thissection. In Pierces adaption, Sue does find Carrie at the end of the latters reign of terror; she tries to help Carrie out of the rapidly disintegrating house and pull her to safety. When De Palma gave Spacek the role, he cast Amy Irving as Sue Snell instead. There is a note that is left in reference to Carrie White, saying that she is burning in hell. Still, there's a lot to like in this remake. Carrie is a 16-year-old teenage misfit who is bullied at school for her appearance and devout religious beliefs. She doesn't magically become the girl every guy fantasizes about. When Spacek declined, De Palma handed responsibilities to her husband, production designer Jack Fisk. Even after the blood comes in the locker room, Carrie remains innocent. , but for the most part it is consistent with the spirit of Kings ending. Whatever the book. 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. However, Chris sets her plan into motion. Sue screams, jolting the viewer back to reality and to Sues living room, where she is writhing and wailing while clutching at her wrist. Carrie's original sin was being born. She had hopes and she had fears. Actually, its worth noting Carrie spares Sue that fright. Then the string running along it. Screaming for help, she attracted the attention of all the girls in the shower room, who began laughing at her after discovering she was on her period. With a harsh and vengeful tone, Stephen King sets the readers mind to become attuned to love the main character and hate everyone that hurt her. It belongs to the culture. Sue tells Carrie to go somewhere no one knows her and offers to drive her as far as Florida. There is a sonic flashback of Carries mother stating theyre all going to laugh at you on a loop, (previous things her tormentors have said are also in the sonic flashback) this reveals Carries motive for her revenge. After killing her classmates, Carrie heads home and confronts her mother, who believes she got possessed by Satan. As a result, Carrie spawned a sequel, a made for TV remake, a 2013 reboot, and two musical adaptations. There is a rich use of figurative language inCarrie.From describing her mother to describing her power and those she hated, there is a rich use of Simile and Metaphors in the novel. The community's original sin was attacking Carrie in the shower, humiliating her for manifesting signs of Eve's "curse." Unlike in de Palmas film, there is no indication that the gravestone shattering moment exists in the context a dream: Sue doesnt even see the stone shatter, only the audience does. More books than SparkNotes. 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. Its about the horror of being alone in the dark. Its incredibly satisfying: poignant but not too pat. The shot takes place as Sue Snell places flowers on Carrie's grave. Suddenly Margaret is standing behind her, croaking sin never dies. Carrie jolts awake and finds herself in Sues car. The next day, Miss Desjardin places the girls who bullied Carrie on punishment, and after Chris protests, she gets banned from attending prom. Rather than engulfing the White abode in flames, for which a miniature model was used, the original ending of Carrie was meant to be much different. Show her that if she had remained sinless the Curse of Blood never would have come on her. The intention of the editing and sound is to set up tension in the build up to the pig's blood being poured on Carrie. Andthe end Sue is a much more straightforward friend to Carrie, with their mad dash across state lines evoking shades of Thelma and Louise. A shy girl, outcast by her peers and sheltered by . The most literal, clumsy interpretation would be that Sue is now wedded to her trauma of that night. She would hole up in her trailer, which was adorned with a slew of religious regalia including Gustave Dore's illustrated Bible. De Palma had to constantly remind her on set they were making a horror movie instead. The camera pans toward Sue sleeping on a makeshift bed in the living room and then fades into a misty dream sequence (famously made eerie by being filmed backward and then reversed to play forward in editing). The sonic flashbacks end and a new non-diegetic score is introduced, the tone is eerie and it plays only one melody the entire time. A loose bucket falls on Tommys head as he bleeds out to death. Carrie is not the monster; she is Carrie the good Christian girl. Corn syrup was used for the gallons of pig's blood the bullying teens dump on Carrie during the climax of the movie. When Norma falls to the floor writhing in pain, the reaction is 100% authentic. '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. In Carsons version, it is while Sue is literally breathing the life back into Carrie that she sees inside her head. De Palma opted to keep the shot in the film, even though Soles was so badly hurt that she could not hear out of one ear for the following six months before the eardrum eventually mended. He'd might have endured being called a freak for years until he finally snapped and roasted the football team. The motif of Carrie's life is bullying and so this is also a motif in the book. The book featured both first and third-person perspectives. 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. As Sue walks away, Carrie feels a hand clap her on the shoulder. But Carrie is not the evil in this story. Im going to get her! Carries body language is reminiscent of Christian icons of tortured saints and martyrs, this links to her religious upbringing and her change from a young angelic girl into a vengeful demon. '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. Her mother stabs her in the shoulders, and Carrie stops her heart. International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct,London, EC1A 2BN, United Kingdom, 2023 Book Analysis. (Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers ahead.). It is a motif in that you see it quite a bit. He shows the bucket of blood. Carrie gets home and asks her mother why she hid the truth of menstruation from her, but instead of explaining, her mother begins quoting false scriptures, and when Carrie tries protesting, her mother locks her up to pray in a tiny closet, which freaked her. Unlike in de Palmas film, there is no indication that the gravestone shattering moment exists in the context a dream: Sue doesnt even see the stone shatter, only the audience does. Carrie gets a measure of peace, dying knowing that at least someone didnt mean to hurt her. When the Stephen King book was first optioned, it was set up with producer Paul Monash at 20th Century Fox, and Monash hired writer Lawrence D. Cohen to pen a first . It could make you Feeble. Required fields are marked *. Piper Laurie also scored an Oscar nod for her performance as Margaret White, Carrie's abusive and religiously fanatical mother. Short of a Carrie adapters roundtable, wecan never really be sure. Moore's Margaret is a purely pitable figure who scratches and cuts her own flesh, and who cannot love herself, let alone a child. A character analysis of Carrie reveals an adolescent who is unable to separate psychologically from her mother. 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. This shot intertwines the sequence of the photographer in an iris shape; this creates an almost psychedelic atmosphere which is a staple of the 70s. Kimberley Pierces 2013 adaptation of Carrie had a famously troubled production and post-production. Peirce has turned "Carrie" into dark, sick take on a superhero origin story, complete with wide-angle lenses and God's-eye-view shots and poetic sound effects (when Margaret is near, Carrie "hears" her before she sees her, thanks to a high-pitched whine that's like a dog whistle). is a horror story of isolation and abuse about a girl with no safe haven and no one to understand her. This ending sits a lot more strangely with the rest of Pierces film because it seems to undermine the connection established between Sue and Carrie at Carries death by ending on a note of fear. After she got her first period and asked her mother for answers, Margaret began quoting false scriptures that never existed in the bible; this gave an insight into the fact that Margaret believed that anything related to blood had to be evil and from Satan. After all, mothers dont like to their daughters. Not knowing anything about menstruation, Carrie freaks out. Ehiosun, Joshua "Carrie Plot Summary " Book Analysis, https://bookanalysis.com/stephen-king/carrie/summary/. 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. Margaret White and Chris Hargensen take the role Carrie occupies at the end of the other adaptations with Carrie essentially taking on Sues role. The final paragraph reinforces the connection between Carrie and Sue by mirroring the novels opening trauma, only this time it is Sue who feels blood run down her legs. that what she witnessed was a natural act? Brian De Palma's Carrie is all but unanimously praised as one of the scariest horror movies of all time. All rights reserved. The bucket ends up hitting Tommy and he dies. 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. Carrie is bulled everywhere she goes, both home and school. Spacek also examined the body language ofthose stoned to death for their sins. Carrie finds Chris and Billy on the road and drives their car through a wall, killing them. De Palmas film also reduces the role Sue plays in the story and the depth of her characterization. Five different endings. Becoming prom queen was a realization for Carrie, and even after she felt that being crowned would be one of her best memories, it became the sole memory she dreaded. However, no matter how hard she tried, she was always rejected by her peers. The speed of the editing is incredibly fast and is hard to absorb and begins to feel subliminal, the association between the shots is often the eye line matching. This kind of horror story suits a spooky or bloody twist ending; it may even demand one. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. That question is asked more than once in "Carrie," and it cuts to the heart of this new adaptation. Carries rage extends to all of Chamberlain as she delivers a telepathic message to Chamberlains citizens and then rains hell on them by destroying buildings and killing people. 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. write out a theme statement for Femininity in the book. The scene then shifts to a rainy graveyard, where a black-clad Sue is walking with a single white rose in her hand. Even when Carrie tried her best to fit in, she still got rejected; this only added to her torture. After showing reluctance for a while, Carrie accepts Tommys invitation. What would have become of Superman had he been a girl raised by an insane single parent? I'm not sure that blood is an actual theme in the book. 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. It takes forever. Blood represented an entity that Carrie knew she was never going to escape. Of course, it goes without saying that checking off that list of sins, Carries pen could mark an X next to None of the Above. Carrie never fell prey to even normal teenage lust. Carrie Themes and Analysis . Now she's ready because "the devil has come home" (2.733). "Carrie Study Guide: Analysis". However, she discovers herself, and her life completely changes. Soles) in Carrie dies via fire hose. Sue isalternately hostile and generous, and conformist and defiant but always acutely self-aware. Perhaps a better lens through which to view this moment would be Gothic horror, in which Sue represents not a bride per se, but a proto-Final Girl: a beautiful, vulnerable maiden imprisoned by a monster. I will be focusing on the iconic prom scene which serves as the climax of the film, as Carrie takes revenge on her high school bullies after constantly being tormented. Carrie White is a teenage girl approaching adulthood set in the 1970's. Facing many conflicts with her schoolmates and mother, Carrie discovers her supernatural power and puts it to use to seek revenge. The use of cross cutting creates a chaotic atmosphere as the tension swells as the hazy lighting blurs the focal points, this serves as the climax. Pig's blood. Suddenly, a bloody hand emerges from between Sues legs. Carrie faced the torture of adapting to an overzealously religious mother and terrible classmates. Sneaking into the prom hall, Chris and her boyfriend set the buckets of blood above the stage. The epistolary style of writing adopted by Stephen King madeCarrieeerily realistic as Stephen King used different peoples perspectives to narrate the events of Carries life and death. Telekinesis is an ability that Carrie had from childhood. She stabs Carrie in the shoulder. Accessed 1 May 2023. Spoiler alert: important details of the novel are revealed below. However, Nancy Allen was already promised the role of Sue Snell, so De Palma cast her as Chris Hargensen instead. Mentioning Stephen King's 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 pig's blood just as she was Carries momma had also warned her daughter, on more than one occasion. The novel ends with a cliffhanger suggesting that Carries powers still existed and that a young girl inherited them. Peirce's version sometimes makes Chris seem a bit of a victim, too, by implying that she was spoiled rotten by her yuppie dadplayed by a perfectly cast Hart Bochner, a.k.a. But even as she does this, Sue acknowledges her sacrifice is also a means of assuaging her guilt and exercising her power over Tommy. Margaret's original sin was having sex with Carrie's father, an event she describes as a violation. With laughter and humiliation, Carrie goes on a rampage and locks everyone in the gym. King also ensures that Carrie isnt an angel. A man patronizingly tells Sue that she was under an enormous amount of stress and asks if its. will review the submission and either publish your submission or providefeedback. Because Carrie is an abused child, she feels ugly; because she feels ugly, she radiates a sense of worthlessness. Carries mother forces her into the closet. Stories change in the telling, though, and as they do, so do endings. Instead she very deliberately and maliciously destroys her towns water supplies before dousing as much of it as possible it in gasoline and setting it on fire. She may have been tempted by the Antichrist.. The gruesome nature of the novel made Stephen King feel disconnected from the main character as he could not fully indulge in Carrie . Momma had told her there was Something. As Walter Chaw writes, "Peirce's Carrie does something DePalma's doesn't do nearly so well: it describes Carrie's headspace, so that her telekinesis becomes expressionistic.". (Peirce doesn't show nudity; this time it's all about the girls' emotions.). Chris is so beyond redemption that she actually believes she is the victim. The music compliments the slow motion as they both slowly drawl out the process of Carries prank, when the editing becomes more fast paced so does the score, this indicates the approaching terror. In the story, Carrie longed for revenge. Brian de Palmas 1976 film is is the first, most famous, and most widely-praised adaptation of Carrie. These various adapted endings all have their points of interest but its hard to argue with Kings original. The movie links Carrie's burgeoning power to creativity, watching her develop her gifts until, at the end, she is assured enough to preside over a combination Grand Guignol play and art exhibit. Its after this point that things take a turn for the nonsensical. Throughout Carrie's story, she does become more comfortable in her body, and powers, through exploration. A bond, however conflicted and short-lived, forged between the pair. There is another interesting perspective, however. Even when the film was released, everyone knew what was going to happen. Copyright 1999 - 2023 GradeSaver LLC. On prom day, Carrie and Tommy have a good time as she meets his friends and talks with him. Chris pours pig blood on Carrie, and everyone laughs at her. Her mother freaks out, claiming that she is a sinner. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Carrie by Stephen King. The intention of the editing and sound is to set up tension in the build up to the pigs blood being poured on Carrie. Where Pierces film does diverge from de Palmas somewhat is in its restoration of Sue as a main character. Sue is forced to truly bear witness to the pain Carrie has suffered and gets the opportunity to offer Carrie a moments succor with no ulterior motives. Long before the blood arrived. But she was just like me. Chris Hargensen always seems to be there; always seems to have been there. 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? I'm going to analyse a scene from Brian De Palma's Carrie. As Sissy Spacek's unlikely prom queen takes the stage to be crowned, De Palma toys with us to the point of cruelty. Stephen King gave a multi-faced perspective that featured many primary and minor characters, giving the story an intricate depth and detail. This guilt eats away at her for the whole novel. It doesnt matter whos innocent or not its the fact that they are laughing. Again and again. Being a gothic horror novel,Carriehas influenced American culture as it made people see the dark side of the mind of those who get bullied. Chris Hargensen is a nice person. Where Pierces film does diverge from de Palmas somewhat is in its restoration of Sue as a main character. Chris is the sinning woman that Carries momma should be praying for. This is tragedy. The film treats the school's gym teacher Miss Desjardin (Judy Greer)who punishes Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubleday), leader of the girls who torture Carrieas Carrie's shadow "good" mother.