Welcome ladies and gentlemen to my first book vs. movie blog! In which I will be covering Stephen King’s Carrie. The story of Carrie White is well known and well celebrated, offering one great book, and at least three movies, not including the sequel, which I will touch on briefly.
The story of Carietta White is known as “A novel of a girl possessed of a terrifying power.” A woman, Margret White gives birth to a child in what she believes is a drunken time of sin. The child is raised by the devout Christian woman, teaching her child things such as; only bad girls develop breasts (Or dirty pillows as she calls them) and that a woman’s period comes from her committing a sin of lust. Ironically a period is where it starts in all mediums. Carrie, having never been taught what a period is starts her first one in the locker room showers at the late age of near 17. Her female class mates start in with the iconic chant of “Plug it up!” As they pelt her with tampons and pads. In each film, as it is with the book, this seems to stay somewhat consistent, though small things change here and there. Unfortunately the most inconsistent part of this scene is the depiction of Carrie White. In the earliest depiction of Carrie, Sissy Spacek depicts Carrie as pale, freckle skinned woman. She is thin and sports long golden blonde hair. The TV film remake starring Angela Bettis shows us Carrie in thin body, once more, pale skin but this time as a brunette. The most recent release, 2013 to be exact shows us an even more complicated depiction of Carrie White. Chloe Grace Mortez gives us a look at a thin, pale skinned Carrie with strawberry blonde hair. But never stops showing a beautiful young woman. This isn’t to say Spacek or Bettis aren’t beautiful but they hide the beauty of those actresses until they are at prom, which is when Carrie is supposed to be seen a beautiful. Carrie as stated in the book is well, fat. She’s described like an Ox, bovinely, eyes like a hog in the slaughtering pen, a fat, whiny bag of lard, and even like an ape. It’s also mentioned she was largely covered in acne, which as you might have guessed would have ruined the steamy soap up scenes in the beginning that the film makers love to use. Carrie is mentioned having a blondish hair, so at least one movie got that right.
The next common inconsistency that plagues the movies is the dress. Oh how that dress and those lines between Margret and Carrie White have plagued me time and time again. Just before prom Carrie stands in her dress, usually at a full length mirror (which there was supposedly none of in the White home). Margret comes into the room and the dialog is as follows;
“Red. I might have known it’d be red.”
“It’s pink, momma.”
Or some variation of it. The problem? Carrie’s dress was made of a crushed velvet red material, but yet not one of the films depicts Carrie in the appropriate fabric. My guess is the pig’s blood just would not have shown up right.
After calming from the lack of proper gown we make it to the Prom, in which we are hit with a wave of inconsistency that seems it will not end until the film’s credits roll. First we have the actions that Carrie made in which resulted in the destruction of the school. First and fore most each movie places Carrie inside the building when things go haywire. She was not. Carrie left the school, turned and locked everyone in, standing on the outside, looking in as she turned on the sprinklers and turned the floor in a video game styled electric hazard. Here I will take a moment to note the over exaggerated, Marvel or DC super hero way that our newest Carrie went about things. Had she been in tight spandex with a symbol sporting the letter TK we would have called her Telekinesis girl! She goes about failing her arms and clenching her hand into a claw as though her TK teacher was Darth Vader. Spacek and Bettis gave us the subtle but much creepier effect of use of their fish bubble eyes and slow walk through a panicked room.
After leaving the school finally Carrie is supposed to return home where she kills her mother. For some of the films this is where it ends. In the newest version and the oldest version Carrie kills her mother by turning a kitchen full of sharp objects on her and crucifying her to a door frame, then brings the house down around her dead or dying mother and herself; wrong. The TV film actually portrayed Margret White’s death as it is supposed to be. Carrie pictures her mother’s heart and stops it. Carrie is supposed to die after terrorizing the town. She then died from the stab wound she received from her mother before leaving her home after walking all the way to the Cavalier’s parking lot. None of the three films could get this plot point right! In any film that she even attempts to ravage the city she always does that before going home. In the remake with Bettis Carrie actually lives! She is rescued and given mouth to mouth after her mother attempts to drown her by Sue Snell.
Now we get to the point I will not spend much time on, as if I went into details, I’d be typing for days; The Rage: Carrie 2. This story is of Rachel, Carrie’s half-sister. This character is never mentioned anywhere in the books or films. The movie tells us that Ralph White (Carrie’s Father) Had a child with another woman and that the child (Rachel) Inherited TK from Ralph. Rachel’s mother, Barbara, is committed to an asylum. When a counselor (Sue Snell) figures out what’s going on she gets Barbara out of the asylum. Rachel goes nuts (big shock) mommy dearest abandons her dying child and so on and so forth. That’s the end of it. I’m not going to waste my time telling you more, just don’t waste your time to watch it.
So, as a recap, my friends, Carrie’s appearance, her dress, location during the destruction of the school and after, the death of Margret White (minus one account) and Carrie’s death are all wrong by compare to the book. The sequel? Don’t bother. If they changed things for lack of entertainment value then the book would have not been entertaining. As we all know a book has to do decently well to even get a movie release, so that argument is invalid. So, in short if you do choose to watch a Carrie movie I do recommend the Angela Bettis remake, for it seems to hold closest to the book, but don’t take it too seriously.
The story of Carietta White is known as “A novel of a girl possessed of a terrifying power.” A woman, Margret White gives birth to a child in what she believes is a drunken time of sin. The child is raised by the devout Christian woman, teaching her child things such as; only bad girls develop breasts (Or dirty pillows as she calls them) and that a woman’s period comes from her committing a sin of lust. Ironically a period is where it starts in all mediums. Carrie, having never been taught what a period is starts her first one in the locker room showers at the late age of near 17. Her female class mates start in with the iconic chant of “Plug it up!” As they pelt her with tampons and pads. In each film, as it is with the book, this seems to stay somewhat consistent, though small things change here and there. Unfortunately the most inconsistent part of this scene is the depiction of Carrie White. In the earliest depiction of Carrie, Sissy Spacek depicts Carrie as pale, freckle skinned woman. She is thin and sports long golden blonde hair. The TV film remake starring Angela Bettis shows us Carrie in thin body, once more, pale skin but this time as a brunette. The most recent release, 2013 to be exact shows us an even more complicated depiction of Carrie White. Chloe Grace Mortez gives us a look at a thin, pale skinned Carrie with strawberry blonde hair. But never stops showing a beautiful young woman. This isn’t to say Spacek or Bettis aren’t beautiful but they hide the beauty of those actresses until they are at prom, which is when Carrie is supposed to be seen a beautiful. Carrie as stated in the book is well, fat. She’s described like an Ox, bovinely, eyes like a hog in the slaughtering pen, a fat, whiny bag of lard, and even like an ape. It’s also mentioned she was largely covered in acne, which as you might have guessed would have ruined the steamy soap up scenes in the beginning that the film makers love to use. Carrie is mentioned having a blondish hair, so at least one movie got that right.
The next common inconsistency that plagues the movies is the dress. Oh how that dress and those lines between Margret and Carrie White have plagued me time and time again. Just before prom Carrie stands in her dress, usually at a full length mirror (which there was supposedly none of in the White home). Margret comes into the room and the dialog is as follows;
“Red. I might have known it’d be red.”
“It’s pink, momma.”
Or some variation of it. The problem? Carrie’s dress was made of a crushed velvet red material, but yet not one of the films depicts Carrie in the appropriate fabric. My guess is the pig’s blood just would not have shown up right.
After calming from the lack of proper gown we make it to the Prom, in which we are hit with a wave of inconsistency that seems it will not end until the film’s credits roll. First we have the actions that Carrie made in which resulted in the destruction of the school. First and fore most each movie places Carrie inside the building when things go haywire. She was not. Carrie left the school, turned and locked everyone in, standing on the outside, looking in as she turned on the sprinklers and turned the floor in a video game styled electric hazard. Here I will take a moment to note the over exaggerated, Marvel or DC super hero way that our newest Carrie went about things. Had she been in tight spandex with a symbol sporting the letter TK we would have called her Telekinesis girl! She goes about failing her arms and clenching her hand into a claw as though her TK teacher was Darth Vader. Spacek and Bettis gave us the subtle but much creepier effect of use of their fish bubble eyes and slow walk through a panicked room.
After leaving the school finally Carrie is supposed to return home where she kills her mother. For some of the films this is where it ends. In the newest version and the oldest version Carrie kills her mother by turning a kitchen full of sharp objects on her and crucifying her to a door frame, then brings the house down around her dead or dying mother and herself; wrong. The TV film actually portrayed Margret White’s death as it is supposed to be. Carrie pictures her mother’s heart and stops it. Carrie is supposed to die after terrorizing the town. She then died from the stab wound she received from her mother before leaving her home after walking all the way to the Cavalier’s parking lot. None of the three films could get this plot point right! In any film that she even attempts to ravage the city she always does that before going home. In the remake with Bettis Carrie actually lives! She is rescued and given mouth to mouth after her mother attempts to drown her by Sue Snell.
Now we get to the point I will not spend much time on, as if I went into details, I’d be typing for days; The Rage: Carrie 2. This story is of Rachel, Carrie’s half-sister. This character is never mentioned anywhere in the books or films. The movie tells us that Ralph White (Carrie’s Father) Had a child with another woman and that the child (Rachel) Inherited TK from Ralph. Rachel’s mother, Barbara, is committed to an asylum. When a counselor (Sue Snell) figures out what’s going on she gets Barbara out of the asylum. Rachel goes nuts (big shock) mommy dearest abandons her dying child and so on and so forth. That’s the end of it. I’m not going to waste my time telling you more, just don’t waste your time to watch it.
So, as a recap, my friends, Carrie’s appearance, her dress, location during the destruction of the school and after, the death of Margret White (minus one account) and Carrie’s death are all wrong by compare to the book. The sequel? Don’t bother. If they changed things for lack of entertainment value then the book would have not been entertaining. As we all know a book has to do decently well to even get a movie release, so that argument is invalid. So, in short if you do choose to watch a Carrie movie I do recommend the Angela Bettis remake, for it seems to hold closest to the book, but don’t take it too seriously.