Horror Films that Every Self Respecting Gay Man Should See: Carrie

* an ongoing project for gay pride month!

Film: Carrie

Director: Brian De Palma

Stars: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Betty Buckley, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, William Katt, John Travolta, P.J. Soles and Priscilla Pointer.

In a Nutshell:  Carrie White is the mousy  gal everyone picks on at Bates High School. One day, she gets her first menstrual period in the showers during gym class and has no idea what is happening to her; her classmates mock her by throwing sanitary napkins at her while she collapses in a corner hysterical, her religiously demented mother locks her in a closet and accuses her of sinning...her only hope is that one student, overcome by guilt for what has occurred, arranges for Carrie to go to prom with the most handsome boy at school.  The only problem is that another student has cooked up  the ultimate humiliation for Carrie at the prom.  Trouble is, no one involved is aware that Carrie has telekinetic abilities that can bring down a mini Armageddon on all involved. 

What's So Gay About It?: Bitch please!  From Piper Laurie's over-the-top portrayal of a sexually repressed born again manic mama; to Priscilla Pointer's suburban mom swigging down a mid afternoon cocktail ("I'll drink to that!"); to Broadway Babe, Betty Buckley as the caring dyke gym teacher; to a pre-Scientology Travolta looking all shaggy haired and darkly sexy; to a dreamy William Katt as the doomed "Prince Charming"; to Nancy Allen as the ultimate slut/bitch from hell; and finally, to Sissy Spacek's well played portrayal of the title character - Carrie took the sad tale of a high school outsider with an axe to grind and turned it on it's head.  Carrie represented every gay kid who ever suffered any kind of humiliation in the halls of academia and asked, "What if that kid could get revenge?"

Cool Stuff:  While DePalma was casting his film, he shared space with director George Lucas who was casting a little film called, Star Wars .  Apparently, many of the actors auditioned for both films at the same time ... if you note homages to Psycho in this film, well, they are pretty blatant: a shower scene that ends in blood, a high school named, "Bates" - and of course the stabbing four note violin strings that accompany Carrie's powers.

Gay Quotability:  "I can see your dirty pillows, everybody will!"

Guess Who Doesn't Want to Become Dinner?

I've often wondered why George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, while celebrated for being a ground breaking horror film, is never celebrated as a breakthrough piece of movie making concerning African Americans in cinema.

One need only look back a year prior to NOLD  at Guess Who's Coming to Dinner to see that while Sydney Poitier did indeed bring a positive role model to the cinematic table in his performance as Dr. Prentice, the character needed to be black in order for the film to work (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner focused on a young white woman who brings her boyfriend home to meet the folks - said boyfriend is black; hilarity, does not necessarily, ensue).

One year later, when Duane Jones played Ben Hanser in Night of the Living Dead, his race was irrelevant  to the film's plot.  In fact, it's never even mentioned.   It would seem that any kind of social relevance one gleans from NOLD is all in the eye of the beholder.  

Watching the film today, one can't help but wonder what it must have been like for audiences in the late 60's  to be presented with an African American as the lead of a motion picture that had nothing to do with race relations, social issues, or crime.   Furthermore, none of the other characters in NOLD seem to react to Ben's race.  Look at how Tom respectfully addresses him and listens to him for guidance, or the way spaced out Barbara trusts him.  Even Mr. Cooper, with all his obnoxious bravado, seems more upset over the fact that his (admittedly correct) idea about hiding in the basement makes more sense than remaining in the living room and boarding up windows.  One suspects that Mr. Cooper would have been at odds with anyone, regardless of his or her race, because he's just a disagreeable character.

I've often wondered what African American audiences might have thought about the film back in the day.  Did they see Ben as the character who finally broke through the color wall? 

Like I said earlier, any social relevance one gleans from NOLD is subjective.  That said, it's hard not watch the film's denouement: Ben being shot by the red neck posse, his body being dragged by hooks from the house and placed on a funeral pyre; and not read some kind of violent racial overtones into it.  However, according to the filmmakers, Ben's role was originally written for a white actor, and the only reason Jones got the part was because he gave the best audition.  With that in mind, would the film's climax have felt as powerful had we watched a white character meet such an ignoble ending?