Carrie (1976 film)

Infobox Film | name = Carrie


caption = Original 1976 theatrical poster
director = Brian De Palma
producer = Brian De Palma
Paul Monash
writer = Novel:
Stephen King
Screenplay:
Lawrence D. Cohen
starring = Sissy Spacek
Piper Laurie
Betty Buckley
Amy Irving
William Katt
Nancy Allen
John Travolta
genre = [Horror, Science Fiction, Romance]
music = Pino Donaggio
cinematography = Mario Tosi
editing = Paul Hirsch
distributor = United Artists (1976 - 1981)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1982 - present)
released = November 3, 1976
runtime = 98 min.
country = United States
language = English
budget = $1.8 million (est.)
amg_id = 1:8351
imdb_id = 0074285
followed_by = ""

" Carrie" is a 1976 American horror film directed by Brian De Palma and written by Lawrence D. Cohen, based on the novel by Stephen King. The film and the novel deal with a socially outcast teenage girl, Carrie White, who discovers she possesses telekinetic powers after being subjected to both physical and mental harassment by her peers, teachers, and her mother. The film stars Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Betty Buckley, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, William Katt and John Travolta.

"Carrie" is regarded as a watershed in the horror genre and is seen as one of the best feature film adaptations of a Stephen King work. [ [http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/05/01/070208.php DVD Review: Carrie ] ] The film was also a major success for United Artists, grossing over $33 million at the U.S. box office (over $100 million in 2007 dollars, adjusting for inflation), on a budget of $1,800,000. It was welcomed by immense critical acclaim. ["Carrie" at [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=carrie.htm Box Office Mojo] ; last accessed May 27, 2007.] ["Carrie" at [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1003625-carrie/ Rotten Tomatoes] ; last accessed May 27 2007] The film spawned a sequel "" and a made for television remake, released in 2002, neither of which involved De Palma.

Plot

The film begins during a physical education session; the girls are playing volleyball and Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) misses the ball. The girls on her team groan at her and one (Norma) hits her with a baseball cap. In the locker room, Carrie experiences her first period, and after becoming distressed, cries out for help. Instead of helping, the other girls laugh and ridicule her by pelting her with tampons and chanting "Plug it up!" The gym teacher, Miss Collins (Betty Buckley), rushes in to stop the commotion. Carrie appears to be bottling up extreme rage when a ceiling light bulb suddenly, and seemingly inexplicably, explodes. After questioning Carrie, Miss Collins realizes that Carrie is unaware of the concept of menstruation. In light of this, and the trauma of the incident, Miss Collins asks the school principal to excuse Carrie from gym class for a week. After repeated mispronunciations of her name by the principal, Carrie snaps out at him, "It's Carrie!", and causes the ashtray on his desk to mysteriously flip up into the air and break on the floor. On her way home, Carrie uses her newly discovered telekinesis to stop a young boy on a bicycle who is taunting her. While at home, Carrie is tormented by her delusional, fanatically religious mother (Piper Laurie), who locks Carrie in a closet (which contains a small shrine with a statuette of St. Sebastian - his body pierced with arrows) and forces her to pray--she believes that Carrie received her period due to sinful thoughts.

Miss Collins, still upset about the incident, talks to the other girls and forces them through an athletic detention, deliberately overworking them. The leader of the clique, Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen), refuses to participate and is banned from the upcoming senior prom as punishment. Furious, she blames Carrie for her misfortune. Meanwhile, another one of the girls, Sue Snell (Amy Irving), feels guilty about her part in teasing Carrie so she asks her boyfriend, Tommy Ross (William Katt), to take Carrie to the prom. Tommy grudgingly agrees. When Tommy asks Carrie to the prom, she initially refuses, thinking that yet another trick is being played on her. But, after a comforting pep talk from Miss Collins, and after Tommy's further insistence, Carrie finally agrees to go to the prom with him.

While everyone else is getting ready for the prom, Chris schemes with her boyfriend Billy Nolan (John Travolta) and best friend Norma (P.J. Soles) to get revenge on Carrie. They go to a farm and slaughter some pigs, drain their blood into a bucket, and place the bucket on one of the rafters in the school gym. Carrie asks her mother’s permission to go to the prom. Her mother becomes unhinged at the suggestion, commenting that Tommy is only after her for sex and that this will lead her down a road to perpetual sin. This leads to a violent argument between Carrie and her mother during which Carrie uses her telekinesis to slam windows and doors shut and confesses her new-found power to her mother. At this point her mother begins to regard Carrie as a witch possessed by Satan. After another fight between Carrie and her mother on the night of the prom, Carrie uses her powers to push her mother onto a bed and tells her that she must stop worrying.

Carrie and Tommy arrive at the prom, and Carrie begins to feel accepted by Tommy’s peers. Miss Collins relates to Carrie the story of her own prom, telling her she should cherish the memory forever. Carrie and Tommy dance together; Tommy, who has begun to be attracted to Carrie, kisses her.

As per Chris’ instructions, Norma and some of Billy’s friends fix the ballots so that Carrie and Tommy are elected prom king and queen. They make their way to the stage, and Carrie finally feels what it’s like to be accepted.

Meanwhile, Sue sneaks into the prom and sees Chris and Billy under the stage. She realizes their plan: Chris is going to yank a cord and dump the pig's blood over Carrie as she is declared prom queen. Sue rushes toward the stage frantically, but is intercepted by Miss Collins, who thinks that Sue is out to make trouble for Carrie after seeing that Carrie and Tommy are together. Miss Collins throws her out of the gym. At that exact moment, Chris yanks the cord, drenching Carrie in pig's blood.

The students gasp and look on in horror (except for Norma, who laughs hysterically). Tommy is furious, but the bucket falls and knocks him unconscious. Carrie snaps and imagines that all of the students and faculty are pointing and laughing at her, and taking pictures (although in reality only Billy's friends who helped fix the ballots and Norma are laughing), which is exactly what Carrie's mother had warned her would happen. After Chris and Billy run outside, Carrie uses her telekinetic powers to shut all of the doors, one of which crushes two students. Carrie turns off the lights and activates and subsequently controls a fire hose, knocking Norma unconscious and spraying the high pressure water at other students, knocking them to the ground. Miss Collins gathers several students and attempts to move the unconscious Tommy, but Carrie uses her power to push Miss Collins against a wall and then crushes her to death with a falling basketball rafter. Carrie uses the hose to electrocute the school's principal and another teacher who are trying to calm down the panicking students using a microphone, setting the stage ablaze. The fire spreads rapidly through the gym. Carrie exits the burning gym, trapping the remaining students inside.

Chris and Billy, who had witnessed Carrie massacring the entire student body, attempt to run over Carrie with Billy’s car. Carrie senses this, and flips the car over before it can hit her. The car explodes, killing Chris and Billy.

When Carrie finally makes it home, she finds the house full of lit candles. She goes upstairs and takes a bath, scrubbing off all the blood and sobbing. After she finishes, she finds her mother and hugs her, crying. Mrs. White holds her and tells her the story of how she was conceived in result of a strange marital rape. Then, convinced that her daughter is evil, she takes out a hidden knife and stabs Carrie in the back. Carrie falls down the stairs, and stumbles away from her mother. When her mother corners her in the kitchen, Carrie uses her power to crucify her mother with kitchen knives. At this point her mother resembles the statuette of St. Sebastian in the closet. After her mother dies, Carrie is wracked with guilt, and her powers, grown to the point where she can no longer control them, cause the house to begin to crumble as the numerous candles set it ablaze. Carrie drags her dead mother into the prayer closet one last time as the house burns and collapses down upon them.

Some time later, Sue, having survived the prom night catastrophe, is having great difficulty dealing with the deaths of Tommy and her friends. She has a dream in which she visits the lot where Carrie’s house once stood. As she reaches down to put flowers on the burnt lot, Carrie’s bloody hand reaches up from the rubble and grabs her. Sue wakes up screaming in the arms of her mother.

Cast

*Sissy Spacek as Carietta "Carrie" White
*Piper Laurie as Margaret White
*Amy Irving as Sue Snell
*William Katt as Tommy Ross
*Betty Buckley as Miss Collins
*Nancy Allen as Chris Hargensen
*P.J. Soles as Norma Watson
*John Travolta as Billy Nolan
*Priscilla Pointer as Mrs. Snell
*Sydney Lassick as Mr. Fromm
*Stefan Gierasch as Principal Morton
*Harry Gold as George Dawson
*Noelle North as Frieda Jason
*Michael Talbott as Freddy DeLois
*Doug Cox as Freddy Holt
*Cindy Daly as Cora Wilson
*Deirdre Berthrong as Rhonda Wilson
*Anson Downes as Ernest Peterson
*Rory Stephens as Kenny Garson
*Edie McClurg as Helen Shyres
*Cameron De Palma as Bobby Erbter
*Michael Towers as prom band singer
*Glen Vance as prom band singer

Production

Pre-production

"Carrie" was the first Stephen King novel to be published and the first to be adapted into a feature film. The film was produced by United Artists which had given the position of director to Brian De Palma, though he was not the studio's first choice.Fact|date=July 2007 De Palma told "Cinefantastique" magazine in an interview in 1977: "I read the book. It was suggested to me by a writer friend of mine. A writer friend of his, Stephen King, had written it. I guess this was almost two years ago [circa 1975] . I liked it a lot and proceeded to call my agent to find out who owned it. I found out that nobody had bought it yet. A lot of studios were considering it, so I called around to some of the people I knew and said it was a terrific book and I'm very interested in doing it. Then nothing happened for, I guess, six months." [Brian De Palma interview (July 1977) at http://www.briandepalma.net/carrie/carrint.htm Brian De Palma.net; accessed 27-5-07.]

Lawrence D. Cohen was hired as the writer, and produced the first draft, which had closely followed the novel's intentions. [cite video | title = Carrie" DVD featurette ("visualising Carrie") | publisher=United Artists | date=2002] However, later versions departed from King's vision rapidly, and certain scripted scenes were omitted from the final version, mainly due to financial limitations.

The final scene, in which Sue Snell reaches toward Carrie's grave, was shot backwards to give it a dreamlike quality. It was also filmed at night, using artificial lighting to create the desired effect. This scene was inspired by the final scene in "Deliverance" (1972). [cite video | title = Carrie" DVD featurette ("visualising Carrie") | publisher=United Artists | date=2002] Spacek had insisted on using her own hand in the given scene, so she was positioned under the rocks and gravel. De Palma stated 'Sissy, come on, I'll get a stunt person, what do you want, to be buried in the ground?!' However Spacek declared 'Brian, I have to do this.' De Palma explains that they "had to bury her. Bury her! We had to put her in a box and stick her underneath the ground. Well, I had her husband bury her, because I certainly didn't want to bury her. I used to walk around and set up the shot and every once in a while, we'd hear Sissy: 'Are we ready yet?' 'Yeah, Sissy, we're gonna be ready real soon." The White house was filmed in Hermosa Beach, and to give the home a Gothic theme, director and producers went to religious shops looking for artifacts to place in the home.

George Lucas and De Palma held a joint audition for "Carrie" and Lucas's "Star Wars" (1977). ["Carrie" trivia at [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074285/trivia IMDB] ; last accessed May 27, 2007.] There is a long-standing rumor that originally, Spacek was cast as Princess Leia, and Carrie Fisher as Carrie White, but when Fisher refused to appear in nude scenes and Spacek was willing to do them, they switched parts. However, Fisher refuted this story in a "Premiere" magazine article called "The Force Wasn't With Them," about actors who auditioned unsuccessfully for "Star Wars". That article quoted Fisher as saying, "Not only do I love being nude, I would've been nude then... But anyway, it's total bullshit [that Fisher refused to play Carrie] ." William Katt who played Tommy Ross also auditioned for Luke Skywalker and lost to Mark Hamill.

Coincidentally, one of the locations where "Carrie" was filmed, Palisades Charter High School, was at one time owned by the parents of Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, years before the school was built. The lot was then taken, some years after the couple had purchased it, by the State by eminent domain to build "Pali High."

Initially, Melanie Griffith had auditioned for the role, taking it as an opportunity to begin a career as a mature, adult actress. Sissy Spacek had been persuaded by husband Jack Fisk to audition for the title role. Fisk then convinced De Palma to let her audition. After several auditions, DePalma concluded that Spacek would be playing Christine Hargenson [cite video | title = Carrie" DVD featurette ("Acting Carrie") | publisher=United Artists | date=2002] . Determined to land the leading role, Spacek backed out of a television commercial she was scheduled to film [cite video | title = Carrie" DVD featurette ("Acting Carrie") | publisher=United Artists | date=2002] , rubbed Vaseline into her hair, didn't bother to wash her face, and arrived at the final audition clad in a sailor dress which her mother had made her in the seventh grade, with the hem cut off [ [http://www.briandepalma.net/carrie/carrint.htm Brian De Palma.net] ; accessed 27-5-07, and booked the part.]

Amy Irving was cast alongside her mother Priscilla Pointer, who would play the mother of Irving's character - a technique DePalma first employed in "Sisters", in which real-life mother and daughter Jennifer Salt and Mary Davenport starred as daughter and mother.

Nancy Allen was the last to audition, and her audition came just as she was on the verge of leaving Hollywood [cite video | title = Carrie" DVD featurette ("visualising Carrie") | publisher=United Artists | date=2002] .

Filming

Principal photography and filming began on May 17, 1976 and ended in July on a modest budget of USD $1.8 million, with a fifty day shooting schedule. Principal location shooting occurred in California, in Culver City Studios, Culver City, California and Los Angeles, California, the Bates High School scenes were filmed at Pier Avenue Junior High in Hermosa Beach, California, with the exception of the shots of the Bates High School athletic field, which were filmed at Palisades Charter High School in Pacific Palisades, California, and the shots of the school in flames and the gym scenes, which were both built inside Culver City Studios.

De Palma began with one director of photography, and cameraman Isidore Mankofsky, who was eventually replaced by Mario Tosi after conflict between Mankosky and De Palma ensued. [ [http://www.briandepalma.net/carrie/carrint.htm Brian De Palma.net] ; accessed 27-5-07.] Gregory M. Auer served as the special effects supervisor for "Carrie", with Jack Fisk as art director. De Palma borrowed heavily from the films of Alfred Hitchcock, which as a result, gave "Carrie" a Hitchcockian tone. The most obvious example is the name of the high school, which is Bates High, a reference to Norman Bates from "Psycho" (1960). In addition, the four note violin theme from "Psycho" is used throughout the film whenever Carrie uses her telekenetic powers.

Much of the filming and production became problematic, most notably the prom scene, perhaps the most chaotic to film, and took over two weeks to shoot, with 35 takes. Auer added red, green and yellow food colouring to a bulk-sold concoction known in the cosmetics industry as 7-11 Blood. However, when it was put to use, the concoction kept drying and adhering to Spacek's skin because of the hot lights. The only solution was to hose Spacek down when the substance got gluey. Spacek, however, was willing to have the blood poured onto her, she stated "My initial reaction was it was a kind of warm sensual feeling being covered with this wet warm blanket, but after days of shooting the whole destruction scene, it got to be miserable and I was counting the days until we were through".Fact|date=June 2007

A wraparound segment at beginning and end of the film was scripted and filmed which featured the White's home being pummeled by stones that hailed from the sky. The opening scene was filmed as planned, though on celluloid, the tiny pebbles looked like rain water. [cite video | title = Carrie" DVD featurette ("visualising Carrie") | publisher=United Artists | date=2002] A mechanical malfunction botched production the night when the model of the White's home was set to be destroyed, so they burned it down instead and dropped the scenes with the stones altogether. [cite video | title = Carrie" DVD featurette ("visualising Carrie") | publisher=United Artists | date=2002] However, some interior scenes had already been filmed which were left in the movie where one can clearly see boulders crashing through the White's ceiling.

Reaction

Box office performance

"Carrie" initially had a limited release on November 3, 1976, opening in 409 theaters. After receiving a broader theatrical release, it grossed $5 million, and was one of the five top grossing films for the following two weeks.Fact|date=June 2007 Its final United States gross for 1976 was $33,800,000 - more than eighteen times its budget of $1.8 million.Fact|date=August 2008 The film, in today's money, has made over $100 million in the US alone, and was a hit in other countries such as the UK, Australia and France.Fact|date=August 2008

Awards and critical reception

The film received immensely positive reviews. Film critic Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" stated the film was an "absolutely spellbinding horror movie", as well as an "observant human portrait". [Ebert, Roger review of "Carrie" (1976) at [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19760101/REVIEWS/601010304/1023 Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun Times)] ; accessed 27-5-07.] Pauline Kael of "The New Yorker" stated that "Carrie" was "the best scary-funny movie since "Jaws" -- a teasing, terrifying, lyrical shocker", "Take One Magazine" critic Susan Schenker said she was "angry at the way "Carrie" manipulated me to the point where my heart was thudding, and embarrassed because the film really works" [Take One Magazine, January, 1977 at [http://carriefansite.blogspot.com/2007/06/carrie-me-back-to-senior-prom.html Carrie... A Fan's Site)] ] , a 1998 edition of "The Movie Guide" stated "Carrie" was a "landmark horror film", while Stephen Farber prophetically stated in a 1978 issue of "New West Magazine", "it's a horror classic, and years from now it will still be written and argued about, and it will still be scaring the daylights out of new generations of moviegoers." [cite web | last = | first = | authorlink = Stephen Farber | coauthors = | title = Pundits Page, "Take One Magazine," March 1997, p.57 | work = | publisher = Take One Magazine | date = | url = http://carriefansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/blurbs-from-original-reviews.html | format = | accessdate = ]

Nevertheless, the film was not without its detractors. "Variety" called it "pure camp"Fact|date=June 2007, "Jump Cut Magazine"'s Serafina Kent Bathrick said DePalma "upholds and contributes to the kind of scapegoating that keeps capitalist culture in the service of the state" [cite web | last = | first = | authorlink = Serafina Kent Bathrick | coauthors = | title = Eric Jackson Interview | work = | publisher = Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Cinema, March 30, 1977 | date = | url = http://www.horrorking.com/interview-hk1.html | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2008-02-27] , while Andrew Sarris of "The Village Voice" commented, "There are so few incidents that two extended sequences are rendered in slow-motion as if to pad out the running time..." [cite web

last =
first =
authorlink = Andrew Sarris
coauthors =
title = Pundits Page, "Take One Magazine," March 1997, p.57
work =
publisher = Take One Magazine
date =
url = http://carriefansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/blurbs-from-original-reviews.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = ] The most widespread criticism of the film is the artificiality of the special effects, and the pretentiousness of some of the film's dramatic scenes.

In addition to being a box office success, "Carrie" is notable for being one of the few horror films in existence to be nominated for multiple Academy Awards. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie received nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards, respectively. The film also won the grand prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival, while Sissy Spacek was given the Best Actress award by the National Society of Film Critics. This movie ranked number 15 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the [http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1532588_1_0_,00.html 50 Best High School Movies] , and #46 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Greatest Cinema Thrills, and was also ranked eighth for its famous ending sequence on Bravo's five-hour miniseries "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments" (2004). [cite web | work=bravotv.com|title=The 100 Scariest Movie Moments |url=http://www.bravotv.com/The_100_Scariest_Movie_Moments/index.shtml| accessdate=2006-08-06] [http://www.theyshootpictures.com/index.htm They Shoot Pictures] , a filmsite that is in contact with film critics all over the world, lists "Carrie" as 348th on their current list of the one thousand greatest pictures ever made. [cite web |work=theyshootpictures.com|title=The 1,000 Greatest Films By Ranking (301-400)|url=http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_ranking301-400.htm| accessdate=2008-03-02]

Music

The score for "Carrie" was composed by Pino Donaggio. Donaggio has been repeatedly referred to as the equivalent of Alfred Hitchcock's frequent score collaborator Bernard Herrmann.Fact|date=August 2008 De Palma states that he "was put on to him by a good friend of mine, the "Time" magazine film critic Jay Cocks, who had always liked his music and suggested him to me when Bernard Herrmann unfortunately passed away and I was looking for another composer. I listened to his records and talked it over with him and felt he was the right kind of combination."Fact|date=February 2007 In addition, two pop songs ("Born To Have It All" and "I Never Dreamed Someone Like You Could Love Someone Like Me") were written for the early portion of the prom sequence and were performed by Katie Irving, sister of star Amy Irving. Donaggio would work again with De Palma on "Dressed To Kill", " Home Movies", "Blow Out", "Body Double", and "Raising Cain".

The soundtrack was originally released on vinyl in 1976 under the United Artists label; a deluxe CD edition containing a few tracks of dialogue from the film was released by MGM/Rykodisc in 1997. A 2005 CD re-release of the original soundtrack (minus dialogue) is available from Varèse Sarabande. Portions of the film's score were left off of all versions of the soundtrack album, most notably the piece of music that plays while the girls are in detention. Additionally, the other songs in the film ("Education Blues" by Vance or Towers, "(Love is Like a) Heat Wave" by Martha and the Vandellas, etc.) were uncredited in the film and were omitted from the album. A bootleg version of the complete score has circulated on the internet.

Differences between 1976 film and novel

"Carrie" bears significant differences with the original novel. The physical description of Carrie White was changed. In the novel, Carrie is slightly overweight with long, flat dirty blonde hair and pimples on her neck, back and buttocks. However, in the movie, she has a small frame, reddish blonde hair and clear skin. Also, in the novel, the name of the high school was Ewen Consolidated High School. For the film, it was changed to Bates High School (a homage to the character Norman Bates from "Psycho".) Other major differences include:

*Norma Watson becomes Chris Hargensen's gal-pal in the movie, while Tina Blake is omitted. Also, Miss Desjardin is renamed as Miss Collins, Mr. Stephens as Mr. Fromm and the characters of assistant principal Peter Morton and Principal Henry Grayle are fused into Principal Henry Morton.
*In the book, Chris and her boyfriend Billy do not wait around after drenching Carrie with blood and only learn what she has done some time later. In the movie, Chris and Billy view Carrie through the gym windows wreaking havoc on the prom goers immediately after she has been soaked with blood.
*In the novel, Carrie's mother is a large, heavyset and rather ugly woman with white hair and rimless bifocals, whereas in the movie, she's slim, with relatively pleasant features and auburn hair. Both versions tend to portray the character cloaked in black at all times.
*In the film, Carrie's mother is killed in a manner that closely resembles crucifixion; in fact she crucifies her mother the same way as her small figure of Saint Sebastian, with her arms pinned up by kitchen knives and potato peelers. In the book, after Carrie is stabbed, Carrie uses her powers to slow her mother's heart down to a complete stop. This version is later used in the remake of the movie.
*In the book, after Carrie has the blood spilled on her, she runs out of the school before closing all the doors, and she then sets off the fire sprinklers. She causes an electrical fire, and at that point, she decides to leave them to burn to death. She then walks across town, using her powers to strip the hydrants along the way, blow up gas stations and bring down live wires from telephone poles, killing many more than in the movie as she spreads the mayhem across the town of Chamberlain, Maine. (Those scenes were cut from the final draft of the script, and not produced because of the small budget).
*In the novel, Carrie is also gifted with a limited telepathy (i.e., ability to communicate outside the normal range of sensory experience), and she unknowingly broadcasts her thoughts to onlookers throughout the city as she brings chaos throughout it. In the movie, there is no sign of this ability.
*In the book, Billy Nolan tries to kill Carrie, while in the 1976 film, his girlfriend Chris Hargensen tries to kill her. In both the film and the book, Chris and Billy end up being crushed in their car and killed.
*Both the film and the book see Carrie dying in guilt for killing her mother, but the film has her death set up because of falling debris striking her on the head. In the book, Carrie leaves her house after killing her mother and continues back into the town. It is at this point that Chris and Billy try to run her over, but she manages to swipe their car aside, killing them both by running the car into a roadhouse, where it catches on fire. Overusing her telekinetic powers, however, has put too much stress on her body, and Carrie collapses. Sue comes up and has a telepathic conversation with her before she dies, also inviting her into her mind to prove that Sue was, in fact, innocent. In the book, Carrie's death is the result of blood loss from the knife wound, shock, and coronary occlusion as a result of the stress that overusing her telekinetic abilities placed upon her circulatory system.
*In the novel, the entire story is portrayed as documentary-esque police interviews in the aftermath of the massacre in Chamberlain, Maine. As such, many things were left out from the end of the novel where Carrie destroys the town.
*In the movie, after Carrie has killed the entire school body, she returns back home and takes a bath to wash off the pig's blood whereas in the novel, Carrie does not take a bath and goes straight into the conversation with her mother.

equels, remakes and related works

"Carrie", along with the novel, have been reproduced and adapted several times.

equel

A significantly derided, much-belated sequel was "", released in 1999. It featured another teenager with telekinetic powers who is eventually revealed to have shared a father with Carrie White. Stephen King reportedly hated the sequel so much that he once pleaded in "Entertainment Weekly" that Hollywood not make another Carrie sequel.Fact|date=June 2007

Remake

In 2002, a TV movie remake starring Angela Bettis in the titular role was released. The film updated the events of the story to modern-day settings and technology while simultaneously attempting to be more faithful to the book's original structure, storyline, and specific events. The one exception to the latter was that the ending of "Carrie" in the remake was drastically changed: instead of killing her mother and then herself, the film has Carrie killing her mother, being revived via CPR by Sue Snell and being driven to Florida to hide. This new ending marked a complete divergence from the novel and was a signal that the movie served as a pilot for a "Carrie" television series, which never materialized. In the new ending, the rescued Carrie vows to help others with similar gifts to her own. Although Angela Bettis' portrayal of Carrie was highly praised, the remade film was ultimately panned by most critics,cite news |url=http://imdb.com/news/sb/2002-11-04#tv5 |publisher=Internet Movie Database |title=TV Reviews: "Carrie" |date=2002-11-04] who cited it as inferior to the original.

tage productions

A 1988 Broadway musical, starring Betty Buckley, Linzi Hateley and Darlene Love closed after only 16 previews and five performances. 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". Clips of the musical may be found on Youtube.

Early in the 21st century, playwright Erik Jackson attempted to secure the rights to stage another production of "Carrie" the musical, but his request was rejected. Jackson eventually earned the consent of Stephen King [cite web

last =
first =
authorlink = Rocky Wood
coauthors =
title = Eric Jackson Interview
work =
publisher = horrorking.com
date =
url = http://www.horrorking.com/interview-hk1.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-02-27] to mount a new, officially-sanctioned, non-musical production of "Carrie", which debuted Off-Broadway in 2006 with female impersonator Sherry Vine in the lead role [cite web

last =
first =
authorlink = Jesse Green
coauthors =
title = New York Times Theater Review
work =
publisher = The New York Times
date =
url = http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/arts/26weekahead.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-02-27] . Similarly, many other "un"official spoofs have been staged over the years, usually with a gym teacher named "Miss Collins" (as opposed to the novel's "Miss Desjardin" and the musical's "Miss Gardner"), most notably the "parodage" "Scarrie the Musical" [cite web

last =
first =
authorlink = Handbag Productions
coauthors =
title = Hell in a Handbag's Scarrie site
work =
publisher = handbagproductions.org
date =
url = http://www.handbagproductions.org/history/scarrie/scarrie.shtml
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-02-27] , which hit the Illinois stage in 1998 and was revived in 2005; Dad's Garage Theatre's 2002 production of "Carrie White the Musical" [cite web

last =
first =
authorlink = Sci-fi Dimensions
coauthors =
title = Sci-Fi Dimensions Review
work =
publisher = scifidimensions
date =
url = http://www.scifidimensions.com/Jul02/carriewhite.htm
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-02-27] ; and the 2007 New Orleans production of "Carrie's Facts of Life" [cite web

last =
first =
authorlink = Running with Scissors
coauthors =
title = Carrie's Facts of Life - Official Site
work =
publisher = norunningwithscissors.com
date =
url = http://www.norunningwithscissors.com/carrie.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-02-27] , which was a hybrid of "Carrie" and the classic American sitcom "The Facts of Life".

poofs

The movie has been spoofed countless times in other films and television programs. Some of the most notable: are "Zapped!", a 1982 film starring Scott Baio in which he uses his telekinetic powers to rip the clothes off of his peers at the prom; "Superstar", in which a "Carrie"-obsessed Molly Shannon is doused with blue paint in front of the entire student body; "Another Gay Movie" which features an homage with a man in drag showered by a bucket of semen; "Student Bodies", in which they spoof the arm-from-the-grave sequence; the episode "Love Disconnection -The Amazing Three" of "Tiny Toon Adventures" in which Shirley the Loon is splashed with red punch; and an episode of "Ugly Betty" titled "Petra-Gate" in which Betty stages an "anti-prom" that concludes with her being doused in pig's blood.Also in one opening of Lil' Bush, Lil' Condi is elected prom queen, and blood from Tiny Kucinich, having been killed by Lil' Cheney, is dumped on her.

Influence on other films

The film was quickly followed by a wave of copycats and imitators. Though "Carrie" is more melodrama than traditional horror film, its biggest influence was on the slasher genre that exploded in popularity shortly after the release of the film. The "final scare" (in this instance, a hand bursting from the grave) was rarely seen until this point, and soon most slasher films incorporated this tactic. Films like Jason Goes to Hell have been accused of ripping off Carrie's ending, because each feature finales where a hand bursts out of a strange location and grabs something. Another film of that series, , featured a protagonist similar to Carrie in some ways.

Other films lifted the character layout and storyline more blatantly and featured teens who were humiliated seeking revenge, often with the aid of some sort of supernatural power. Amongst the most notable are: "Jennifer", in which the titular character (Lisa Pelikan) unleashes her wrath on her peers by exerting her telepathic control over snakes; "Mirror Mirror", in which a girl taps into an evil force that resides in her mirror; "The Initiation of Sarah", a 1978 movie of the week in which the titular character (Kay Lenz) gets revenge on a rival sorority member (Morgan Fairchild); "Slaughter High", in which a young man is horribly burned as a result of his classmates' prank; "Evilspeak", in which Clint Howard taps into the powers of Satan through his computer; and "Jawbreaker", which featured an ugly duckling plot, a humiliating prom sequence, a pig's blood reference and three cast members from "Carrie" films (William Katt, P.J. Soles, Charlotte Ayanna) portraying the Purr family.

References