Carrie

Quick prefix: I had the opportunity to take a film studies class over the summer. At the end of the course, we had a final paper. The assignment was to take one film and analyze five aspects of it: narrative, mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound. Below is my submitted work.

Brian De Palma’s 1976 film, Carrie, follows the story of Carrie White, a young girl with telekinetic powers. It is an American film based on the book by the American author, Stephen King. Like many films in the horror genre, Carrie is a story about punishment and revenge. Carrie is bullied by almost everyone in her life. Even though there are a few people that are nice to her, the constant abuse makes it hard for her to trust anyone. She is an outsider. So much torment pushes a person over the edge. Those who bullied her end up getting punished for their actions by dying in a fire created by Carrie. Furthermore, Carrie gets punishment by dying in a different fire. The film explores the topic of female oppression. People began bullying her because of her period and her mother thinks periods, despite being natural, are unholy. Her mother even carries around a book entitled The Sins of Women. The five main characters in the movie are all women: Carrie, Sue, Chris, Ms. White, and Ms. Collins. Despite these women all having different personalities, motivations, and morals, they all suffer the same fiery punishment. 

The film begins with an aerial shot of a girls’ gym class in the middle of a volleyball game. The camera zooms in to reveal the protagonist, Carrie White. The inciting incident occurs after the gym class when she gets her first period. After getting her period, she begs the other girls for help to no avail. The girls instead choose to pelt her with pads and tease her. This basically establishes that every character acts as an antagonist to Carrie. As the girls tease her, a lightbulb breaks. Carrie figures out it was because of her and that she has telekinetic powers - this is the turning point of Act I. Carrie tries to control her powers as she does not want to bring more attention to herself. Everyone around her continues to push her around and bully her, including her own mother. In the turning point of Act II, Carrie stands up to her mother by using her telekinetic powers to force her mother to sit down allowing Carrie to go to the prom. The prom is where the climax of the film takes place. Chris - one of the main antagonists - plays a cruel prank on Carrie by covering her in pig blood. This sets off Carrie’s powers, and it is at this point that Carrie decides to take revenge on the entire school. During the climax, Carrie kills everyone, excluding one girl, at her prom. Eventually, Carrie makes her way home where she faces her final antagonist, her mother in the resolution of Act III. Carrie and her mother both try to kill each other, but Carrie wins the fight. Carrie cannot control her powers any longer and causes her house to crumble and catch on fire. The house then burns down with her in it - this is where Carrie’s story ends. The plot takes place in chronological order and the story covers the weeks leading up to senior prom.

Carrie’s life is ruled by her mother. Ms. White is a conservative, unstable Christian woman. Her mother forces her to strictly follow her version of Christianity which is extremely sexist and aggressive. Therefore, Carrie is always covered up. Every other girl in the school wears bright colors and is not afraid to wear short sleeve shirts or lower cut shirts. In opposition, Carrie follows a blue and gray color scheme and her dresses are always loose-fitting and full coverage. Similarly, every other girl wears makeup while Carrie does not even own makeup. This confirms her place as an outsider in the school. Carrie’s outfits are so ill-fitting, they almost envelop her. She eventually breaks away from her mother once she decides she will go to prom. Her prom dress is completely opposite to any other dress she has worn. It is light pink, fits her correctly, and shows some cleavage. She also wears makeup for the first time- she finally feels like she fits in. Her mother is obviously opposed to the dress, but Carrie wears it anyway. This is her officially removing herself from her mother. This does not last forever though after her dress becomes covered in blood. The once innocent light pink color is tainted with red. All sense of her innocence is lost which is what pushes her to go on a murderous rampage. Ms. White’s religion and conservatism spread past their clothing and into their house. The outside of their house is painted white, but the paint is extremely chipped. Although Ms. White likes to put on a “holy” front, it is clear something is off.  The inside of the White house is extremely claustrophobic and is filled to the brim with religious artifacts. The lack of outside natural light does not help the claustrophobia. The house and furniture are all neutral dark colors - it is not an inviting place and lacks the warmth a home should have, just as Ms. White lacks warmth for her daughter. The only source of light comes from weak candles and small lights as all windows are covered with curtains. Again, despite the fact that Ms. White keeps religious figures all around, it is clear something dark is happening in this house. An important figurine is that of Jesus on the crucifix in the closet. In that statue, Jesus’ eyes operate as lights. In the final scene of Carrie alive, Jesus’ bright eyes are the last lights she sees. It’s as if this is her condemnation for her actions.  

Everything is set into action during Carrie’s post-gym shower. The camera follows her washing herself using extreme close-ups on her hands. Her hands move slowly and the overall aura of the shots are calm. That is until one of the extreme close-ups of her hands reveals period blood. The extreme close-ups create a very intimate scene and the audience is forced into close quarters with Carrie, helping the audience to identify with her. Carrie is abused by her classmates and her mom which puts her in a weaker position. As Ms. White is forcing Carrie to repent the sins of women, Ms. White looms over Carrie as shown by the high-angle medium shot of her speaking. Carrie, listening and begging her mother to stop, is shown in a low-angle shot. This establishes the early power dynamic between the two. Angles remain important in their relationship for the duration of the film. During Carrie and Ms. White’s big fight before prom, a canted angle is used. The canted angle increases the tension of the scene because it makes the viewing uncomfortable. Lighting is key in establishing the motives and emotions of characters. As Carrie and Tommy are dancing at prom, the lighting is soft and bright. It seems to be a perfect night. There is a warning that it will not stay like this forever as the camera moves around the two in a circular motion speeding up creating a dizzying effect. This is a foreshadowing of the chaos to come. Later, as Carrie begins her murderous rampage, the lights in the gymnasium turn red signaling danger. Similarly, light can be used to symbolize personality. This is often used with Sue, who is the most innocent character of the film. She often appears in natural sunlight that causes her to look almost angelic. In the end, her compassion does not save her because she still ends up being punished with the trauma of the horrors she witnessed. 

Carrie is a horror film and is able to accomplish its scary purpose by manipulating the pace with editing. At the beginning of the movie, the shots are slowed in the locker room. This slow pace creates a false sense of calmness. The slowed-down shots lead directly to Carrie’s first meltdown. The film also plays with time through parallel editing and match-on-action. While Carrie is at the prom having a good time, a shot of Ms. White rhythmically chopping with a knife is cut in between. Ms. White is distraught that her daughter is at the prom, so while Carrie is at the prom, Ms. White is taking her aggression out. Match-on-action is used to continually bring the audience closer to the knife cutting into the board. Ms. White is an unstable woman so putting such emphasis on her knife use is alarming to the audience. Editing is also used to overwhelm and create chaos by speeding up and mixing different shots. After Carrie is doused with pig’s blood, she uses her telekinetic powers for revenge. In the next minutes, total chaos and destruction control the screen and the editing works to put the audience in that position as well. Many different editing techniques are thrown together to create an overwhelming effect. The fast cuts speed up the action which adds to the chaotic feeling. The film proceeds to use a split-screen to show more than one action at the same time. This overwhelms the viewer even more as it reminds them there is so much happening it could not all fit into one shot. To overwhelm the viewer even further a kaleidoscope effect is added over a shot which creates an unsettling view of the world. These three techniques put together make for a fast-paced, anarchic scene that forces the viewer to experience exactly what the characters are going through.  

The sound in Carrie adds the tension and creates a crushing, devastating experience. Carrie achieves this by overlaying diegetic sounds with non-diegetic sounds. The score is filled with jarring, loud notes to unsettle the audience. These jarring notes are often juxtaposed against religious music. After a fight between Carrie and her mother, Carrie goes to her room while her mom stays downstairs. Downstairs Ms. White is singing a religious song in which lyrics state that there is “power… in the blood.” This is ironic since just early in the day Carrie got her period which set her off on the tantrum that caused the fight between her and her mother. It also foreshadows the bloody ending of the movie where Carrie finally uses her powers for revenge.  This gospel music is juxtaposed with the score that is filled with broken notes and off-putting sounds. By overlaying the score with diegetic sounds, the world feels more real and it keeps cinematic invisibility by not totally taking the audience out of the world. This also adds to the eeriness since the audience is fully immersed in the story. The score picks up pace until it comes to a screeching halt when Carrie shatters her mirror. The fast pace builds anticipation to the mirror shattering which in turn causes the audience to jump. Carrie also mixes diegetic and non-diegetic sounds to overwhelm the audience, just as Carrie feels. When Carrie is on the stage after winning prom queen, all sounds drown out beside the amplified sound of the clapping students overlaid with the sinister score. After the blood is dropped on Carrie all the other sounds are cut and the only sound is blood pouring. Even though the camera shows people talking, they cannot be heard. Carrie is trying to process what just happened to her. Her mind is too overwhelmed to be focused on more than one thing. Eventually, a new sound joins the blood. It is an audio flashback to her mother saying “they’re [the other kids] all gonna laugh at you.” Laughter is then added in. The sound of blood pouring, her mom’s words, and laughter create a shattering experience that eventually pushes Carrie over the edge. The score sets the tone for the movie and also acts as a warning for when Carrie goes out of control. Other songs use lyrics as foreshadowing for events to come and other sounds are used to amplify the tension and cause the desired reaction in the audience.

Ultimately, the combination of these five choices mixes to create a film filled with tension and mayhem. Carrie is still considered great over forty years later due to its still prevalent meaning and well-made choices regarding film techniques.

August 19, 2020