Carrie and her Femininity

Films like Carrie, carry a theme that introduces supernatural powers with the protagonist and the impact it has on the other characters. Familial and familiar relations are shown throughout the film as well as the horror that is portrayed.

In the start of the film, the audience can see her first appearance of her supernatural powers occur in the girls locker room. As she was taking a shower, she happens to get her period for the very first time. Carrie, screaming and crying for help, the girls in her class had taunted her and were throwing feminine products at her. Soon after this, she develops telekinesis power and destroys a light that was in the locker room. With these so called powers that developed when she reached “womanhood”, she is viewed as a monster within her femininity. The characters in the film see her as a monster because with her powers she uses it to do harm instead of positively impacting them. Some of the audience may even see her “monstrous” ways of handling unfortunate situations as “bad”, others are able to see it as a way for Carrie to rebel and fight against her oppression.

In the article it discusses Carrie to be shown to display familial relations, along with her supernatural powers. In the film, her mother is a very religious and spiritual person that believes that Carrie has done something wrong (since she gets her period for the first time) and makes her go into her closet to force her to pray. What had made Carrie’s mother so upset could be many different things; one could be the fact that Carrie had her period for the first time and her mother (among others) believe that when a woman is going through her menstrual cycle, her body is polluted with evil. Or she was having sexual intercourse and that Carrie’s body was possessed with “evil” spirits.

Many other films like Carrie, femininity can be seen as monstrous. The horror of the feminine body can be depicted in many different ways to the audience, what seems to be a normal bodily function can be seen as horrifying to some viewers.