The rest of the internet is going on and on about Marion Cotillard's Psycho Janet Leigh murder recreation in Vanity Fair , so I thought I'd hit the showers, too. I love Carrie. It's easily my favorite Brian DePalma picture. All of its excesses thrill me from the soft core of the title sequence to everything about Piper Laurie's Jesus freak mama-from-hell to the Psycho like sound cues when Carrie uses her powers.
The first scene is a volleyball game which Carrie loses with her clumsiness ("You eat shit") Right away we know this abuse is common for Carrie from her classmates [Aside: Karen Allen plays the queen bee heather (Chris) and Amy Irving is her veronica (Sue) in this early collection of mean girls] As the opening credits roll, the girls hit the locker room and DePalma and his cinematographer and composer lull you into soft-core land with slow motion nude girls and Carrie's sad theme playing.
The volleyball game, the actual opening scene, is all long and medium shots. So the first true close up of this classic anti-heroine is actually of her hand reaching for the soap, so I thought I'd count that out (pictured above). On the 7th shot, Carrie drops the soap. Something's wrong. uh oh... Which brings us to the 8th closeup of her hands and the reveal which sets this whole bloody (sorry) story in motion
Carrie has become a woman. She thinks she's dying. Her classmates attack mercilessly again ("plug it up! plug it up!"). Her psychic rage is triggered for the first but relatively harmless time. The gym teacher sends her home ... and boy is Carrie in for it when her mama realizes she's received "the curse"
