrop on their prayers.

Themes in the film include...

...mental illness in adolescents and portraying how despite telling the truth Nancy is locked up at the end after attacking Sarah which goes hand in hand with karmic consequences. Witchcraft and covens are also themes as exhibited through the subject matter and outside influence of Wiccan practices. Empowerment as well as girlhood and womanhood are huge cornerstones of the plot, the adult-like consequences to girl made decisions a huge driving force of the girl’s stories. 

Responsibilities in a young woman’s life that can have expectations for her in return, including spiritual groups not unlike this coven, the community around her like school or work, family, and academic institutions just to name a few. All of this external pressure and force pushes the themes the characters are facing even closer to boiling points that result in some of them breaking with reality. 

Society's views on mental illness, access to services, unforeseen karmic consequences, generally becoming more empowered even by negative outlets are all things that compound the already present pressure, some of which characters in The Craft face. We are shown what happens to women in this fictional world when they behave in certain ways. For example, the quieter and intelligent girls gained supernatural power and sought revenge on popular girls who bully classmates.

When Nancy attacks Sarah but then breaks with...

...reality she ends up in a psych ward, ranting and raving about what actually happened but no one believes her. Once they took on characteristics and attributes more masculinely associated like ruthless ambition and revenge their lives began to fall apart.