Carrie (1976 film)
| Carrie | |
|---|---|
 Original 1976 theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Brian De Palma |
| Written by | Lawrence D. Cohen Stephen King (novel) |
| Produced by | Brian De Palma Paul Monash |
| Starring | Sissy Spacek Piper Laurie Amy Irving William Katt Betty Buckley Nancy Allen John Travolta P.J. Soles |
| Cinematography | Mario Tosi |
| Edited by | Paul Hirsch |
| Music by | Pino Donaggio |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release dates | November 3, 1976 (USA) |
Running time | 98 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.8 million US (est.) |
Carrie is a 1976 film directed by Brian De Palma, based on the novel by Stephen King. This is one of the few adaptations of a Stephen King novel that the author himself appreciated.
Plot summary
The film tells the story of Carrietta "Carrie" White, a teenager from Chamberlain, Maine, who has been bullied at home for years by her vindictive and mentally unstable Christian fundamentalist mother, Margaret White.
Carrie does not fare much better at her school, Thomas Ewen High School, where her plain looks and unfashionable attire make her the butt of ridicule; at the beginning of the novel, she has her first period while showering after her physical education class. Carrie, who is terrified, has no concept of menstruation; her mother never spoke to her about it, and she has been a social outcast throughout high school.
But the thought that this could be Carrie's first period, or that sympathy might be appropriate, never occurs to her classmates; as with everything else, they use it as an opportunity to taunt her. Led by Chris Hargensen, the most beautiful and popular girl in school, they throw tampons and sanitary napkins at her instead of helping. When gym teacher Miss Desjardins sees what is going on, she at first berates Carrie, but is horrified when she realizes that Carrie had never had a period before and has no idea what is happening. She helps her clean up and tries to explain. Later, she talks to the principal and wants all the girls who taunted Carrie barred from attending the upcoming school prom as punishment.
Carrie gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers. She has apparently possessed the gift since birth, but conscious control over it disappeared after her infancy, although she remembers incidents throughout her life that could be attributable to telekinesis; for example, a shower of rocks on her house at the age of three (similar to Shirley Jackson's heroine Eleanor in The Haunting of Hill House). Carrie practices her powers in secret, developing strength, even though it is physically tiring and she is continually pressed to the limit. She also finds that she is somewhat telepathic, enough to be able to discern people's real feelings toward her; for instance, she knows that the gym teacher who pretends concern is actually contemptuous of her, little better than the girls in the shower room.
Meanwhile, Sue Snell, another popular girl who had earlier teased Carrie, begins to feel remorseful for her participation in the locker room antics, takes pity on her and offers to become her friend. With prom fast approaching, Sue sets Carrie up with her boyfriend, Tommy Ross, one of the most attractive and popular boys in the school. Carrie is suspicious, but accepts, and makes her own outfit, including a pink gown. Carrie's mother won't hear of her daughter doing anything as carnal as attending a school dance, revealing much of her own past as she explains why. She believes that sex in any form is sinful, even after marriage. She also knows all about Carrie's telekinetic powers, even though she considers them a kind of witchcraft; it seems they run in every third generation of her family. Carrie is tired of hearing that everything is a sin; she wants to try to live a normal life and sees the prom as a new beginning.
However, Chris is incensed that she is unable to attend prom. She initially attempts to get her father, a lawyer, to force the school principal to sue for her right to go to prom. The principal, however, is tired of being bullied by Mr. Hargensen and throws him out. Chris devises her own plan of revenge with her boyfriend Billy Nolan. Billy, along with some friends, drives out to a farm and slit two pigs' throats to fill buckets full of pig blood, and suspends the buckets over the stage with a pull cord. Chris, meanwhile, arranges with her school friends to rig Carrie's election as prom queen. When Carrie and Tommy go up to get crowned, one of Chris' friends will pull the cord on Carrie, ruining the happiest moment of her life.
The plan succeeds beyond their wildest hopes. Tommy is mortally injured by one of the falling buckets, and he and Carrie are drenched in blood. Everyone in attendance, even some of the teachers, find themselves laughing at Carrie, because, as Sue says later, "after all those years of laughing at Carrie, what else could you do?" Carrie is finally pushed over the edge. She leaves the building in agonized humiliation, but once outside, she remembers her telekinetic gift and decides to use it for vengeance. Initially planning to lock all the doors and turn on the sprinklers to wreck the dresses and hair of all of the snobby girls that bullied, Carrie forgets about the electrical equipment set up for the dance band and the PA system. Watching through the windows, she witnesses the electrocution death of two of the students and a school official. The last thread of her sanity snaps, and she decides to kill everyone, eventually causing a massive fire that destroys Thomas Ewen High School, trapping almost everyone inside.
Walking home, she burns virtually all of downtown Chamberlain. A side-effect of Carrie's gift is broadcast telepathy; anyone within a certain radius becomes aware that the hideous carnage at the school and the explosions and fires downtown are being caused by Carrie White, even if they do not know who Carrie is. A few even catch details of her thoughts.
Carrie returns home to confront her mother, who believes Carrie has been completely taken over by Satan and that the only way to save her is to kill her. Revealing that Carrie's conception was a result of marital rape, she stabs Carrie in the shoulder with a kitchen knife. In self-defense, Carrie kills her mother with a hail of knives, then in her guilt pulls the house down on herself, killing herself.
Reaction
Although always marketed as a horror story, the main appeal of Carrie has been as a sad and emotionally intense story of being excluded and victimized. The film and book retain a cult following that includes many who experienced bullying at school or overzealous parenting.
It was the first horror film to be nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards, for the performances of Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie respectively; it also won the grand prize at Avoriaz film festival and Sissy Spacek was rewarded with "Best Actress" by the American National Society of Film Critics Awards.
Differences between 1976 film and novel
The 1976 film ends differently:
- The High School name is changed to Bates High School (an obvious reference to Hitchcock's Psycho)
- Both the film and the book see Carrie dying in guilt for killing her mother, but the film has her committing suicide, whilst the book has her dying of hemorrhage.
- In the book, Carrie is slightly overweight with long, flat red hair and pimples on her neck, back and buttocks. However, in the movie, she is extremely skinny with brownish red hair and clear skin.
- Miss Desjardin is renamed 'Miss Collins'.
- In the movie, Carrie kills only her classmates, but in the novel she kills many more people in the streets of the town.
- In the novel, Carrie's mother is a large, heavyset and rather ugly woman with white hair, whereas in the movie, she's slim, with relatively pleasant features and red hair.
Carrie draws strong parallels between the onset of the title character's adolesence, especially her menstruation and sexuality, and psychic powers.
Cast
- Sissy Spacek as Carrie
- Amy Irving as Sue Snell
- William Katt as Tommy
- Betty Buckley as Miss Collins
- Piper Laurie as Mrs. White
- Nancy Allen as Chris
- John Travolta as Billy
Other works
Sequel
A much-belated seuql, The Rage: Carrie 2, appeared in 1999. It featured another girl with telekinetic powers, who is eventually revealed to have shared a father with Carrie.
Remake
In 2002, a TV movie remake, starring Angela Bettis in the title role, was released. The film garnered some positive critical and fan reviews. Despite updating the events of the story for the modern day - Carrie uses the internet in one scene, discovering that her powers of telekinesis are not unique - the film is surprisingly faithful to the original novel, including "interviews" that were shown via news articles in the book. The ending has certain differences as well, in part because of the film's purpose: it was meant to be a pilot for a Carrie series that never surfaced. In this version, Mrs. White does not stab her daughter, but instead tries to drown her in the bathtub. Carrie then uses her power to stop her mother's heart (as in the novel), and slips beneath the water, supposedly dying. She is found by Susan Snell, and is revived. Sue then drives Carrie out of state, where she plans to start a new life helping others with similar gifts to her own (which would have been shown in the series, had it been made). Carrie's survival is kept a secret from the public.
Broadway musical
A 1988 Broadway musical, starring Betty Buckley, Linzi Hateley, and Darlene Love closed after only five performances and 16 previews. An English pop opera filtered through Greek tragedy, the show was such a notorious turkey it provided the title to Ken Mandelbaum's survey of theatrical disasters, Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops.
Soundtrack
The 1976 film's soundtrack was composed by frequent DePalma collaborator Pino Donaggio. Donaggio's work has gone mostly unrecognized, but the subtlely and ominous themes demonstrated give the film an eerie, yet beautiful essence. Donaggio has been repeatedly referred to as the equivalent of Brian DePalma's outspoken role model director Alfred Hitchcock's score collaborator Bernard Hermann.
A rerelease CD of the 1976 film soundtrack is available on the Varese Sarabande label. Template:Endspoiler
External links
- Carrie at IMDb (1976 movie)
- The Rage: Carrie 2 at IMDb
- Carrie at IMDb (2002 TV movie)
- Internet Broadway Database entry for Carrie
- Fan site on all the Carrie films and novel
- Review of Carrie musical adaptation