• Director: Brian De Palma
• With: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Nancy Allen, Amy Irving, John Travolta, William Katt, Betty Buckley, P.J. Soles, Priscilla Pointer, Sydney Lassick, Stefan Gierasch
• Based upon the book ‘Carrie’ by Stephen King
• Studio: United Artists
• Music by: Pino Donaggio
• Duration: 1h36
• Rating: 8/10

Review:

So I decided to do a Stephen King Movie Marathon in 2024. It’ll probably take me a lot of months and I might not be able to see/find all the movies/miniseries but I’ll do my best… and where better to start than at the beginning: with Carrie!

Carrie was King’s first novel, he almost threw it away but his wife Tabitah picked it out of the trash and spurred him on to finish it, and it opened all doors for him from then on. When Brian De Palma decided to adapt it into a movie, it became a great success and the name Stephen King was launched, making him the King of Horror! I remember I was given Carrie at the age of 12 or 13 and it was my real introduction to the writer as well. And I loved the book. What I didn’t realise until after reading the book was that I had seen parts of the movie when I was a tiny little boy and I snuck in the living room when my parents were watching it. Reading the novel made me realise I had seen the parts where Carrie turns into a vindictive b*tch wreaking havoc on prom and turning over a certain red car on her way home… (then my mom realised I was in the room and was sent away! 🤣)

Carrie White is a timid sixteen year old girl who goes to Bates High School where she is not amongst the popular girls. She’s bullied and almost always on her own. When she suddenly has her (first time) period in the showers after volleyball practice, she thinks she’s bleeding to death and seeking help from the other girls only results in bullying, humiliation and having thrown tampons and sanitary pads at her. (Teenagers can be so cruel!) It’s not until Miss Collins stops the other girls that she calms down a little bit. Apparently Carrie didn’t know a girl turns into a woman and when she does she starts bleeding every month. Her overbearing, overzealously religious and crazy mother, Margaret White, never told Carrie about it. At the same time Carrie has her first period she starts to move objects with her mind. At first this happens when she is over emotional and she cannot control it. But she begins researching it and realises she has a telekinetic ability.

Sue Snell, a girl in Carrie’s class who had joined the others pestering Carrie when she bled in the shower, feels remorse and asks her handsome and very popular boyfriend Tommy Ross to ask Carrie for the Prom. She wants Carrie to get out more and come out of her shell. One of the other girls, Chris Hargensen, is suspended and is not allowed to come to the Prom because of what she did to Carrie. So she plots revenge, together with her abusive boyfriend Billy Nolan.

When Prom arrives Carrie releases herself from the claws of her worried and abusive (as well) mother, but not without showing her mother her ability which sends her mother in a religious fit! Margaret tells Carrie she’ll be laughed at and that boys only want one thing, now that she turned into a woman. Carrie leaves for Prom, where doom awaits her and everyone present!

“They’re all gonna laugh at you!”

Mrs White

King certainly wrote an amazing story about teenage angst, abuse by parents and partners and about coming of age only to have it turned sideways. And Brian De Palma made a great movie with some amazing cinematographic scenes. The Prom scene is still one of my favourites in any King adaptation. How we get to see things from Carrie’s perspective (first becoming one of the crowd, then hearing her mother call out and eventually seeing her turn into an angel of death). I love the performances from Spacek, Allen and Piper Laurie! And even though this movie is almost fifty (!) years old, I still consider this to be one of the best adaptations (not thé best though!)

Of course, as it is a movie adaptation of a book I’ve read (several times) I noticed things were omitted or changed from the book. And I’m aware that not everything can be done like it was written however… in this movie scenes were left out that are quite important for the story and could have maybe been in the movie. I’m thinking of a scene early in the book where Carrie is still a little girl and she makes it rain stones (boulders) and especially the scene with the prom and her wreaking havoc in the town of Chamberlain. When the fire is ablaze in the school, trapping the kids and teachers, she makes sure the fire department cannot put out the fire by sabotaging the water spouts. Also she sets ablaze to the rest of Chamberlain on her way back home… this does not happen in the movie. I had high hopes they would add it to the 2013 remake with Chloë Grace Moretz, especially after the trailer was released and they showed a scene in it where Carrie seems to do just that. But then the movie came out and the left it out and only blatantly copied this movie, which was very unfortunate. Both versions didn’t use the format of interviews as King did in the book either, which could’ve added something extra to the movies!

Had they added a few more of those scenes I think this could have been my favourite King-adaptation but well Hollywood doesn’t work the way we all want it, right?

What De Palma díd get right was the use of the split screen at the prom, when the shit starts to hit the fan. The moment Carrie is doused with the pig’s blood and she sees the people around her start laughing at her, like her mother predicted, something snaps and she becomes a whole different person. In some way De Palma tried to show us viewers the split personality Carrie harbours inside of her and the moment her emotions get overwhelming and she is pushed to a brink, that demonic telekinetic personality takes over from the sweet timid girl.

Apart from the splitscreen scene, he also knew how to play with colour (Carrie’s rage is envisioned with a deep red colour) and music (of lack thereof in the right places) and although he changed the finale of the book, he improved that with the flying kitchen utensils and having the White’s house being destroyed on itself. (Isn’t Margaret having a heart attack in the book and didn’t the house get destroyed by a shower of stones? I need to reread the book!)

And that’s why De Palma is such a great director. (Or at least he used to be because lately his movies aren’t big successes anymore).

Apart from the 2013 remake I mentioned earlier, there was also a 1999 direct sequel called The Rage: Carrie 2 (with Amy Irving back as Sue Snell and Emily Bergl as the ‘new’ Carrie), there was a musical as well and a 2002 version of the movie for television.

And honestly… even though I have so much to read and even though I have read it about six times already, I want to read Carrie again now after seeing this movie!

The Bluray from Arrow Video adds some great extras and contains a booklet with some extra information and movie stills in it. The cover of the booklet is the right fuel for nightmares with Carrie’s eyes lighting up like the devil got into her. (The same eyes are in the movie on the little statue of Saint-Sebastian (or is it Jesus?) in the closet where her mother locks her up.

And then for some movie trivia:

• The movie is a tribute to Hitchcock’s Psycho, even Carrie’s music score has a few notes of Psycho
• This movie introduced John Travolta to the big public
• Piper Laurie never wanted to call this movie a horror, she saw it as a black comedy (she found her character’s religiousness and the way she dressed over the top and couldn’t stop laughing at times
• P.J. Soles was to have a smaller part but De Palma liked her so much he added her in a few more scenes
• De Palma subsequently was disappointed by the split screen scenes
• Stephen King likes the movie ending more than the ending in his book
• Priscilla Pointer and Amy Irving are real live mother and daughter (the roles they play in this movie as well)
• When Sue Snell (Amy Irving) violently awakes from the dream where Carrie grabs her arm, her mother Mrs. Snell (Priscilla Pointer) actually shouts the actress’ real name (Amy) instead of her character’s name (Sue) because she was so terrified by the performance. The music score does cover it.