Carrie adaptations

Only the original

What r1 said. Both remakes are putrid. And the abysmal sequel too.

[quote]Piper Laurie as Margaret in the 1976 version is the best one.

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!

I disliked the sequel more than the remakes.

I thought Tommy in the TV version was really cute though he looked too old for high school

Didn't even know there was a tv version, the 1970s version is the best for sure, I have both the 1976 and 2013 version on dvd, and ai like the one that came out in the late 90s too.

Angela Bettis's Carrie gave me "special ed."

Angela Bettis was ok as Carrie in the non-prom scenes. She played the outcast type well in those scenes.

Agree with R6, I didn't even *know* there was a 2002 TV version. Nevertheless, the 1976 was lightyears ahead of the crappy remake. Just about everything was wrong with the remake... not the least of which was the ending with Chloe Grace Moretz stomping through town like Godzilla ravaging Tokyo. It was all so ridiculous, boring and essentially unnecessary. Add this to the long dung pile of flop remakes. I can't imagine the arrogance involved to think you can do better than a cult favorite or classic movie.

Ain't no Carrie like Sissy's Carrie.

My poor sister was named Carrie, and was born the same year the book came out.

I actually quite like the 2013 remake but it had one problem. CGM is far too attractive to play Carrie. She did what she could to play down her looks but it didn’t work.

I mean, they had to get a straight-up supermodel type to play Sue, in order for her to plausibly be the prettier and more popular girl.

Sissy Spacek is such a chameleon, she can be a cutie or be very plain, even homely. Chloe will never not be pretty.

The original, first film is not only the best adaptation of that book, it turned in one of the best performances of all time. Just about everyone in that film gives a good to great performance, but the character Piper Laurie created as Carrie's mother was fantastic.

Nothing beat Darlene Love as Coach Jorgenson in Carrie: The Musical presiding over gym class in what looked like a cocktail dress.

The original is a perfect movie - from the performances, to the score, to DePalm’s visionary direction. Everything else just withers in comparison.

For those who didn't know about the 2002 TV version, it was actually the pilot for a TV show. At the end, Sue helps Carrie fake her death and the two of them drive off together...presumably to have future adventures that never materialized. I still remember thinking how dumb that was (not knowing it was a pilot when it first aired).

The original is a perfect film as far as I’m concerned. The entire cast was excellent and both Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie were phenomenal as the leads. There are so many scenes I love as a horror fan, but I’ll pick this one to post here because it’s pretty special as Carrie learns to trust Tommy and fall for him. He starts to actually care about her as well. William Katt shines in this scene, too.

Dakota Fanning auditioned for the 2013 Carrie which I think would’ve been a much smarter choice.

Also, in the book Carrie actually does destroy the entire town so the movie was just adhering to the book in that regard.

Julianne Moore was interesting as Margaret White but pity the fool who wants to set themselves up for comparison to Piper Laurie’s totally iconic performance.

Piper Laurie said when she first read the script, she thought it was a comedy.

Did Tommy die? What happened to him in the novel?

I always thought it was strange she never gave a shit about him once she went off. Maybe she was too turnt up to care?

He died in the novel from the bucket hitting him in the head. The gym teacher survives in the novel which aligns with the 2002 and 2013 versions.

OMG. Another Carrie thread. I wonder if this is the most popular DL movie with the highest thread count.

R21 Oh it killed him! Poor Tommy!

I own every version except the CGM remake. And I saw the musical when it came to LA.

The first film is perfect, though I wish they'd had the budget/effects to destroy the town like in the novel. The first time I read the book (years after seeing the movie), I was blown away by her rampage.

The remake has good effects in the prom scene, but the only improvement over the original is that Chris gets a more brutal death. I'm sure it was a budget/effects issue, but having Nancy Allen die in 2 seconds after everything she did was anticlimactic.

The New Bev is showing Carrie and Carrie 2/Pet Sematary 2 (as a double bill) this month. The sequels aren't GOOD, but they're FUN

To all posters hungry for attention, if you want to create a thread that will guarantee you 100 replies, put "Trump" or "Carrie" in the title. (500 if you put "celebrity male nudity").

The 70s movie is a great film but the hagiography is a bit overdone. It had the interesting story from the book, two great performances (Spacek and Laurie), and a few good ones, but it also had a distinct air of 70s teen-film cheese. Without Laurie or Spacek it would be about on par with “Friday the 13th.”

[Spoiler]

I enjoyed seeing Amy Irving get a spear through the head in Carrie 2. She seems REALLY insufferable.

[quote] but the character Piper Laurie created as Carrie's mother was fantastic.

And iconic. Arguably her best remembered performance. Funny to think Laurie thought the film was trash.

[quote] Did Tommy die? What happened to him in the novel?

I never read the book, but it seemed apparent to me that Tommy died. I figured the bucket knocked him unconscious and then he was consumed by the fire.

[quote] I always thought it was strange she never gave a shit about him once she went off. Maybe she was too turnt up to care?

I think Carrie lost it, and assumed he was in on it so, no, she wouldn't have cared at that point.

R28 it was without her performance

[quote] Also, in the book Carrie actually does destroy the entire town so the movie was just adhering to the book in that regard.

I never read the book, but as far as I'm concerned DePalma did the right thing by excising that silly bit. King often goes over the top in his novels to the level of absurdity. I've read The Shining and The Stand (and a handful of others) and it's always the same -- good idea, great characterization and sense of environment, creepy horror and then it all unravels into a cartoon.

So the TV remake was a pilot for a series where Carrie and Sue travel around the country solving crimes??? A combination of Murder, She Wrote, The Fugitive, and Carrie? It was a shame this didn't get picked up.

Nice short tribute to the original film’s 40th anniversary. It includes lots of tidbits of information.

If the budget and technology of the time had allowed for a Carrie 1976 town rampage, I would've loved to have scene that

R34 oh dear-ing myself. SEEN*

It's on AMC right now. I tuned in during the prom and now she's starting her rampage.

In the book there are two buckets of blood rigged to dump on Carrie and Tommy. The second bucket didn’t spill all the way so when it fell it was still at least half full of liquid and much heavier when it hit Tommy. I think the blood was semi-frozen as well after they kept it on ice to keep it from smelling. Been awhile since I read it but I believe they say it was the blow to the head that killed him.

Part of why the original works is that Carrie is so beaten down by life. Her mother, school she's just like sleepwalking thru it all and under constant abuse. The betrayal then at the prom is so intense and her anger which has been held down all her life just bursts out of her.

The '76 version is the superior one by far.

The thing that’s so great about the 76 is she really does seem like this little mouse just beaten down at home, beaten down at school, and then when she’s finally pushed over the edge…she snaps and she has a little surprise for them all, a little information about herself to demonstrate.

I will admit I was cheering her on, because such a slow burn, insult after insult. However that’s all marred by how undiscriminating she is, how she slaughters people who meant her well and tried to help.

Still, I was like, “YEAH GURL YEAH!”

^^^ because it’s such

In many ways homosexuals see themselves as Carrie.

R31, you summed up/described Stephen King so well for me when you typed, " it's always the same -- good idea, great characterization and sense of environment, creepy horror and then it all unravels into a cartoon."

I read a lot of Stephen King, when I was much younger; I stopped reading when I finished "Tommyknockers"; it was such a chore to get through...

Years later a friend gave me "Doctor Sleep" to read and while it was good, it veered off into silliness toward the end.

[quote]I will admit I was cheering her on, because such a slow burn, insult after insult. However that’s all marred by how undiscriminating she is, how she slaughters people who meant her well and tried to help.

But the brilliance of DePalma explains that. That scene where it goes quiet and Carrie just hears plug it up/they're all going to laugh at you/trust me Carrie has that tunnel vision effect where there is a circle and then the spirals around the edge.

Tunnel vision can actually happen in times of great stress.

Im voting for my version. To the devil with false modesty!

[quote] The 70s movie is a great film but the hagiography is a bit overdone. It had the interesting story from the book, two great performances (Spacek and Laurie), and a few good ones, but it also had a distinct air of 70s teen-film cheese. Without Laurie or Spacek it would be about on par with “Friday the 13th.”

This is… wrong. I like the original Friday the 13th, but De Palma was and has always been an auteur. Sean S. Cunningham has nothing on him. I’m not saying De Palma is perfect, but… You give only one criticism of the movie: it’s got some “70s teen film cheese” in it, therefore without Spacek and Piper Laurie, it would only be as good as Friday the 13th.

I don’t think you’ve thought this through properly.

The one thing I liked about the tv remake is that it included this one important detail from the book the movie left out: The real reason Sue didn't want to attend her own prom was because she was pregnant and knew it would be obvious when wearing her gown. It never made sense to me in the original that Sue would be that generous to Carrie as to miss her own prom.

Aside from that, the movie is a masterpiece!

[quote] This is… wrong. I like the original Friday the 13th, but De Palma was and has always been an auteur.

Don’t get me wrong, I love his stuff. But it’s invariably schlock, marvelously presented. I mean, Scarface? Dressed to Kill? An AUTEUR? Go ahead, pull the other one!

[quote]You give only one criticism of the movie: it’s got some “70s teen film cheese” in it, therefore without Spacek and Piper Laurie, it would only be as good as Friday the 13th.

[quote]I don’t think you’ve thought this through properly.

Nope, that’s it exactly!

Blocking you now, R48.

I haven't seen any version other than DePalma's, but I liked King's novel better. It's just a great moral fable about the horrors of growing up different in a shitty little town.

Also I should mention that the postscript of the original novel suggests that, for people like Carrie who happen to have better luck in who their families happen to be, the outcome can be much happier. Which as we know is something every Carrie really needs to hear.

R50, I never read the novel "Carrie." What's in the post-script you mention? There are other teenagers with telekinesis and that if they have a happy homelife they turn out okay?

R52 you should read the book. It's good but not very long. The post-script is a woman writing a letter to a relative and she mentions that her toddler can move things "like grandma did" or something like that. It makes sense in context.

There's really no competition. The De Palma film wins hands down. Better script, pacing, actors, music, etc. The prom scene is a cinematic marvel. It says a lot about how well made it is that every time you watch it, you hope for a different outcome for poor Carrie. Seeing her so happy when she's announced as prom queen rips my heart out more and more every time I watch it.

Angela Bettis was great as Carrie in the TV movie, but it looks like it was made for 3 dollars. Even by TV movie standards, it looks insanely cheap and Patricia Clarkson was boring as Margaret.

The same can be said for Julianne Moore in the 2013 movie. I'm assuming these women don't want to be compared to Piper Laurie, so they take the complete opposite approach and try to turn Margaret into some sort of victim herself, but it doesn't work. Margaret should always be the true villain of the story. If it weren't for how she raised Carrie, maybe the poor kid would have had a chance. I haven't seen the 2013 movie since it was released, but I recall Moore playing her like someone who was a victim of depression more than anything else. She didn't have the fire or power of Laurie or the character Stephen King wrote. I felt like Chloe Moretz's Carrie could have probably just shoved Moore's Margaret and broken her in half. She wasn't very intimidating.

The original’s music is also perfect.

In the 2013 version, Chloe looks like she’s voguing in the scenes where she’s destroying the high school.

R56 true. I love the effects, but hated her hand motions. The one improvement in the 2013 was Chris gets a real punishing death. Nancy Allen got killed in the blink of an eye

[quote] Angela Bettis was great as Carrie in the TV movie, but it looks like it was made for 3 dollars. Even by TV movie standards, it looks insanely cheap and Patricia Clarkson was boring as Margaret.

I remember the cheap look of the movie. I did love the scene in the TV movie of Rena Sofer throwing a duffe bag full of tampons at the girls and the scene with the stones which was in the book.

I wonder if anyone would have the balls to do it with black actors in the main roles.

Wasn't there an FX series announced saying they were looking for a black, Latin, or trans Carrie? Octavia Spencer would be a fantastic Margaret if they went in that direction. A trans Carrie makes no sense considering the period thing unless they just meant casting a trans actress but not making the character herself trans.

R47 Sue’s pregnancy is a plot line in the 2013 remake. I think that remake’s ok.

DePalma's direction was astounding.

Yeah the big scenes (the prom) are masterful but I love the little scene where Betty Buckley is telling her how pretty she is and they are looking in the mirror. It's the first time Spacek smiles but then what is so cool is how the camera zooms in on Buckley and her face drops and you can see she's really suspicious and worried about the prom invite. It's so subtle but just excellent.

The 1976 version is pretty much perfect. I'm glad De Palma dropped a lot of things. Now reading that Sue was pregnant in the book, that was another wise move. What I like about Carrie is it's a lean film. There are not too many subplots going on. It focuses on Carrie and her plight.

I agree that the prom sequence is brilliant. I think it's one of the best sequences in film ever. The direction, acting, editing, score, and use of close-ups are all effective. But the best part is how De Palma seamlessly makes so much of what happens after the blood spilling from Carrie's own perspective. It totally makes sense that she thinks everybody is laughing at her when it's really only a few people. De Palma and editor Paul Hirsch do a brilliant job bringing us into Carrie's damaged psyche.

if you watch closely it is amazing how there is one scene that is done without an edit.

It is during the part where Norma is collecting the ballots. It follows her from Carrie's table, across the gym, dropping them off with the teachers, kicking them under the stage, knocking on the steps to indicate to Chris that the plan is working and then ends with Amy Irving arriving by the stage.

AND the pre bucket drop!!!!! Irving following noticing the twitching rope and following it to the top of the stage in slow motion! Perfect!

I agree with every word, R62, R63, and R64. But you can’t tell any of that to R48. He won’t have it! To him, all that stuff is on the same level as Friday the 13th.

Hopefully you all still have your first editions...

De Palma improved upon the source material in my opinion. It's a great book, but it wouldn't have worked well on film. They tried it in the TV version with all the interviews with the survivors and it kept taking me out of the main story. I like the lean and mean quality of the De Palma film. She doesn't need to destroy the whole town. High school is the whole world to a teenager. I also liked that they switched the order of Billy/Chris' death and Margaret's death. It makes more dramatic sense for her to kill off her mother last since she's the main reason why she was such an outcast to begin with.

Of course, there's that brilliant ending scene, too. Even King admitted he liked De Palma's ending better.

the destruction

[quote]De Palma improved upon the source material in my opinion.

Stephen King has said that too. He agrees the film improved upon his book.

[quote] AND the pre bucket drop!!!!! Irving following noticing the twitching rope and following it to the top of the stage in slow motion! Perfect!

Yes, but that was also very Hitchcockian. DePalma was clearly very much influenced by Hitchcock in a number of his films. Not that there's anything wrong with that... Hitchcock was a master filmmaker.

Hitchcock never used slow motion or split screens that I can recall. DePalma got labeled with ripping off Hitchcock (Dressed to Kill is of course a homage to Psycho. The lead character dying etc. But DePalma was an innovator.)

R68 - Sweet Jesus. Not since the iceberg scene of TITANIC: THE MUSICAL have I been so nonplussed at the horrible spectacle being laid before my eyes. Please tell me this was still during the production's workshop period.

And then the smattering of applause at the end. LOL

R72 They should have dropped pigs' blood on the audience.

Kimberly Peirce proved herself to be a complete idiot when she cast Chloe. One of the stupidest decision of all time.

Kimberly Peirce proved herself a complete idiot signing up to direct the remake. I can only assume she was paid a decent salary. She hasn't made a feature film since.

De Palma's film is a masterpiece. It is now 45 years old and still holds up, still has a huge fan base and continues to attract new films. Everything about the film is perfect. The death of Margaret is a thousand times better than what King had written and the re-make's death of Margaret was beyond ridiculous.

I recall read an interview with Julianne Moore and she said that she didn't want to try and imitate what Piper Laurie had done as it was ground breaking and she couldn't better it, hence her performance took Margaret in a different direction but it failed to work. I assume like Kimberly this was nothing more than a pay check job.

R75 Here. Should read new fans (not new films).

Pierce proved she wasn't up to the task when she kept giving interviews saying Carrie was a "superhero origin story." Huh? In what fucked up world is Carrie a superhero? She can make things move, yes, but what is this an origin story for since it's a tragedy and she dies at the end? It's not fucking X-Men.

What year was that interview given, R77? I’ve noticed with the rehashing of popular, decades-old horror films (rereleasing them, either theatrically or on home video; remaking them, etc.), there’s an attempt by the new producers/filmmakers to sort of reshape the perception of the stories and their characters so that they come off more like comic books and comic book characters/superheroes.

I imagine it’s because that’s what sells nowadays—in China, for one, and also to the sort of people in the US who would be willing to shell out cash for a “reimagining” or a “continuation” experience.

It’s all about the bottom line, marketing to the lowest fucking common denominator. People love comic books and superheroes and shit like that now, way more than ever. The elevation of “nerd culture,” the infantilization of Americans. Pathetic.

We need Carrie to get on stage and do her magic at the next RNC convention.

R78 it was while she was promoting the movie back in 2013.

Piper Laurie. The end.

Shelley Duvall could have been a good Carrie.

I remember reading some article that mentioned Melanie Griffith either auditioned or was considered for the Carrie role. That would have been awful.

R82 Shelley Duvall would have been an interesting choice but don't think she could have pull off playing a teenager.

Spacek is so brilliant in the role that it is impossible to imagine anybody else. The wrong casting could have sunk the film.

I think it's interesting that De Palma's first choice for Margaret was Joan Fontaine. I love Fontaine but like Spacek as Carrie and I can't imagine anybody but Piper Laurie playing Margaret. Her work in the words of Julianne Moore was 'revolutionary' hence why Julianne Moore played the role so differently. You can top Piper in that role.

Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek, born the same year, 1949.

Sissy was technically old (27) but she looked convincing as a wallflower teenager. I liked that the film didn't portray Carrie as ugly but more extremely awkward, plain and withdrawn. She intimated people due to looking a bit like an oddball and having no social skills. And she perceived herself as uglier than she was because she was abused and bullied her whole life. Her transformation for the prom showed she could be pretty with a little confidence and some style. Of course that didn't last long. Chloe was way too sorority girl pretty, never looked plain or frumpy in the movie, in real life, someone like her would have gotten more attention and sympathy early on.

The off-Broadway revival of Carrie with Marin Mazzie tried to make Margaret sympathetic too. All the press from the director and Mazzie was that Margaret was a victim too.

That doesn't work. Margaret has to be terrifying.

Betty Buckley saw the show in previews and said something like the production needed more danger and menace.

From the clips I've seen online Buckley has been the only person to come up with an interesting take on Margaret post-Piper Laurie. Buckley is fierce and not as campy as Piper but it seems to work.

Sissy Spacek was a majorette, cheerleader, and homecoming queen at her own high school. In real life, she was more like Sue or Chris Hargenson than Carrie White.

I always found that pretty funny.

All actors want to make their characters, however horrible, into the victims, but they have to also remember their character's function in the story. If they're not the lead character and their job is to intimidate the leading character, they had better be threatening.

Piper Laurie gave us just enough vulnerability to make Margaret realistic. You do feel for her a bit knowing her only link to the outside world is her daughter and she's going to lose her thanks to her own horrible parenting. Her big monologue at the end is wonderful. If I'm remembering correctly, they cut that from the TV movie and truncated it significantly for the 2013 version and it didn't work.

Well put, R89. How many times do we hear actors saying they have to “like” their characters in order to play them. Or they feel they’re just “misunderstood”? If you’re playing a bastard or a bitch then just fucking OWN it.

[quote] I remember reading some article that mentioned Melanie Griffith either auditioned or was considered for the Carrie role. That would have been awful.

Melanie Griffith is no P.J. Soles, that's for damn sure.

Didn't P.J. Soles or Amy Irving also audition for the tile role?

P.J. Soles was just an extra who wore the red hat and DePalma noticed her and started giving her lines. I doubt she auditioned for Carrie. Irving probably did. She says in that AMC thing she auditioned for both Carrie and Star Wars but really wanted Leia. (so I'd assume she was considered for Carrie and then given Sue as a consolation.)

I believe Spacek read for Chris too which is hard to picture.

Nancy Allen was the last one cast. She had some prior credits I think so didn't go to the mass audition.

What is this shit about Sue being pregnant in the book? I don't remember anything like that...in fact, I think she gets her period the night of the prom. Maybe she THOUGHT she was pregnant but...no.

And, Tommy is carried out by his friends right before Carrie starts going full berserker mode...that's in the book and the first film...they carry him out with Miss Collins helping and they get him out the door. But, then the movie changes things and Carrie sets her eye on Collins and kills her with the basketball hoop while in the book, Miss Desjardin gets out and survives.

R94 I've seen De Palma's film countless times I'll whilst a group of friends are trying to carrying Tommy out (including Miss Collins) there is no indication that they got out of the building. Carrie had shut all the doors.

It is even mentioned in the dialogue at the very end by Mrs. Snell that everyone, including Tommy being 'gone' which I've always taken as being dead.

I've said this before, but I don't quite get the love for Piper Laurie in this film. She's overacting, chewing the scenery in a way that I don't particularly like. I don't see how people can find her scary, more laughable.

I love this film, I just don't quite get it. Piper Laurie herself said she thought the movie was a comedy and played it as such. Some actors can enjoyable play it 'big', but it just didn't work for me.

[quote]I should've killed myself when he put it in me. After the first time, before we were married, Ralph promised never again. He promised, and I believed him. But sin never dies. Sin never dies. At first, it was all right. We lived sinlessly. We slept in the same bed, but we never did it. And then, that night, I saw him looking down at me that way. We got down on our knees to pray for strength. I smelled the whiskey on his breath. Then he took me. He took me, with the stink of filthy roadhouse whiskey on his breath, and I liked it. I liked it! With all that dirty touching of his hands all over me. I should've given you to God when you were born, but I was weak and backsliding, and now the devil has come home. We'll pray.

R96, Somehow I can’t really imagine Julianne Moore performing those lines in quite the same way.

Seriously.

The slo-mo prom sequence is a feat of brilliant cinematic mise en scene. The gradual apprehension of what's going to happen to Carrie via Sue's POV - how Miss Collins interprets what Sue is seeing (she thinks Sue is getting jealous at Tommy kissing Carrie) and how those two elements tragically collide, Chris smiling diabolically with those moist white teeth - watching Collins drag Sue out as she tries to tell her what is about to happen. And Pino Donaggio's score under-girding everything so beautifully.

I have watched that scene hundreds of times. It's genius. Nothing in any of the remakes comes close to the sublime composition of this

I'll stick with the musical version. Kill the pig!

My first job when I was a teenager on the 70s was an usher at a movie theater that showed it. Our instructions were to open up the doors when the credits started to roll. It was easy to know when it was time to open the doors during Carrie because of the audience screaming at the end when Sue’s arm got grabbed.

OP, congratulations! 100 replies. Just like I predicted way up thread.

Maybe they should reboot the movie with Carrie BRADSHAW as the bullied teen.

All right, who else thinks Miss Collins was a big ol' carpet-muncher?

[quote] I've seen De Palma's film countless times I'll whilst a group of friends are trying to carrying Tommy out (including Miss Collins)

Say whaaaaat?

Some cable channel should do a live version of the musical for TV.

In the commentary, De Palma says he was going to cut Margaret's last speech (read it above) before they even shot it. Piper Laurie was disappointed, because she had really worked on it, so De Palma agreed to shoot it as a favor to her (though he tells us he still planned to cut it). And then, everybody was flabbergasted by how great Piper was, and it remains in the film.

[quote]everybody was flabbergasted by how great Piper was

And I'm still flabbergasted as to why people think it's so great. I know this is a me problem, no one else agrees with me, but I just can't see what others see in her performance.

R107 How many times have you seen Carrie? Twice, at most? (just guessing by your lack of enthusiasm).

I suspect most of the posters here have seen it anywhere from 10 to over 100 times, (at least parts of it). I'm guilty of that. I remember the first time I saw it. Although I was totally committed in my love of the film, and suspected it might become one of my all-time favorites, (which it did!), my initial reaction to Piper Laurie was that she was a bit over-the-top and should have been reigned it. Over time, for me at least, her performance moves closer and closer to perfection.

^^To add, if you've ever met a religious zealot, or watched 15 minutes of The 700 Club, they ARE larger-than-life and over-the-top people. Many are highly delusional. They have to be to accept some of the things about their faith. Laurie nails it.

R109 I think that's what made her performance so effective and chilling. There are people like that in real life, very mentally ill, desperately clutching on to religion. And yes, they are often anything but low key. Generally, the more religious someone is, the crazier they are.

R108, I've seen Carrie probably 10-12 times. I'm not unenthusiastic for the film, I actually love it and thinks it's great, I just always feel a bit of second hand embarrassment with Piper Laurie comes onto the screen.

Laurie's Margaret White was over the top on the big screen but her performance is perfect for TV viewing.

Piper did a great job portraying a narcissistic religious fundamentalist mother. Evangelicalism is over-the-top, nothing is nuanced. It's all fear, paranoia, shame and mind games. Very black-and-white in perspective.

[quote] It's all fear, paranoia, shame and mind games. Very black-and-white in perspective.

It's like that with most extremists. But I've also known Born Again people who were much more reserved and weren't constantly trying to proselytize others or damning everyone else to hellfire. And I work with a Fundamentalist (snakes and all) and she keeps it to herself. It may be old-fashioned, but I still think religion (along with politics and sex) is something not to be discussed in casual conversation.

I'l add that Piper always felt very real to me in the same way Faye Dunaway felt real in her big Mommie Dearest freakouts. I can remember seeing angry religious family members lose it and both of those performances capture that crazed, "do I laugh or do I scream?" type of behavior. Upon first glance, my first instinct was always to laugh because they're acting like something so tiny is this horrible tragedy, but you know that if you do they might lash out and go even crazier.

I think Piper's passion is what's missing from both Patricia Clarkson and Julianne Moore's performances. You could tell that Piper's Margaret enjoyed her religion and it was really the only thing she had. The others almost seemed like it was something they were born into and could have been victims themselves. Like it was the only thing they ever knew and they passed it on to their daughter. In the book, it's clear that Margaret's parents weren't like this, but she found her own version of crazy religion by herself. Piper's performance would track with that.

The scene where Margaret is eating dinner with Carrie, "eat your apple cake"; when Carrie's been punished and is in the small room in the attic, you see Margaret's look of genuine concern when Carrie deliberately shatters the mirror. For an over-the-top performance, these are subtle nuances that show Margaret genuinely loves her daughter. The way she sings a religious hymm while sewing, she's ecstatic in her happiness. Delusional, yet genuine. And when Carrie is getting dressed in her prom gown and her mother is going crazy begging her to stay home, she is genuinely terrified. She knows something is very wrong, and she turns out be right. Ironically, it's Piper Laurie's subtle choices that really make the performance.

You guys are really going to make me watch Carrie again (no hard task hehe) and pay more attention to Laurie's performance, re the way you guys are seeing it. I'd really love to see what everyone else sees in it. So thanks :)

Love the the scene where Carrie tells Margaret she has been asked to go to the prom. Piper Laurie's reaction was brilliant. She very so slightly tilts her head and says 'Prom' in a manner which sounds in like she doesn't even know what 'prom' means but we the audience know that she damn well knows what 'prom' means and that she is going to flip out - which she does. Brilliant moment.

That little lighting strike right after she says "prom?" is so great. You just know the shit's about to hit the fan.

Always been one of my favorites, in a movie full of great ones, R119.

As to the person who doesn’t like Piper’s performance: maybe just accept that you’re deficient in this one way, and come to peace with it.

The way Laurie says "They're all gonna laugh at you" and then it's repeated in Carrie's frozen hypnotic state is chilling yet prophetic.

R121 Plug it up. Plug it up. Plug it up.

[quote]As to the person who doesn’t like Piper’s performance: maybe just accept that you’re deficient in this one way, and come to peace with it.

Goodness me, you sure are touchy. Says quite a bit, how needlessly defensive you are over a difference of opinion on a performance in a movie...

Bump

One of the performances I really enjoy in this movie is Betty Buckley. She plays Miss Collins like there's this barely concealed rage underneath her at all times, there's such a physicality to her. Like she's liable to fly off the handle. When she grabs Sue's arm in the locker room scene and shakes her, you can feel her fingers digging into Amy Irving's arm. The slaps she gives to Carrie and Chris, the way she grabs that random girls hair when she's screaming over Tommy Ross' body. It makes it all the more believable that she was able to grab Sue and drag her out of the room without Sue being able to communicate what she saw underneath the stage.

Great analysis r125. Yeah, she's got that ever-so-slightly butch front that makes her a formidable character. I think that may be one of the reasons why it's so shocking when Carrie kills her - in addition to the kindness she showed her.

Yes, especially when Carrie is Prom Queen and Miss Collins is clapping with a broad grin on her face as if to say “Good for you, Carrie, good for you, at least it’s not any of those other bitches.”

Because Miss Collins laughed at her along with everyone else…

I think Betty had that rage in real life r125. She admits to having an "attitude" at the time that DePalma thought was amusing.

Amy Irving says that she used to carpool with Amy and told her all sorts of personal stuff which Betty than used in the scenes where she dresses down Sue and the other girls.

Nancy Allen has joked that Travolta had trouble hitting her in the face. But Betty had no trouble belting her many times in many takes.

that was in Carrie's head r128 only Norma actually laughs.

Yeah, exactly. I watched the prom scene last night again and you clearly see it's just Norma (and the two boys that helped her) who start laughing. The couple who met Tommy and Carrie at the prom are clearly not impressed, the guy looks disgusted at Norma. Then you switch to Carrie's view, and both he and his date are laughing at her too. It was clearly all in her head, sparked off by the prank and her mother's warning.

[quote] I think Betty had that rage in real life [R125].

Agreed. I assumed that was just Betty being Betty. She'll cut a bitch.

OP are you 34 or under? Clearly you weren't in high school when the '76 version came out. And clearly everyone who has chimed in championing it was. Or almost everyone. Was I? Yes. As I said a few years back on IMDB during the Message Boards Era, "Why bother with the remakes and sequels? You cannot remake perfection."

Mrs. White had psychic ability too but suppressed it. From an early scene right after she gets the phone call from the principal's office: "I know you're listening."

From an earlier poster who mentioned Carrie and Miss Collins both looking in the girl's gym mirror, I always thought the take away from that scene is that Miss Collins is actually looking at herself and not Carrie.

Fun prom scene fact: the gay english teacher—Mr. Morton, was that his name?— and the lesbian P.E. teacher Miss Collins are hanging together. Sounds about right to me.

My favorite movie of all time, and I could go on and on, but too much other stuff going on and it's already 9:30.

I was way too young to have seen this in theater but I still recognize it for the masterpiece it is. This was the gateway flick for me as a teenager, that eventually led me to so many other levels of cinema ...first all of De Palma filmography, then 70s cinema in general, then European and arthouse. I'm not joking -it all started with Carrie. HA

R133 Margaret had no abilities

R135 if she didn't then why did she say "They're gonna laugh at you!" Because she already knew. And why did she say to Carrie "you must renounce this power, you must never use it." Because that's what she was doing.

And her death scene, didn't you get a psychic vs. psychic vibe?

Margaret White's death scene in the 2002 version was lame and bad cgi, despite it being true to the novel (Carrie stops her heart)

Flying knives coming at Piper Laurie is the Cherry on a fucked up Sundae.

How did Julianne Moore's Margaret White die in the 2013 version? I saw it in the theater when it came out but I swear I don't even remember a thing.

no r133 the mirror scene is the end of the talk she has with Carrie about how she has to stop being so down on herself. She tells her she's a pretty girl. Put you hair up. Maybe some lipstick. She wants to build up Carrie's self-esteem. (she's become obsessed with doing that because as she says to the principal she felt a bit guilty (as did Sue) about the incident in the shower because a part of her just wanted to shake Carrie. She fells guilty for her bit of anger at Carrie.)

She tries to make Carrie happy about Tommy Ross asking her to the prom but as she thinks about it more she starts to worry about what Sue and Tommy are doing (hence the scene where she brings them into her office to grill them.)

I never thought Margret was psychic. She knows Carrie is listening just because there has been that incident at school and she figures Carrie would be worried about the school calling.

She tells Carrie to renounce the power not because she is psychic but because she sees what Carrie can do and assumes its the devil.

(That is one thing that the movie omits from the book. Margret has seen Carrie use the power before when she was a toddler. Toddler's get mad with Carrie stuff flies around the room when she had a tantrum. Margret has been driven crazy out of guilt because she thinks her having Carrie out of wedlock caused the whole thing to happen and allowed Satan to "work thru her." She's beaten Carrie down to such a pulp that Carrie has no energy for anger. When she starts to get mad things start moving (like the ash tray in the principal's office.) That's why she goes to the library and looks up miracles. (I love that scene too. Smart kids secretly learning about themselves in a library. One thing I think gay kids can relate to---although now they have the internet. Not that long ago you had to use the card catalogue etc.)

Margaret told Carrie they would all laugh at her as one of her tactics to get Carrie to stay at home and not go to the prom. It had nothing to do with psychic ability as far as I can see.

The 2002 made for tv movie was odd because it lifted scenes and shots from the original movie. Not all of it, but enough to make watching it a weird experience.

R139 - What's a library?

[quote] Margaret told Carrie they would all laugh at her as one of her tactics to get Carrie to stay at home and not go to the prom. It had nothing to do with psychic ability as far as I can see.

I saw Margaret's warning as both projection and fear for her daughter, whom I imagine Margaret weirdly loved. I think it taps into the over protective instinct most adults (not just parents) have about children.

They should have had Margaret give her big I liked it I liked it speech while she was dying after she got nailed to the wall with the knives.

Absolutely R143, I got the feeling there was love in there too.

There was certainly love between Carrie and Margaret. A fucked up, destructive kind of love, but it was definitely there. I always remember the scene where Carrie is let out of the closet at night and Margaret says "you can go to bed now" and they share that little kiss. It's a somewhat sweet moment. Carrie seems like a 5 year old and you can tell there's most definitely love there. It's also probably the reason why Carrie doesn't immediately start throwing knives at Margaret the minute after she's stabbed. She wants to keep hoping she won't have to kill her own mother. Her reaction after she's killed her and she rips the knife off and lets out that scream always breaks my heart.

[quote] Margret has been driven crazy out of guilt because she thinks her having Carrie out of wedlock caused the whole thing to happen and allowed Satan to "work thru her."

She wasn’t conceived out of wedlock. Margaret and Ralph (that’s the father’s name in the book at least) were so fucked up religiously they tried to live as a married couple without having sex at all. In the book the father has died but was as religiously nuts as Margaret. The movie says he ran off with another woman. Margaret thinks Carrie is evil simply because of the sex act that created her.

The speech Piper Laurie delivers before stabbing Carrie is almost word for word from the book, but in the book she says “all that dirty fucking” instead of “all that dirty touching.” I always wondered if Piper didn’t want to use the F word or if there were just limitations on using that word in film back in the 70s

I think "touching" is less funny than "fucking." Picturing her saying that would probably elicit a lot of laughs.

A big reason, for me at least, that the De Palma movie works so perfectly is because there’s no CGI. The bloodbath at the prom and Carrie killing her mother are masterful examples.

In the book (and alluded to in the movie): Margaret and Ralph met at a crazy person church. They got together and "gave into temptation" once before they were married. Margaret got pregnant and lost the baby. Whether it was an accident or if she caused it, ambiguous. They got married and "lived sinlessly" for awhile. One night the temptation grew too strong and Ralph raped her, but she loved it. Carrie is conceived. In the book, Ralph dies in a work accident early on in the pregnancy. In the movie, he runs off with a woman (timing unclear).

[quote] Goodness me, you sure are touchy. Says quite a bit, how needlessly defensive you are over a difference of opinion on a performance in a movie...

Sorry, that was supposed to be a joke.

[quote] in the book she says “all that dirty fucking”

Ugh, that would’ve been awful in the movie. First of all, Stephen King used way, way too much profanity in his books. And I don’t say that because I’m a prude (AT ALL), or because I don’t say ‘fuck’ all the time myself (I do). He just goes overboard with it. Like he’s trying to be as crude/funny/outrageous as possible with all his vulgarities. The book of Dolores Claiborne was like that—the stuff Delores’s husband says to her is just beyond. Stand By Me is much the same.

Second, “dirty fucking” is totally out of character for Margaret. I haven’t read the book in ages so I don’t know if she uses profanity like that elsewhere, but in the movie version she certainly doesn’t.

CGI is almost always terrible in films, even when done well (it strikes me that to make it look good these days, the rest of the film needs to look slightly unreal, if that makes sense). I much prefer practical effects. Even when not entirely believable, I find they work better.

R151, that's ok. I'm sorry I wasn't able to pick up on that before I responded.

Totally agree, R153.

Although CGI was around—in its *very earliest* days in the mid 70s— there would’ve been no need for it in Carrie anyway. I take it it was used in one of the remakes or something? (Referring to R149).

[quote] Second, “dirty fucking” is totally out of character for Margaret. I haven’t read the book in ages so I don’t know if she uses profanity like that elsewhere, but in the movie version she certainly doesn’t.

Well that was the point to show how far gone she was. For her to use such a vulgar phrase was shocking and out of character. It added to the tension of the scene because you realize she’s gone completely over the edge and you don’t know what she’s capable of doing to Carrie.

[quote]She wasn’t conceived out of wedlock.

r147

In her big speech Margret says "I should've killed myself when he put it in me. After the first time, before we were married, Ralph promised never again."

I always thought (in the film maybe not the book) that Carrie was conceived that night and that's where her guilt comes from. "I should have given you to God when you were born." She always felt she had to kill Carrie to save her but she was "weak and backsliding."

(btw I never knew backsliding was a religious term. I used it to a supervisor at my first real job. She said (pleased) I can see you go to church. (Her husband was a minister.) I guess I got it from Margret!

It was the 70s and this was an R rated movie. Swearing was part of most R rated movies.

All the swearing in the film was left to Chris & Billy.

Yes r158 it was the 70s and that's why the opening title sequence made the final cut. It is beautifully realized, and, much like Carrie and Tommy's ascent to the prom stage just before it all went south, shot in slo-mo just to make the scene last longer so you can savor it. All of the lead girls are in it and placed so that the music cues fall on the most relevant girls.

It's dreamy soft-core porn at some level—tits AND bush—and would never be seen in an big studio release these days.

I've heard people complain about the opening scene being sexist or whatever, but I think it's brilliant - just think of all those people watching it that first time, not thinking anything unusual because of that very typical 70s sexual type thing, the music and everything, and how shocking it would've been to suddenly see blood dripping down Carrie's leg and it turn into the horrific bullying scene. It was totally intentionaly done to disturb, and I think it's really effective at that. It's almost like saying to the boys watching: "this is what you think it's like in the women's locker room... think again!"

Great point, r161. I never thought of it that way but it makes sense

I also wondered why DiPalma made the gym teacher laugh at Carrie when the pig's blood was dropped.

R163 Because it was from Carrie's point of view - that everybody was in on it but they weren't. Carrie only imaged Miss Collin's was laughing.

If you watch the pig blood drop closely the part where everybody is laughing (as opposed to the previous scene where Norma is the only one laughing) you can see how there is a small circle in the middle that Carrie is seeing people laugh at her and then like a kaleidoscope spinning around her on the outside.

It simulates tunnel vision which is a real physical phenomenon that happens to be people in traumatic situations. The vision narrows and they have no peripheral vision.

Jennifer didn't act like she had telekinesis.

[quote]It simulates tunnel vision which is a real physical phenomenon that happens to be people in traumatic situations.

I had an anxiety attack at work once, and I remember standing in the bathroom, and only being able to see a small circle in front of me, surrounding by a cloudy black circle, similar to the gun barrel sequence in a James Bond film. So it's really interesting to hear you say this, because I found it to be so.

R166 - [quote] Did I miss something?

Yes, about 50 years of cinema.

r167 if you watch the beginning of Sybil you'll see at Joanne Woodward's first appearance in the movie she is holding her hands up to the side of Sybil and wiggling her figures and slowly moving them in. She's asking if she can see them now. Sybil must have complained to the ER doctor that she couldn't see right. Later on in the film they discuss her tunnel vision as a common symptom.

oh and glad to be of help r167!

I love it when other tv shows make in-joke references to Carrie that only fans of the movie watching would get. Like in That 70s Show, when Hyde has dressed up in a tux to take Jackie to the senior prom, as he's leaving we hear his (never seen) mother scream at him "They're all gonna laugh at you".

I laughed very hard.

So many films and TV shows reference Carrie.

Looking, Never Been Kissed, Superstar all come to mind. Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978) was the first to do so I think.

I love Superstar's parody with Evian dumping blue paint on Mary Katherine Gallagher. I also remember the soap opera Passions did a Carrie inspired storyline with them dumping fish guts on Charity.

Did anyone notice that Charity smelled different after the fish guts? Or did she not?

The Rage: Carrie 2 is so annoying. It sort of worked for a bit then fell apart.

I especially hate how they just kill off Amy Irving's Sue Snell character. It's interesting that she is haunted by what happened and has become a guidance counselor. Then they just waste it by having her pound on the door again but this time get a spear thru the head. It would have been cool if she was the lone survivor again.

(How did the movie end anyway? I forget.)

From the Clueless soundtrack, Jill Sobule's "Supermodel" has a great Carrie-themed video

R175 Rachel burned to death. Her love interest went off to to college and had her dog with him.

The remake is on AMC right now. Such a CGI mess.

Another Carrie reference: I'm watching the most recent episode of The Morning Show. Julianna Margulies character, Laura Peterson, is arriving back at the first anchor job she had years ago, having been asked to temporarily fill in. Her response "It's like Carrie being asked to speak at the high school reunion". The assistant meeting her responds "They're not gonna laugh at you!".

The best thing about the Carrie remake was the advertising gimmick.

They put out a phone number in the ads like Call Carrie.

On the phone you'd hear a realistic sounding Carrie answer with hello? who is this? And then Julianne Moore would come in and demand Carrie who are you talking to and pull the phone away from her. Then there was a struggle and fight you'd listen in on.

It was kind of spooky because the way they had Moretz answer the phone it really threw you. You really felt you were talking to a live person.

I loved the idea upthread. HBO's Sex and the City reboot should instead be a Carrie remake, with Carrie Bradshaw having tampons thrown at her and getting soaked in pigs' blood.

I made a Carrie reference to someone, a professional in the film industry (though, mainly commericials) who is a Millennial around 32 or so and he didn't get it.

His excuse was the feeble "Oh...that movie came out before I was born."

And, MANY millennials make this excuse about not knowing stuff and I always say, "that's a stupid excuse. EVERYTHING happened before you were born. Why are you proud you don't know anything?"

R182 I'm 33 and have seen Carrie more times than I can count. I went to the 40th Anniversary Prom screening with the cast in Downtown LA.

Thanks for your idiotic ageist comment though

LOL....you can't be ageist against the young.

And, I'm speaking of my own experience. I've had MULTIPLE people under the age of 40 say this shit to me. Does that mean ALL people born after 1980 are that stupid? No.

Just quite a few.

The thing is every film and more so all the stars who starred in them will be forgotten as time goes on.

r185 Why do you think that?

Adam & Eve and Moses and Joseph and his colorful coat are stories that have been around a few thousand years. And, Oedipus and Medea and Jason and the Argonauts.

Romeo & Juliet and MacBeth and Hamlet are 400+ years old.

Films are just stories. Stories with pictures. Unless the technology to watch them goes away, why would the great film stories be forgotten?

R186 I feel that because films take time to watch. I concede that some films are going to watched a hell of a lot longer than most but it will be a very small number.

The thing about some plays is that have stood the test of time so will remain popular as people continue to perform them but not all film adaptations of those best known and most loved Shakespear plays will be remembered.

Either way, I hope Carrie continues to hook in new younger fans. Back in 2001 De Palma himself was surprised that the film has such a big fanbase and that was 25 years after the film. He said he knew he had made a good effective film but expressed surprise that it was still so highly regarded. I think it has an even bigger fan base than it did in 2001 because of the internet but I don't think it will last forever.

[quote] you can't be ageist against the young.

R184 - Whaaaa? Of course you can.

No one ever knows a film they've made will have an impact 40+ years later. Even films that open at #1 and make tons of money at the time can fade away after a few years and people forget about them. Look at Avatar. That movie made more money than you can imagine and no one even talks about it or remembers it much these days. Little small movies that make 50 bucks in theaters can go on to develop rapid fanbases as the years go on. It's the beautiful thing about film. It never dies and just keeps getting rediscovered.

I think what helped Carrie were repeat airings on TV and video. These things have done more for the longevity of movies than anything else. TV was where I first discovered it as a kid. I suppose these days, you just have to hope your film ends up on one of the big streaming sites like Netflix.

Interesting r189 the TV version is so heavily edited—at least from years ago, not sure about now—yet it still has its impact.

And who really had the last laugh? Carrie White. The black sheep, the oddballs, the ones on the sidelines and so on embrace Carrie because she did what they wanted to do when they were bullied or publicly humiliated: she got revenge, never more sweet. And if anyone else on here can say that years ago they related to 100% to Carrie but eventually they realized their goal/wish/dream of relating more to Tommy Ross, welcome to the club.

The fake steam in the locker room scene is hilarious

The DePalma directed Carrie film is a beloved Oscar nominated horror film classic and adaptation of Stephen King's first published novel (under his name). I don't think it's going to "vanish" from Pop Culture for a very long time.

It still has a mystique about it that teens still want to see it when they are old enough. (and they get really excited by it. They can still relate.)

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And Eve Was Weak on youtube from the musical is pretty amazing. The one with the original cast Betty Buckley and Linzi Hately. Buckley is phenomenal and probably the only one who played Margaret well besides Laurie.

The rest of the musical is odd and even the long awaited revival with Marin Mazzie is kind of flat. She tries to make Margaret sympathetic too and the director was spouting stuff at the time that Margaret is a victim too.

Had Carrie run longer, I'm positive Buckley would have a Tony for her performance. No one will ever sing that score the way she did. Even on a crappy soundboard recording, her power comes through. She and Hately both got raves, but they also had the best material to work with. Even the reworked versions fall short when the show moves away from Carrie and Margaret and back to the kids.

The newfangled psychological interpretations of Margaret that make her out to be as much of a victim as Carrie are ridiculously boring and need to go. It makes the story feel lopsided and lacking danger. Margaret is the real villain of the story and the actor playing her has to remember that and not get too carried away in trying to make the audience like them.

R196 I'll drink to that.

Buckley should have been nominated anyway. That was like the worse year in Tony history.

I guess the show never got around to inviting Tony voters. (odd since other short runs, even one performance shows have been nominated.) The rules change so much though I guess you have to look at the rules for that particular year.

Buckley's acting is amazing. That little coda at the end of the song when she comes downstage. Wow. Just the way she gets so quiet and then the religiosity takes over and she goes back to belting. (plus I always thought the music there is sort of a homage to the music at the end of the film when Sue wakes up. Same cacophony of sound.

both versions are on Sundance TV Monday back to back. (at least according to my dvr. last time it turned out to be the new one repeated twice.) Should have been for Halloween.

Halloween almost 40 years ago. My best girlfriend put on her old prom dress, we covered it with some red sticky solution that resembles blood, (I think it's called caro syrup?) and she went as Carrie. I dress in all black just so I could carry a huge boom box with the speakers amped up playing Piper Laurie's voice taunting "They're all gonna laugh at you" on loop. It took me over an hour with a cassette to record it off a vhs tape over and over and over again. Every 30 minutes I had to press eject to I could flip the cassette over.

Those were the days.

I remember seeing a little kids movie and they showed the trailer for Carrie. It stayed with me for years. I'd be afraid to run home at dinner time in the winter from the house next door because I'd think Carrie was in the bushes. (I didn't know she was a sympathetic character.)

love that story r200!

The problem with Carrie The Musical is the fact you have two story threads going on, Carrie and her Mother, and then Carrie and the High School Kids.

The Carrie and her Mother plays like some terrific Greek Tragedy/opera and the mother/daughter scenes and the songs they perform are great.

The scenes with Carrie and the HS kids play like an especially stupid version of Grease with stupid songs. It also fails to create believable or interesting characters for the other kids in the show...they're all just mean high school kids and Sue trying to be nice.

Every time the musical cuts to the bad high school stuff, you impatiently wait to get back to the terrific Carrie/Mother scenes.

r202 I'm sure you've heard this but in case you didn't.

Terry Hands the director was told it's like Grease by someone (in regards to the high school kids.) He thought they meant Greece the country and ancient Greek drama. Hence the huge staircase at the end.

The staircase is so odd. You'd think somebody (Buckley at least) would have said why the hell is there a huge white staircase in Carrie's house suddenly?

Something I just realized....amazingly, pretty much the entire cast of Carrie is still with us except for Stefan Gierasch and Sydney Lassick as the principal and the bitchy English teacher.

And, having just mentioned this, I've probably just doomed Priscilla Pointer (who is 97!) and Piper Laurie. So, apologies to both.

And, Edie McClurg is two years older than Betty Buckley!

This drag parody sounds like utter shit.

R203 LOL...I don't buy that Greece/Grease story but it's not any crazier than any of the artistic choices they made on that original production, so who knows?

Marin Mazzie's version of And Eve Was Week is so bizarre. They have her (or she decided, who knows) take a breath after each phrase of the song's finally. It totally loses all the steam Buckley brought to the song's climax.

Raja's bucket-o'-blood runway from Drag Race S3

It's a wonder a porn parody hasn't been made yet.

Edie McClurg looked ludicrous as a high school student.

R204 - Convinced that both Laurie and McClurg had passed, I went to check on this. You're right, they're still kicking. McClurg is only 71 anyway. But, I just found out that Pointer is also the mother of Amy Irving. Ha! I had no idea.

Carrie: The Musical has the same problem as Sunset Boulevard. Every time they leave those oppressive houses and venture out into the world, it's boring. The material for the kids in Carrie is sucky and the material for Joe and co. in Sunset Boulevard is equally sucky.

How come no network has ever attempted a Carrie sitcom?

Tonight's episode: Carrie is flustered when she believes a nasty drawing pinned to her locker was left by Sue but the dirty deed was actually the work of Chris Hargenson. Mayhem ensues!

Wasn't that the original intention of the early 00s TV movie, sorta, R213? They were going to turn it into a TV series afterwards. Not sure what was going to happen, exactly - Carrie and Sue fighting crime? But it never came off.

Can't wait for this release. Love the music

I wish the 1976 version showed the entire town being murdered/killed by Carrie, like the book. That'd be the best date movie.

[quote]Wasn't that the original intention of the early 00s TV movie, sorta, [R213]? They were going to turn it into a TV series afterwards. Not sure what was going to happen, exactly - Carrie and Sue fighting crime? But it never came off.

I read in some article that Sue wasn't going to be in the TV series and that was why there was mention of her only being able to take Carrie to Florida before she had to return home. The TV series was supposed to be Carrie interacting with telekinetic people.

[quote] if she didn't then why did she say "They're gonna laugh at you!" Because she already knew. And why did she say to Carrie "you must renounce this power, you must never use it." Because that's what she was doing.

Something out of nothing. Just like the poster on the Drop Dead Gorgeous thread.

Side-by-side-by-side comparison of the three versions:

I think the TV series was going to be like The Fugitive.

If you watch that version Carrie doesn't know what she is doing. She goes into like a trance and the stuff just happens. So technically she didn't really murder anyone like in the other versions. I think it was going to be her trying to clear her name.

I just guested that from the series. No inside info. I thought Sue would go with her to help since she was sort of responsible too. I didn't know about the stuff r217 added.

Notice that 2002 just LIFTS shots from 1976. It's crazy. How lazy. Whatever you think of the latest version, at least it was more original than the 2002 version.

R221 2013 lifted so much from 1976 that the 1976 screenwriter got a credit!

Back in 1976, I was sharpening my hatchet for Stephen King over this crappy. unauthorized biography. He didn't even *mention* temperance!

I have to share this. I know many of us (me included) don't like reaction videos, but I was watching this last night and really enjoyed it, laughing all the way through. I shared another one of her videos on the Halloween thread. A lot of fun. She enjoys the movies, while making very funny comments.

R224 Nothing about these reaction videos are true. Not the first time they're watching and everything is rehearsed. Fake! Fake! Fake!

She's still funny though, even if that's true.

[quote]Nothing about these reaction videos are true. Not the first time they're watching and everything is rehearsed. Fake! Fake! Fake!

To give this woman, Alanda, her due, she has a playlist devoted to her reactions to movies she's already seen (like Alien). She seems pretty honest about it. Like the Cinema Rules guys, they will always say when they have seen one of the movies before.

I saw the RSC version of Carrie The Musical before and it was probably too dated for the time but would have a nice following now. “Do Me A Favor” is retro chic 80’s.

The revamped Carrie just took any interest there is in the show out of it. Good songs are removed and bad songs are added. It went from New Wave pop to generic musical theater. And the most egregious is that they got cold feet about Carrie as a sympathetic lead so they spinelessly hand the main arc to Sue.

I’d love to see someone stage a revival with the original score and orchestrations, set it back in 1988, and just lean into it/

Sin never dies.

Oh my GOD. I just happened to have the Julianne Moore version on just now (seriously!) and I've never seen the beginning of it. They show Margaret giving birth to her and Margaret nearly kills her with scissors to the head.

DaFUQ!

That's one of the elements they brought back in from the novel R230. One of the very few moments that stays from the skeleton of the De Palma film. According to some, there was a test screening that was much closer in structure to the novel with courtroom scenes, found footage, and lots of deleted scenes but only a few of them made it to the DVD/Blu-Ray.

I found the direction overly gimmicky, which lends the whole thing a camp vibe that doesn't really work.