Recap / Carrie

Carrietta White has had a hard life, being raised by Margaret White, a single mother and fanatical Christian fundamentalist who disdains sexuality and femininity; and being the subject of bullying by her peers ever since grammar school. One fateful day, as a student of Ewen High School in Chamberlain, ME., in 1979, Carrie has her first period, delayed for several years. The sight of blood from her nethers frightens her, a situation that is not helped by the other girls in the locker room where the period began taunting her, pelting her with tampons and sanitary napkins while chanting "Plug it up!". Rita Desjardin, the PE teacher for this class, helps Carrie compose herself and sends her home from school for the day. Unfortunately, when her Momma returns home from work, she immediately begins to abuse Carrie and locks her in a closet to pray and repent for her "curse of blood", which she claims is punishment for sinful thought.

As Ms. Desjardin punishes the girls who bullied her, Carrie begins to take notice of her burgeoning psychic powers. It wasn't the first time she exhibited the ability to move objects with her mind, having unwittingly caused stones to rain on her and Momma's home as a young child, but having truly realized that she had these powers, she began to practice with them. At the same time, Sue Snell, one of the girls who had participated in Carrie's hazing, begins to harbor doubts about the way she treated Carrie and, in an attempt to make amends, convinces her boyfriend, baseball star Tommy Ross, to take Carrie to prom in her stead. Meanwhile, Christine Hargenson, the ringleader of Carrie's hazing, refuses to attend detention, even though she would be punished with suspension and being barred from prom. When her lawyer father fails to leverage the law to undo her punishment, she begins to plot her revenge.

When Tommy asks Carrie to attend prom with him, she tentatively accepts his invitation, fearful of yet another cruel joke being played on her, but still wanting to be able to act like, and be treated as, any other person. When she tells her Momma about this, Margaret demands Carrie not attend. Carrie, however, begins to stand up to her Momma, leveraging her psychic powers to force her mother into letting her attend prom.

At prom, Carrie has a fun time with Tommy, all the while ignorant to the vile plot that had been set into motion: Chris Hargenson had talked her boyfriend, a greaser punk named Billy Nolan, to collect two pails of pig blood, which had been concealed in the rafters above the auditorium. At the same time, Chris has her friends rig the vote for prom king and queen so that Carrie would win, putting her in just the right position for a cruel surprise...

At the height of the prom, Carrie and Tommy are named king and queen of the prom. When Carrie took her place on the queen's throne, Chris pulled a cord that sent the buckets falling down, dousing Carrie in pig blood. As one of the buckets falls on Tommy's head and kills him instantly, the auditorium erupts into laughter. Carrie runs from the auditorium, then, having been pushed to far, returns to seal the doors shut with her psychic powers. She then activates the auditorium's emergency sprinklers and laid live wires in the water, electrocuting almost everyone inside. Her rampage continued throughout Chamberlain, destroying the gymnasium by setting off the school's fuel tanks before sabotaging fire hydrants and spilling gasoline from gas stations, causing the town to ignite with hellfire.

Carrie makes her way back home, where Margaret is waiting. Momma confides that she wishes she had killed herself when she was pregnant, having allowed herself to be taken advantage of by her husband — Carrie's father — even after they both made the mutual decision to abstain from sex. Margaret then tries to murder Carrie with a knife, but Carrie manages to evade Margaret's attack, just enough so she was stabbed in the shoulder instead of her spine. In retribution, Carrie gives Margaret a fatal heart attack, then makes her way to a nearby roadhouse — one of the targets of Momma's ire — to destroy it.

As Chris and Billy plan their escape, they find Carrie and try to run her down with his car, only for Carrie to use her psychic powers to send the car into the roadhouse, destroying it with another gas explosion. At this point, the combination of her stab wound and the physical exertion from her psychic powers causes Carrie to collapse, half-dead. Sue, who had an ominous feeling about Carrie, finds her near the remains of the roadhouse, guided by a telepathic broadcast Carrie unleashed during her rampage that ensured everyone in Chamberlain — regardless of whether they personally knew her or not — knew she was their undoing. Carrie believes Sue set her up for another cruel joke, but Sue professes her innocence, letting Carrie read her memories to discover she had no ill will towards her. The two remain telepathically linked to one another in Carrie's final moments...

In the wake of the events known as "Prom Night", an investigation into the incident is launched, persons of interest questioned, and concerns about the existence of psychic phenomena raised. Ultimately, Carrie's rampage is considered to be an isolated incident, in spite of experts in the research of telekinesis believing this to be a precursor to more psychic individuals. Chamberlain falls into decline afterwards, the town never recovering from the devastation wrought upon it. At the same time, a woman in Appalachia writes to her sister about how her own daughter is beginning to exhibit strange powers, not unlike their grandmother...