Carrie by Stephen King

JetBlackDragonfly

Oct 13, 2023

3 min read

Updated: 1 day ago

Carrie White is a naïve seventeen-year-old high school student who lives alone with her fanatically religious mother. Overweight and unattractive, she is constantly taunted by her classmates, which the teachers hesitate to stop, silently agreeing with the kids. No one has taught her about becoming a woman, so when her first period occurs in the gym showers, the girls pick on her and call her names. Her mother is known in town as a fundamentalist, and most people avoid them. In their house, she conducts religious services three times a week for herself and Carrie, and is constantly praying for the devil to leave her sinful daughter—her overreaction to the power of a teenager discovering herself. But Carrie is discovering a talent for telekinesis and practices moving objects with the power of her mind.

With the Prom coming up, one of the popular girls feels genuine remorse for the way they have treated Carrie, and asks her boyfriend to take Carrie instead of her. The invitation sincere, they do enjoy the lights and dancing and are even voted King and Queen. Teenagers can be cruel though, and before the night is over, Carrie will have been pushed over her limit, unleashing her pent up fury.

Brian DePalma's excellent film Carrie adapted this for film, and it was much improved. The novel is told in a semi-documentary style—jumping back and forth from Carrie's school days to newspaper and TV reports looking back on prom night, to excerpts from several books written about the event. The momentum never built, the story always undercut—although anyone bullied or who found no place to fit in as a teenager in school will find the theme palpable. It's very satisfying to watch Carrie's revenge and a vicarious pleasure at locking everyone in the gym as it burns to the ground. While the film centered on Carrie's rage, the novel has her leave the building to watch from outside, then cause trouble in town. Sure, the damage was more widespread, but the intimacy of her power was lost as the night takes over 30 pages to describe, whereas the film used split screens to intensify. Kudos to King for creating these solid characters, but the technique of compiling reference sources to tell their story didn't work for me.

This just made me want to watch the film again. A superb score by the great Pino Donaggio, and Piper Laurie was deservedly nominated for an Oscar.

Carrie the film went on to have a sequel, a 2013 remake, and an infamous Broadway musical adaptation in 1988 - with music by the team from Fame and choreographed by Debbie Allen, it lasted a four-week tryout before opening on Broadway to mixed cheers and boos (and standing ovations opening night), but despite sold-out tickets, the reviews were scathing and the show closed after five performances, making it one of the most expensive flops in theatre history.

1974 / Paperback / 245 pages