RELATED: 10 Differences Between Carrie Remake & Original 1976 Movie. This adaptation was intended as a backdoor pilot for an ongoing Carrie television series (it wasnt picked up). Using epistolary writing, Stephen King designed Carrie to show different angles of characters who mattered to the story. International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct,London, EC1A 2BN, United Kingdom, 2023 Book Analysis. It is a scenecomprised of telepathic communication. And when Carrie unleashes the full brunt of her powers, it's a magnificent and appalling spectaclethe teenage sci-fi rampage that the "X-Men" films never dared show us. Sue is drawn to the high school by a strange sense of premonitory dread, suggesting a psychic link between the two girls. Spacek also examined the body language ofthose stoned to death for their sins. Carrie is not the monster; she is Carrie the good Christian girl. Carrie is an innocent. The reader never learns if Sue Snell marries or joins a country club, but we do know that she wrote a book, a memoir of her account of what happened on prom night that both exonerates her from implication in Chris Hargensens horrific prank and humanizes Carrie. At school she is bullied for her appearance, her general difference to others and of course the very public beginning of her menstruation. Most significantly, Sue is the only person who willingly opens her mind to Carrie. Its also not Pierces original ending. However, no matter how hard she tried, she was always rejected by her peers. And the shock ending of Kings novel is that just for a moment and far too late she isnt. Brian de Palmas 1976 film is is the first, most famous, and most widely-praised adaptation of Carrie. Sexton, Timothy. Curiously, for such a secular movie, this "Carrie" lends Biblical significance to every blood drop spilled. She is good and her goodness is made all the more striking by virtue of the portrait of Carrie which is painted by her mother in her hysterical prayers: "help this sinning woman beside me here see the sin of her days and ways. Though Carrie wanted to experience life like an average girl, she could not because her mother destroyed her social life; this led to her getting ostracized by her peers. Miss Desjardin, the gym teacher, walks in to save Carrie and orders everyone out. The editing also manages to showcase Carries telekinetic powers with minimal use of special effects. It belongs to the culture. Sue isalternately hostile and generous, and conformist and defiant but always acutely self-aware. 'Carrie' by Stephen King is a novel that tells the story of a teenage girl Carrie, who faced torment in many aspects of her life. Knowing that telling her mother will cause problems, Carrie hides everything and secretly keeps exploring her telekinetic powers. Margaret White and Chris Hargensen take the role Carrie occupies at the end of the other adaptations with Carrie essentially taking on Sues role. De Palmas film also reduces the role Sue plays in the story and the depth of her characterization. Original sin is never far from its mind. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Tommy dies after the bucket falls on his head. When she is pushed to her breaking point, she doesnt (as many film adaptations often suggest) go into a trance or react instinctively and without intention. And though you know what's coming, the scene still works fantastically. The disaster climax of the original 1976 Carrie is like any top-tier, truly unforgettable scene in cinema so well-known that you don't even have to see it to know it. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. The most literal, clumsy interpretation would be that Sue is now wedded to her trauma of that night. One overlooked theme in Carrieis mental health. The frantic score is interwoven with sounds of screaming which increase the horror elements of the scene. King crafts a lean, chilling, and insightful story that has at its heart a pair of complicated teenage girls who resist easy characterization. The easiest answer might be in the question: Kings ending is highly novelistic. hallucination, then pulls of her wig and stars pensively into the distance. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss thenovel. Its also not Pierces original ending. Not for nothing does Carrie check out library books on magic as well as paranormal power: when she becomes a gore-drenched avenging angel, her gestures become more ritualized, almost dancer-likeas if she's not just committing gruesome murders, but in some sense "presenting" them, as a performer might. For all the psychological realism of Carrie and Margaret's relationship, however, this remake has a comic book feeling. Each killing is a discrete work employing different media and techniques: death by psychic assault, by trampling, by electrocution, by fire, by face-through-glass. Hermotives are frequently mixed but she interrogates them more than any other character in Kings novel. Pino Donagios quietly unsettling score teases the audiences as they await the prank, but after the climax of the scene the score turns manic as Carrie exerts her powers. A shy girl, outcast by her peers and sheltered by . From Tommy to Chris, Billy, and almost all of Carries classmates, the death toll in the novel was staggering. This adaptation ofCarrie maintains Sues prominence and the connection between the two, but makes both more palatable, comfortable characters. These various adapted endings all have their points of interest but its hard to argue with Kings original. Carrie Themes and Analysis . Sue Snell is one of the many girls who throw tampons at Carrie in the shower. To atone for her part in the bullying and to give Carrie at least one good memory of high school Sue gives her prom night with her boyfriend, Tommy, for Carrie, and risks provoking her classmates ire in the process. Mise-en-scene and Cinematography Analysis of Inglourious Basterds. The disaster climax of the original 1976 Carrie is like any top-tier, truly unforgettable scene in cinema so well-known that you don't even have to see it to know. Even after her powerful father tries to use his influence to undo the damage Chris has done and get back into the prom, Chris believes she is Carries victim. In contrast to DePalma's version, Carrie's mom seems less a standard-issue, frothing-at-the-mouth "religious nut" movie character than a mentally ill single mom, eking out a living as a seamstress and dry cleaner. The next day, Miss Desjardin places the girls who bullied Carrie on punishment, and after Chris protests, she gets banned from attending prom. It's on this last point, though, that "Carrie" falters most conspicuouslyand ironically, its failure is a product of its decision to depart from the novel and the first film, but without going far enough. It's been referenced and indexed and parodied (and soon, remade) so exhaustively that it no longer seems like a part of the movie. Peirce and screenwriters Lawrence D. Cohen and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa give the whole film this kind of heartfelt, inside-out re-imagining. In this ending, there is no investigative hearing and no voiceover explaining the reasons behind Carries break. Sue still places the flower on the grave but this time, she reaches for her (obviously pregnant) belly and screams in pain. The script has Chris be exaggeratedly "evil" when it serves the plot, but life-sized elsewhere. Carrie gets ridiculed by girls who throw tampons at her after getting her first period while in the shower room. Director Brian De Palma's 1976 adaptation of Stephen King's debut novel is consistently hailed as one of the greatest horror. Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Largeof RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism. Carrie leaves her house and makes her way to the road where she meets Chris and her boyfriend. The slow motion returns as the pace of the editing slows down, this creates a crescendo in the scene as the scene started off with slow motion, then the editing became so fast it was reminiscent of subliminal images, and now the editing has returned to its original pace. By ending with this reference de Palma aligns Carrie with these psychopaths, recasts Carrie simply as a creature haunting Sues unconscious. Perhaps because this "Carrie" is helmed by one of the only prominent female directors in Hollywood, Kimberly Peirce ("Boys Don't Cry"), it appreciates Carrie and her mother and the heroine's various female adversaries as women, and portrays their brand of cruelty as specifically female. She stabs Carrie in the shoulder. Prom was great. Its Carrie who inspires Sues first transgressions against the social order: Sue rebels against the cruel, popular Chris Hargensen by accepting her share of the punishment for abusing Carrie and flouts the expectations of her peers by sending Carrie to prom in her place. The intention of the editing and sound is to set up tension in the build up to the pigs blood being poured on Carrie. Guilt is a theme that coursed through the minds of some characters inCarrie.Sue felt guilty for what she did to Carrie while in the shower room, and her feeling of guilt caused the entire story of Carries demise. Carrie had some kind of power. The first "Carrie" was horror. Privacy Policy, https://bookanalysis.com/stephen-king/carrie/summary/. When Spacek declined, De Palma handed responsibilities to her husband, production designer Jack Fisk. Carrie returns home to confront her mother, who calls her a spawn of Satan. Carrie desperately used everything she learned to fit in. Carrie discovers she has the power to move objects with her mind. Sue tells Carrie to go somewhere no one knows her and offers to drive her as far as Florida. Mentioning Stephen Kings classic 1974 horror novel likely calls to mind one of two iconic scenes: Carrie getting her period for the first time in the school shower and being pelted with tampons as her classmates scream Plug it up! or Carrie wreaking fatal havoc on a gym full of students after being drenched in pigs blood just as she was crowned prom queen. Posted on February 7, 2016 by asenaoyzoyn. Their clapping stops and the score slowly distorts into an empty silence, the only diegetic sound present is the dripping of the blood from the bucket. Carrie makes it home to kill Momma. If we accept that Carrie has suddenly become a ghost, we can be reasonably sure she isnt haunting Sue. The Something was dangerous, ancient, unutterably evil. Expand Your Bookshelf With These 8 Interstellar Books Like The Expanse, The Best Sci-Fi Spaceships from Across the Galaxies, When Children's Book Authors Don't Like Children's Books, Love & Other Epic Adventures: Science Fiction Romance Books, 10 Bedtime Stories for Adults to Help You Get Some Shut Eye. Stephen King, on publication, admitted thatCarriewas a feminist novel. De Palma had to constantly remind her on set they were making a horror movie instead. Bullying Motif. Still, Peirce's movie does have a nod to this dress in Sue's unworn prom . It is a scenecomprised of telepathic communication. However, she discovers herself, and her life completely changes. Her story is just beginning. Carries mind was far from innocent; this made her feel like a terrible sinner as part of her mothers fanatism was present in her. When the pigs blood drops on Carrie, the non-diegetic score peaks and becomes distorted, a range of new instruments are introduced in a warped manner creating a climax of noise. Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. Carrie is a novel that brings themes of vengeance, pain, and suffering into the life of a young girl who should have never experienced the torment she received from everyone. Carrie stops her mothers heart, killing her. In de Palmas version of the story, Sue is locked out of the gymnasium just before the bucket of blood drops and does not appear again on screen until after Carrie is dead. Where Pierces film does diverge from de Palmas somewhat is in its restoration of Sue as a main character. While Carrie Fisher, Glenn Close, Linda Blair, and others auditioned for the title role in Carrie, director Brian De Palma was set on casting Amy Irving in the role. There is a heavy use of cross cutting between Sue who is getting kicked out of the prom (the gym teacher assumes she is there to sabotage Carrie), Carrie and Tommy who are on the stage receiving praise from the audience. This kind of horror story suits a spooky or bloody twist ending; it may even demand one. The decision came as a shock to De Palma, who kept insisting on the use of a body double. Long before the blood arrived. The words Carrie White burns in hell appear again here, this time scrawled in red paint across Carries actual gravestone. When. She doesn't fit the traditional role of femininity that is often sought out in high school. And the shock ending of Kings novel is that just for a moment and far too late she isnt. Spoiler alert: important details of the novel are revealed below. It could make you Feeble. A state of emergency is declared in Chamberlain as the death toll reaches four hundred. , but for the most part it is consistent with the spirit of Kings ending. In the end, Spacek was placed inside a box at the bottom of a hole in the ground, where she waited for the camera to be set up to film the scene. Her mother freaks out, claiming that she is a sinner. Carrie dies from excess blood loss. This interpretation is supported by de Palmas comments that the final scene of his film was inspired by the 1972 thriller. (Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers ahead.). Accessed 1 May 2023. Psychokinetic retribution. Carrieby Stephen King is a novel that tells the story of a teenage girl Carrie, who faced torment in many aspects of her life. Though Sue tried desperately to atone for her sin and make Carries life better, she ended up making her life worse; this made Sue a passive antagonist in Carries life. Ostracization is a primary theme inCarrieas it sets the events surrounding Carries life. thissection. . But at its heartCarrie is a horror story of isolation and abuse about a girl with no safe haven and no one to understand her. Considering the millions of words devoted to analyzing Stephen Kings novel Carrie in light of the abundance of religious imagery and the seemingly unlikely coincidental naming of a major character, it is actually surprising how rarely one comes across an interpretation that almost begs to be examined. In this version, Sue comes to Carries rescue and resuscitate her after Margaret tries to drown her. Getting elected as prom queen was the worst event of Carries sad life as she got forced to experience the brutality of how no one cared about her. So what is it about Kings ending that filmmakers consistently shy away from, no matter how faithfully they adapt the rest of hisnovel? With her arch-nemesis being Chris, Carrie wanted to exert the worst kind of vengeance on her. And totally memorable. Sneaking into the prom hall, Chris and her boyfriend set the buckets of blood above the stage. The 2002 made-for-television adaptation of Carrie offers another ending for the story that differs dramatically from the novel and the film adaptations and for good reason. After all, mothers dont like to their daughters. And of course, Carries actions on prom night obviously ensure Sues life will never be the same. It's in delaying it. She acknowledges that yes, her boyfriend and all of her friends died that night, but she knows what she saw. It is through your support of visiting Book Analysis that we can support charities, such as Teenage Cancer Trust. Frankly, though, it reads less like a thoughtful addition to the rest of the film and more like a half-hearted capitulation to the genre dictate to end on a scare. Ironically while the rest of the cut footage was rumoured to me much more consistent with Kings novel, this ending borrows significantly from de Palmas film, with Pierce doing him one better on the shock front after all, whats more horrifying that someone haunting you from beyond the grave? Pig's blood. After getting pigs blood poured on her, Carrie realized that her life would never change no matter how hard she tried to be happy. Its after this point that things take a turn for the nonsensical. I'm going to analyse a scene from Brian De Palma's Carrie. Carrie snaps out of that hallucination, then pulls of her wig and stars pensively into the distance. Sue finds Carrie in the parking lot and tries talking to her, but Carrie tries to hurt her, thinking she knew about the plan to humiliate her. A state of emergency is declared in Chamberlain as the death toll reaches four hundred people. And ghost-Carrie does seem like the most obvious interpretation if we take this moment literally and as integral to the film. The shot was achieved by setting the two actors, Spacek and William Katt, on a platform that rotated in one direction, while the camera tracks in the opposition direction. Carrie is a movie inspired by one of Stephen King 's first novels, a dark story mixed with dramatic notes, where all the uncertainties and fears of adolescence, such as the problem of being different in a society that does not forgive, are transformed into anger and the desire for revenge. The fact that there is non-diegetic and diegetic sound but no dialogue may suggest that the impending violence cant be justified by verbal means, instead what happens is based on the heat of the moment. Carriemade sure to dive deep into the mind of its main character as it showed everyone a girl who wanted to be loved, respected, and feared. Its about the horror of being alone in the dark. One of the most memorable shots in the film occurs during the prom scene, in which Carrie's vertiginous mental state is depicted with a piece of dizzying camerawork. In this scenario it does not matter whether Carrie is conventionally "pretty" or "not pretty." NEXT: The 10 Best Brian De Palma Movies, Ranked (According To IMDB). Sue decides to meet her as she hears the telepathic message. And ghost-Carrie does seem like the most obvious interpretation if we take this moment literally and as integral to the film. All rights reserved. The story of Carrie begins in a locker room after a young teenage girl, Carrie, finishes attending gym class. that what she witnessed was a natural act? Piper Laurie also scored an Oscar nod for her performance as Margaret White, Carrie's abusive and religiously fanatical mother. RELATED: Every Carrie Movie Ranked, Worst To Best. is gore, the horror of mass murders and pigs blood. will review the submission and either publish your submission or providefeedback. This adaptation was intended as a backdoor pilot for an ongoing. The silence also serves as a cooling point for the audience after the frantic build up to the climax. Chris is the sinning woman that Carries momma should be praying for. However, Nancy Allen was already promised the role of Sue Snell, so De Palma cast her as Chris Hargensen instead. Once Sue passes, the music builds, nearby fallen leaves begin to levitate in the air, and, with the sound of a scream, Carries headstone cracks. America's foremost auteur-prankster, De Palma seems to be teasingly punishing our bloodlust. It's like the horse head in The Godfather or the silhouetted flying bike in E.T. Sue tells Carrie to go somewhere no one knows her and offers to drive her as far as Florida. It's sincerely interested in exploring the pain that its characters suffer and inflict. write out a theme statement for Femininity in the book.
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