Can movies predict the future? Can art in general? Kurt Vonnegut thinks so, even coining the 'canary in the coal mine theory of the arts' to describe it. I believe Carrie is one of the best examples of this theory, predicting the modern US school shooting epidemic decades before it actually happened.
Movies Under The Surface is a series of video essays that explores what makes great films great. The videos are about understanding movies at a deeper level, beneath plot and story, at their heart.
For educational purposes only.
Footage from:
Carrie (1976), Dir. Brian De Palma
Network (1976), Dir. Sidney Lumet
M (1931), Dir. Fritz Lang
Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction (1997-2002), Cre. Lynn Lehmann
Titanic (1997), Dir. James Cameron
Stephen King on Media and Violence - Interview with Anthony Mason (2013)
The Dead Zone (1983), Dir. David Croenberg
Music from:
Carrie Soundtrack - Pino Donaggio
I Never Dreamed Someone Like You Could Love Someone Like Me - Katie Irving
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Full transcript:
STUDENTS: Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up!
Hi, my name is Gabe and in this video I’ll be looking into Carrie, the 1970s version, you know, the good one. Right up front, I’ll mention that spoilers are ahead, and that includes spoilers for those who’ve read the book, and also those who’ve seen the remake or play. The first Carrie film has major differences from these other versions, differences that make it, in my opinion, best telling of the story.
In this video, I’d like to focus on the power behind that film, what made it is so impactful. To me, this is the film’s most impressive aspect.
CARRIE WHITE: Sit down!
So what made the original Carrie so impactful? Other than the obvious, of course; its depiction of bullying and also its scares, the latter of which includes the greatest jumpscare in the history of the movies. I actually believe the most impactful aspect of Carrie lies underneath all this. Here, at the film’s deepest layer, I believe it is sensing into the future, the writer and filmmakers tuned in to societal trends and trying to warn us where things were going.
Specifically, I believe that even though Carrie was released in 1976, ie way before the US school shooting epidemic, the artists behind Carrie sensed it coming, probably subconsciously but maybe not, and this story, in both book and movie form, was the result.
This may seem crazy, but many works of art have done similar things. Like Network, which foresaw the sensationalist takeover of cable news decades before it actually happened,
HOWARD BEALE: I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!
or M, which called out a society in transition, one that eventually transitioned into Nazi Germany,
MOB MEMBERS: Kill the beast! Crush the brute! Kill him! Beat him!
and how about this amazing example: fourteen years before the Titanic sunk, a book was published about the world’s largest cruise ship, named the Titan and considered unsinkable, hitting an iceberg and sinking in the Atlantic, the majority of the passengers dying due to a lack of lifeboats on board. The book is titled The Wreck of the Titan and after the Titanic sank, people thought the author was clairvoyant, but he disagreed, simply claiming that he was familiar with the shipbuilding and maritime trends of the day.
This phenomenon of art sensing into the future is actually common enough to have its own name: the canary in the coal mine theory of the arts. Coined by Kurt Vonnegut, this theory states that the purpose of artists, not entertainers but artists, is to serve as society’s canaries in the coal mine. Specifically, because artists are so sensitive, they are more in tune and better able to tap into society’s trends. This means that when bad things are coming, they sense them well before the rest of society has any idea anything negative is happening.
To me, Carrie clearly is this. It’s not a perfect premonition, since Carrie was a wonderful person before being pushed over the edge, while school shooters almost always have issues from the beginning. But even so, the similarities between Carrie and modern school shootings are uncanny.
To begin, lets simply look at the plot: a social outcast ostracized and bullied,
CHRIS HARGENSEN: You eat shit!
in a school that either can’t stop or exacerbates the bullying.
CHRIS HARGENSEN: This isn’t over. This isn’t over by a long shot!
Said outcast is also abused at home, and has access to terrifying destructive power, not literally with guns, but instead in the form of telekinesis. This all builds to our outcast reaching the point where she loses all humanity and desires nothing but revenge, not just against those who wronged her, but against everyone.
MARGARET WHITE: They’re all gonna laugh at you!
And the result is a massacre, one eerily similar to school shootings, the only real difference being there aren’t any guns.
MISS COLLINS: Carrie! Ahhhhh!!!!
Continuing at the plot level, Carrie’s massacre ends with Carrie killing her mother, similar to how school shooters often start by kill their parents, and then the film ends with Carrie being taken by the devil, much in the same way school shooters use suicide to end their evil deeds.
Even the scenes that don’t play into this main plotline, the B, C, and D stories if you will, still support the school shooting analogy, by showing the cluelessness of the administration,
MR. FROMM: Beeeaaauutiful!
the lack of effectiveness or even caring of authority,
PRINCIPAL MORTON: We’re all sorry about this incident Cassie.
CARRIE WHITE: It’s Carrie!
the innocence of the victims,
TOMMY ROSS: I like it; I think it’s terrific.
GEORGE DAWSON: Look at that, no ruffles at all.
the trauma of the survivors, and so on.
Several of Carrie’s motifs play into this analogy as well. For example, the appearance of blood is huge motif in this story, it occurring only in moments of comfort and peace, much like a school should be. Another motif is religious imagery, with religious extremism dominating Carrie and also being a common motivator in mass shootings. And then there’s the camera work: split diopter lenses, voyeuristic and even chauvinistic shots, Dutch angles, all of which not only emphasize Carrie’s ostracism, but also build to this famous shot, one that foreshadows the out-of-control nature of what is to come.
SOUNDTRACK: But tonight, there’s only me.
Of course, it is possible that these similarities are coincidental, that Carrie has nothing to do with school shootings and wasn’t made from an even a sub-conscious connection to where society was going. But when you consider that King’s fourth novel, released three years after Carrie, was literally about a school shooting,
STEPHEN KING: It was a novel about a kid who goes to school one day and shoots his Algebra teacher and holds his class hostage with a gun. And he’s got this whole backstory about his abusive father and a lot of teenage angst and a lot of problems.
and that he has done similar things in other works;
GREG STILLSON: Gotta stay in better shape than this country. What the hell is happening to this country? Can anybody tell me what the hell is going on? Look at here: I read in one of your local papers, right here on the front page.
ROGER STUART: Can you believe this guy? He’s just getting warmed up.
GREG STILLSON: You got some old people eating dog food cause they can’t afford anything else.
ROGER STUART: You gonna vote for him John?
GREG STILLSON: Shame on America!
STILLSON'S CAMPAIGN CROWD: Shame on America!
I personally find the evidence for Carrie’s connection to society to be overwhelming.
Finally, there is one aspect of Carrie I haven’t mentioned yet, even though it is actually the most important aspect outside Carrie herself: Sue. For Sue is the artist within this world; she’s the one who sensed something wrong and tried to do something, putting herself out there to make the world better for others, Carrie in particular. She’s also the one no one but her boyfriend listened to. And as a result, tragedy happened. Tragedy that could have been prevented, had people listened to Sue, understood what she was doing.
MISS COLLINS: Just don’t try.
TOMMY ROSS: Fine, I won’t try.
SUE SNELL: Wait a second! It’s not fine.
Listened instead of suspecting ulterior motives, or dismissing her as crazy. For in doing so, they ignored the canary in the coal mine of their society, and the result was not pretty.
And so, in the end, what we should take away from Carrie is simple. Of course, there’s the whole don’t bully aspect, the importance of accepting others and not abusing or ostracizing. But more powerful than this is the idea that we should listen to artists,
SUE SNELL: Somebody open this door!
to understand what they are aware of that the rest of society isn’t. Society needs to listen to artists, whether they be Sue, Stephen King, or anyone else in tune with the world and with something to say.
MR. FROMM: Soon, all we will have is each other. And that could be enough, if you will let us have room enough, and air enough, and peace enough, to love each other as you never could.
CARRIE WHITE: It’s beautiful.
We can listen, or we can be Chris, or Norma, or Mr. Fromm and Principal Morton, or even Miss Collins, who despite being a protagonist was too focused on herself to understand what Sue was doing.
MISS COLLINS: It’s beautiful hair, you could just put it up a little, maybe add a little curl. What do you think? Yeah!
We can be like these people or we can be better, we can listen and understand, become aware of what’s really going on in our society. And if we do, maybe we can prevent the next tragedy from happening, because if we don’t, we definitely will be massacred, as shown in Carrie.