The following contains spoilers of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, currently in theaters.
Most Marvel Cinematic Universe films draw a distinct line between the heroes and the villains, without too much room for a grey area. However, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness flipped the script entirely by having Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) embrace her title as the Scarlet Witch. But because she was racked with grief and corrupted by the Darkhold, she turned into a being of pure horror and had a truly horrific sequence akin to the violent final rampage in Brian De Palma's Carrie.
In Carrie, the young girl of the same name lived a sheltered life with an incredibly religious mother. However, her mother was also fanatical and abusive to Carrie, which greatly affected her. Carrie was also a school outcast and prone to instances of telekinesis. During her school prom, she was crowned Prom Queen and became the butt of a joke where she got drenched in pig blood. Acting as the straw that broke the camel's back, Carrie angrily lashed out and killed nearly all of the students and faculty at the prom with her powers.
Now, Multiverse of Madness cleverly set up and homaged the scene when Wanda faced off with the Illuminati. Since she could not travel to other universes, Wanda used the Darkhold to dreamwalk, which allowed her to temporarily control other variants of herself to hunt down Doctor SZtrange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez). While the Illuminati locked up the two heroes, Wanda tracked Strange and America down and began to decimate the Ultron sentries that guarded the facility.
They put up a fight, but they were really no contest for Wanda, who got covered in the oil of the destroyed robots. When the Illuminati tried to head her off, they fared even worse as Wanda killed them one by one, adding blood to the oil. And by the end of the battle, she resembled Carrie as the blood covered most of her face.
Both Carrie and Wanda shared a primal urge to get the justice they sought, and they mirrored that in their mannerisms. Carrie walked out of the decimation of her prom with newfound confidence, no longer phased by the stares and blood. But visually, she was equally as terrifying to see. Wanda, trying to maintain her hold on her variant's body and fed up with having to chase America and Strange, was a nearly unstoppable locomotive. Looking human became a necessity she couldn't afford in her mission, so she moved to a more monstrous form, adding to the fear factor.
Carrie was one of the most iconic Stephen King stories and horror films of its time and has continued to show that through its imagery. While unconfirmed, the parallels between her rampage and the Scarlet Witch's are too similar not to notice. But by creating these comparisons, it was clear that Sam Raimi knew the type of horror he wanted to evoke with Wanda, and it was of a person ready to take what was theirs, no matter the cost.
To see Carrie beautifully homaged, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now in theaters.