8. Why Was Miss Collins Laughing At Carrie? (Carrie 1977)
Carrie should be required viewing by every teenager, nay, human being. Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a lonely high school outcast raised by an overly religious abusive single mother. She is tormented at school and at home. Her luck seems to turn when a popular boy asks her to the prom and she gains confidence to finally stand up to her mother. Of course this all goes horribly wrong when Carrie falls victim to a prank played by the evil Chris (Nancy Allen) and has pigs blood dumped on her as she is crowned Prom Queen. She then harnesses her telekinetic abilities and kills everyone at the prom. Naturally. The most heart breaking part of Carrie is that she actually seems to be gaining acceptance from her classmates. After the blood is dumped on her there is a shocked silence and everyone begins to laugh at her including Miss Collins (Betty Buckley) who up until that point had been her biggest supporter. Why would Miss Collins laugh at Carrie? Why didnt she help the poor girl? Why didnt she give Chris another amazing bitch-slap? Director Brian DePalma addresses this very question in the DVD Special Features, Was Miss Collins laughing at Carrie in the scene?' and the answer is no, not at all. A good deal of that sequence is really in Carrie's mind, which tips over at the point of the blood. What is occurring is a mixture of what her mother has threatened and promised will indeed happen, her worst fears, her imagination, her paranoia, and everything else." In the real world of Carrie this means that the actual reactions from the crowd are those that happen in the slow motion sequence after the blood is spilt. The laughter is fully imagined from the seed placed by her mothers warning theyre all going to laugh at you.