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Great Performances in Horror: Piper Laurie as Margaret White in Carrie

Published

4 years ago

January 26, 2022

Christopher Wesley Moore

Piper Laurie as Margaret White in Carrie (1976)

By Christopher Wesley Moore

It’s no secret that the horror genre never gets its due when awards season comes around. To this day, perfectly excellent horror films and performances are overlooked in favor of your usual, middlebrow “important” work. Ask just about any self-respecting gay horror fan about Toni Collette not being nominated for her stellar work in Hereditary and be prepared to hear a 15 minute (at least) “she was robbed” speech with a few uncannily accurate impressions from her “I am your mother” monologue.

Seriously. Give it a try. It’s a blast! I highly recommend it.

To many, horror is still seen as a tacky and childish genre that caters to the lowest common denominator and features scripts and performances not even worthy of Razzies. When non-horror fans think horror, they think screaming teenagers (usually played by people pushing or well-over 30) wearing very little clothing as they’re either murdered by or running away from some gooey creature or a masked maniac with a sharp gardening tool of some sort. They’re laughed at and not treated seriously.

Jennifer Love Hewitt in I Know What You Did Last Summer

I get it. It’s very hard to give a great performance in a horror film, especially if the material isn’t there. Even Meryl Streep isn’t going to make something moving and transformative out of “Camper in Sleeping Bag Jason Hits Up Against A Tree #3.” Not that I wouldn’t love to see her try. However, when you get a well-written part and just the right actor to play said part, the fireworks can be out of this world and you’re suddenly reminded of just how powerful a horror film performance can be.

The first performance that came to mind when I was thinking up this series was Piper Laurie in Carrie. It’s my favorite film of all time and one of my favorite performances from any genre, but I wondered why. After all, Margaret White is simply an excellent character created by Stephen King in the middle of a relatable and moving story that has also been portrayed by actresses as brilliant as Patricia Clarkson and Julianne Moore. I’d hardly call them slouches in the acting department, so why does Laurie’s Margaret both move and terrify me so much more than any of the other versions, and what is it that makes her performance so great?

Laurie’s Margaret White isn’t the dreary, prim-and-proper spinster with her hair pulled back in a severe hairstyle we usually associate with cinematic (or many real-life) religious fanatics. She lets her fiery mane of red hair flow free like a lioness and wears long, billowy capes and dresses. She’s appropriately humorless, but not without joy or a smile every now and then. The scary part is that you don’t know if she’s smiling because she’s actually happy about something or because she’s about to stab you in the back.

Seriously. Watch out. She kinda has a habit of doing that.

Her first entrance in the film comes around 10 minutes into the story where she’s going door-to-door in the neighborhood trying to spread “the gospel of God’s salvation through Christ’s blood.” When a buzzed Mrs. Snell (Priscilla Pointer) takes a break from her afternoon soaps and lets Margaret in, she’s not met with immediate judgment or harshness. In fact, Laurie’s Margaret seems jovial. Quirky, but not too frightening unless you’ve had a lot of experience with this type and know what could be bubbling beneath the surface.

She’s more charismatic TV evangelist, than a fire and brimstone preacher. She’s sort of entertaining in a “people of Wal-Mart” way. It’s only when Mrs. Snell cuts Margaret off mid-sermon to contribute five (oops) ten dollars that Laurie allows Margaret’s true nature to be seen. She shuts off and turns ice-cold, not even offering so much as a gracious “thank you” for Mrs. Snell’s donation before twirling out the room with a flick of her cape (the cape, y’all! The cape is everything.) This is only a hint of the darker things to come.

After Margaret arrives home, she receives the call from the school that her teenage daughter, Carrie (Sissy Spacek), has been sent home for having her first period in the girl’s locker room and freaking the fuck out, because she actually thought she was dying.

Guess that Margaret isn’t exactly the world’s most progressive mother.

As Carrie comes downstairs, Margaret doesn’t offer a warm hug and a tearful apology for not teaching her the ins and outs of womanhood. Instead, she immediately charges at her, Bible in hand, and whacks her over the head with it, sending the hysterical girl to the floor in tears. It’s this random outburst of shocking violence that keeps both Carrie and the audience walking on eggshells for the rest of the film. This is a woman who can snap at any minute and she’s not to be messed with. She’s the type who you totally believe can drag a teenage girl into a closet without breaking a sweat.

Not content to play a one-note villain, Laurie also shows traces of warmth and tenderness in select moments. After Carrie is let out of her prayer closet of terror to repent for the sin of simply becoming a woman, mother and daughter share a touching “good night” and you can see that there is love between them. They both need each other in their own ways and Margaret is terrified of the day when Carrie discovers that she might be better off without her domineering mother. Without this moment, the story doesn’t work and it’s played beautifully by Laurie.

After this, Laurie essentially disappears from the film entirely for the next 25 minutes or so, which really speaks of her performance’s power that she’s not in as much of the film as you’d think, and yet it feels like she hasn’t left the screen for a frame.

She doesn’t show back up until the dramatic midpoint of the film where Carrie tells Margaret that not only has she been invited to prom, but she plans on attending as well. In this scene, Laurie makes a three-act play out of the word “prom” and tries to warn her daughter of the dangers of what happens to girls who go out with boys. We can tell this is partly the jealous manipulation tactic of a lost little girl scared of being abandoned and the desperate plea to keep her daughter safe and not have her get hurt the way she was.

It’s also the scene that Laurie is afforded a little vulnerability when Carrie finally displays her dangerous telekinetic powers and tells her mother that “things are gonna change around here.” Laurie makes sure we know Margaret gets that message loud and clear and that her daughter might, in fact, be God’s punishment on her for her past sins. She can no longer protect her daughter from “the curse” and she can’t simply lock her in a closet anymore and pray it away.

Laurie also isn’t afraid to bravely embrace the inherent camp of the role. Instead of underplaying certain lines that could run the risk of sounding silly (and who can sound 100% serious saying dialogue as delicious as “I can see your dirty pillows?”), she fully commits and gives them a manic intensity that teeters on the edge between disturbing and darkly comic. Her attempts to guilt Carrie into not attending the prom by slapping herself, pulling her hair, and scratching her face might either be hilarious or terrifying depending on who’s watching.

Laurie’s Margaret is a woman who has reached the end of her rope and all of her worst nightmares are about to come true and she’ll try anything to keep her child at home. She’s not going to take that lightly and tastefully. As she’s left alone on the bed as Carrie defies her and goes off to the prom anyway, you can’t help but feel a little bit of pity for her.

It’s this last act when Laurie really shines with a series of strange, unconventional choices after Margaret decides the only way to save her daughter is to kill her. From her breathy monologue about how Carrie was conceived to the ecstatic smile on her face after she’s stabbed Carrie with a kitchen knife and is following her throughout the house, trying to “give her to God”, Laurie seems determined to give the audience a rousing finale. Laurie said she chose to play this scene as if this was the greatest thing that could happen to her daughter, like a graduation or something. It makes everything all the more unsettling and is a sharp choice by an actor at the top of their game.

But the real showstopper is Laurie’s death scene where she’s impaled by just about all the sharp kitchen implements in the house and crucified to the doorway. Instead of dribbling out a little fake blood, rolling back her eyes, and expiring in 3 seconds like just about every other dying person on film, she extends the moment into something unique and memorable. Margaret’s cries of pain soon turn into orgasmic moans as Laurie writhes and hollers, rolling her eyes back and forth as if she’s Angie Dickinson in the back of that cab in Dressed to Kill (another De Palma film). And why not? She’s going to see her maker. This is the moment she’s been waiting for. It should be happy for her. Disturbing for us, but thrilling for her.

It’s the manic joy that Laurie brings to the role that makes it so creepy and pulls you in, not allowing you to look away. It’ll never be confused for being a subtle performance, but a lot of these types in real life aren’t exactly paragons of restraint themselves.

Have y’all seen Jesus Camp? Yikes!

Laurie’s is a brave performance full of humor, pathos, and even some surprising sensuality. When the Oscars came around, she was rightly nominated for her performance which is still a rarity for horror films. Even the Academy couldn’t ignore the fine work she’d done and the performance has stood the test of time, still making people uncomfortable to this day. If that’s not the mark of a great performance, I don’t know what is.

Now, go eat your apple cake.

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This Week in Horror: The ‘Resident Evil’ Trailer, a ‘Weapons’ Prequel, and Nicolas Cage Has Unfinished Business

Published

20 hours ago

May 1, 2026

Luna Gray

This was the week Zach Cregger stopped being a horror director and started being a horror studio. That is not the only thing that happened, but it feels like it isn’t being stated enough.

The Resident Evil Teaser Is Here

The first footage from Zach Cregger‘s Resident Evil dropped Wednesday, and it does not look like anything this franchise has produced before. Austin Abrams plays Bryan, a medical courier who arrives at an empty house in the middle of a snowy night and spends the rest of the teaser discovering what he is actually surrounded by.

The footage is dark and still and operates as if something has already gone wrong before anything technically has, which is the same register Barbarian and Weapons lived in and that the games, at their best, have always understood.

Cregger Is Also Making a Weapons Prequel

While everyone was watching the Resident Evil teaser, Variety reported that Gladys, the prequel to Weapons, is moving forward at Warner Bros. with Cregger co-writing alongside Zach Shields. Weapons grossed $270 million worldwide and earned Amy Madigan a best supporting actress Oscar.

Gladys is set for September 2028. Cregger is currently writing a Resident Evil reboot and a Weapons prequel at the same time, which is either the most productive stretch a horror director has had in recent memory or the setup for a very good documentary.

Nicolas Cage Has Unfinished Business

Variety confirmed that Nicolas Cage and Osgood Perkins are making a new Longlegs film at Paramount. Not a sequel, but something set in the Longlegs universe, which is a distinction that raises more questions than it answers and is therefore exactly the right way to announce it. The original made $128 million on a $10 million budget. No release date has been set.

Hokum Opens Today

Hokum, the new film from Damian McCarthy, is in theaters today via Neon. Adam Scott plays a novelist who retreats to a remote Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes and finds that an ancient witch has opinions about that.

The film premiered at SXSW in March and sits at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. McCarthy made Caveat in 2020, which was underseen and excellent. Hokum is his argument that the haunted house film still has architecture left to explore.

Shudder Is Having a Moment

The full May lineup breakdown is here, but the essentials are: Tales from the Crypt, all seven seasons, begins streaming today after years off the market. The Terror: Devil in Silver, the third installment of AMC’s horror anthology series, premieres May 7 with Dan Stevens. Heresy, a folk horror set in a medieval Dutch village, also drops today as a Shudder exclusive. It is the strongest programming month they have announced in a while, and May is only one day old. What a week.

Someone Let Ti West Near a Christmas Carol

Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol, written by Nathaniel Halpern, directed by Ti West, and starring Johnny Depp as Scrooge, has a release date: November 13, 2026 from Paramount. Robert Eggers is also developing a Christmas Carol adaptation. Two of the most formally precise horror directors working today have independently decided this is the assignment. There is no version of that sentence that is not exciting.

That is the week. May is already delivering.

Editorial

HHN35, Jack vs Oddfellow: Place Your Bets!

Published

20 hours ago

May 1, 2026

Piper St. James

Halloween Horror Nights is back for its 35th installment at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida as the Infernal Carnival of Nightmares!

Over the years HHN has proven original houses draw as much of a crowd, if not more, as the intellectual property (IP) houses based off of established horror movies.

Leading each year of fear and headlining some of these original houses includes some of the most beloved and iconic characters. These icons include; Jack the Clown, The Caretaker, The Director, Chance, Dr. Oddfellow, The Usher, Lady Luck, and The Storyteller.

This year Orlando’s convention MegaCon had a highly anticipated and attended panel focused on Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights 35. The masterminds speaking of the 35th year celebration included Michael Aiello, Lora Sauls, and Charles Gray. The creators teased the landmark year to salivating fans.

Gaged by the audience’s reaction as each icon was reminisced about and displayed on the panel’s screen were Jack and Oddfellow. Here it was announced to the fanatical audience that these two icons will be returning to lead Halloween Horror Nights into its upcoming year!

Bring in the Clown!

Jack the Clown, born Jack Schmidt, is an icon created by Universal Studios for Halloween Horror Nights. Jack made his debut during the Halloween event’s tenth year in 2000. He immediately won over attendees and became a fan favorite. His popularity grew so much that he has reappeared again and again in many of the Halloween Horror Nights events.

Jack has been featured in three of the five Universal parks that have hosted HHN; Orlando, Hollywood, and Singapore. He has even claimed a spot in Universal Horror Unleashed.

Unleashed is a haunted attraction residing in Las Vegas that offers a fully immersive experience for guests. Unlike Halloween Horror Nights, this attraction is open year round! Universal Horror Unleashed features haunted houses, live entertainment, and themed bars and dining.

Jack and Chance at Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas.

Here Jack stalks guests year round with his mistress in mayhem, Chance.

Jack’s History

In the late 1800s Jack was born with his brother Eddie inside the walls of Shady Brook Rest Home and Sanitarium. Jack escaped and ran away with the circus, leaving his poor and abusive family behind.

However, it was soon apparent he was not the jolly, entertaining clown he convinced his carnival spectators of.

Jack was a child murderer. As the traveling sideshow made its way through the southern states, a trail of abductions and disappearances followed. This attracted unwanted attention from federal authorities.

As the feds closed in, the clown disclosed his murderous ways to his employer, carnival owner Dr. Oddfellow. As the star attraction of the circus he hoped Oddfellow would hide him. However, the doctor was a man with his own sordid past with the law. He decided the best plan of action would be to cut ties with Jack, for good.

The circus owner had Jack Schmidt murdered, but not before the clown gave Oddfellow his trademark facial scar. A scar none of Oddfellow’s dark magic could erase.

Always the showman, Oddfellow decided Jack’s time in his show had not yet come to an end. Not even in death. The carnival owner hid Jack’s body, in addition to the thirteen children the clown had killed, inside his House of Horrors.

The Doctor is In!

Just like Jack “The Clown” Schmidt, Dr. Rich Oddfellow has a very long and evil history. He was introduced to Halloween Horror Nights in 2000, the same year as Jack. However, unlike the menacing clown, the doctor did not rise to instant fame.

Finally the Doctor found his time in the fog and in 2023 he was established as an icon of HHN.

Oddfellow’s History

Dr. Oddfellow is the notorious, darkly charismatic sideshow owner of Dr. Oddfellow’s Carnival of Thrills. He employed Jack Schmidt, the murderous clown who claimed the lives of at least 13 children. However, the clown was not the only member of the circus who had evil intentions.

Oddfellow was an evil sorcerer, and preyed upon his unsuspecting spectators from town to town. Using the souls of his victims, Oddfellow hoped to gain immortality as well as harness the power of the Dark Zodiac for himself. With this power he would have undying power at his fingertips all harnessed in the skull sitting on top of his trademark cane.

Dr. Oddfellow always left his mark of chaos, destruction and death. From the Jungle of Doom, to the 1939 Dustbowl, and an infamous 1969 Music Festival in upstate New York, Oddfellow reigned down his evil upon the innocent.

A Glimpse of HHN35

Not much has been revealed about how these icons of horror will be intertwined in the upcoming Halloween Horror Nights. However, we do know that despite how much these two despise each other, they will be sharing the spotlight as co-hosts for the much anticipated HHN35.

One of the ten haunted houses will feature the returning duo together. The house is called; Jack and Oddfellow: Chaos and Control.

As you travel through the house the stories of each icon of horror will be unraveled. You’ll wind your way through their evil dimension and see the two battle each other in a deathmatch that has been brewing for decades. However, as you near the end of the house Jack and Oddfellow come to realize that their power is much stronger together than separate. Will the souls of the guests be the fuel to their ultimate evil plan?

Tell us at iHorror who your favorite icon of horror is in the comments! If the two were to face off, who would win?

News

The Severance Writer Found a New Building to Lock People In

Published

21 hours ago

May 1, 2026

Luna Gray

Aiyana K. White spent two seasons on Severance working out what happens when a building decides it is done letting people go. Her next project is set in a high school during a zombie outbreak. The architecture is different, but the logic is basically the same. Welcome to ShootAround.

Lion Forge Entertainment and WEBTOON Productions are teaming up for a live-action YA film adaptation of Shoot Around, the zombie horror-comedy webcomic by Suspu (Susanna Nousiainen) with 28 million views on WEBTOON. White, who also served as executive story editor on The Night Agent for Netflix and got her start on Showtime’s Superpumped, is writing the screenplay.

The Premise

When the zombie apocalypse hits Penny Hall High, the state’s best girls’ basketball team is forced to join forces with the boys they cannot stand for 24 hours locked inside their school. You dont even need the zombies, that sounds miserable.

The official description is Zombieland meets Bring It On, which is either the most accurate logline of the year or an extremely specific promise to have to keep. Lets hope ther PR team knew what they were doing when they through that one out there.

The Source Material

The ShootAround webcomic ran 70 chapters across its first season. White has said she devoured all of them in one sitting, which is a better endorsement than anything the studio put in the press release.

Creator Suspu has a decade of comics experience, including WEBTOON Originals Heir’s Game, The Tattletale Fool, and Bad Plan Man. The fanbase already exists, now they just have to know how to use it.

White is rewriting the script from an earlier draft by Mike Dow and Devon Kelly.

The Production

Lion Forge Entertainment, the Oscar-winning studio behind Hair Love, is producing and financing alongside WEBTOON Productions. Founder David Steward II and president Stephanie Sperber are producing for Lion Forge. President David Madden and head of global film Jason Goldberg will executive produce for WEBTOON Productions.