carrie prom scene analysis

Not affiliated with Harvard College. Accessed 1 May 2023. Carrie goes home to face her mother, who believed she got possessed by Satan. After all, mothers dont like to their daughters. Whoever the author.Discover new and exciting books to dive into with our Book Explorer Tool. 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. In contrast to DePalma's version, Carrie's mom seems less a standard-issue, frothing-at-the-mouth "religious nut" movie character than a mentally ill single mom, eking out a living as a seamstress and dry cleaner. Its incredibly satisfying: poignant but not too pat. Actually, its worth noting Carrie spares Sue that fright. AndKing is careful to showhow much easier that makes it for people (and potentially even the reader) to marginalize her and to accept the brutal, dehumanizing treatment of her. By ending with this reference de Palma aligns Carrie with these psychopaths, recasts Carrie simply as a creature haunting Sues unconscious. The movie was directed by Brian De Palma in 1976, but . Telekinesis is an ability that Carrie had from childhood. King also ensures that Carrie isnt an angel. Your email address will not be published. This adaptation was intended as a backdoor pilot for an ongoing. Carrie 's climactic scene (which runs a little over 20 minutes in its entirety) follows the title character, socially naive outcast Carrie (Sissy Spacek), as she goes to her first school. had a famously troubled production and post-production. Sue is drawn to the high school by a strange sense of premonitory dread, suggesting a psychic link between the two girls. 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. America's foremost auteur-prankster, De Palma seems to be teasingly punishing our bloodlust. Later, Miss Desjardin punishes the girls who bullied Carrie. It happens almost entirely inside a teenage girls head, a place we know Hollywood is often reluctant to go. With Julianne Moore, Chlo Grace Moretz, Gabriella Wilde, Portia Doubleday. 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 It establishes a connection between the two girls and gives Sue a voice to tell their stories. I'm going to analyse a scene from Brian De Palma's Carrie. Long before the blood arrived. Sue tries to meet Carrie by following her telepathic message. Carrie faced the torture of adapting to an overzealously religious mother and terrible classmates. Stephen King, on publication, admitted thatCarriewas a feminist novel. The universal agreement seems to be the story is about a repressed young girl blossoming into womanhood with a vengeance. The editing also manages to showcase Carries telekinetic powers with minimal use of special effects. Carrie White is, famously, a victim of bullying and abuse, but in Kings hands she isnt a perfect victim. When. Curiously, for such a secular movie, this "Carrie" lends Biblical significance to every blood drop spilled. The story of Carrie, has been enshrined in pop culture as a fairly straightforward horror story, a quite literal bloodbath. 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. 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. Sue remains firm. And she is bad to not just Carrie. A weekly newsletter focusing on literature by and about people of color! Carrie gets a measure of peace, dying knowing that at least someone didnt mean to hurt her. The sequence was filmed, but the effect of the rocks did not result in De Palma's liking, so the ending was changed. 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. This is tragedy. Carrie had some kind of power. Sue, one of the girls who laughed at Carrie, tries to atone by telling her boyfriend Tommy to ask Carrie to prom. Carrie cant seem to turn around without stumbling over Chris Hargensen: The catcall came first from Chris Hargensen., Chris Hargensen called up after school from the Kelly Fruit Company downtown and asked her if she knew that pig poop was spelled C-A-R-R-I-E., She cant get away with it! In the final scene of Pierces theatrical cut, Sue is interviewed by an investigative committee, the only extant footage of the White Commission. Original sin is never far from its mind. The film that resulted after excessive studio tinkering is much closer to de Palmas movie than Kings novel. 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.". While bathing, Carrie discovers blood oozing out of her body and freaks out; this causes a group of girls to laugh at her and bully her. Its a relatively faithful adaptation of Kings story (at least for the first two-thirds) that focuses entirely on Carries story as it unfolds, eschewing the epistolary aspect of the novel the interviews, textbook excerpts and reports that provide meta-commentary on the events of prom night. Momma had told her there was Something. The reader never learns if Sue Snell marries or joins a country club, but we do know that she wrote a book, a memoir of her account of what happened on prom night that both exonerates her from implication in Chris Hargensens horrific prank and humanizes Carrie. Christine always seems to be around whenever anything bad happens to Carrie when shes away from home. Brian De Palma has forged a reputation as a director who often pays homage to his cinematic idol, Alfred Hitchcock. Carries terror kills hundreds of people. But Kings novel is more than just a pair of bloody bookends. The ending of Carrie saw the death of many characters. Its not an entirely faithful adaptation of the original end of. Its also not Pierces original ending. However, Nancy Allen was already promised the role of Sue Snell, so De Palma cast her as Chris Hargensen instead. However, viewers can spot the optical illusion when a car in the background drives down the street backward. Corn syrup was used for the gallons of pig's blood the bullying teens dump on Carrie during the climax of the movie. "Thanks, Mom. Chris pours pig blood on Carrie, and everyone laughs at her. It is through your support of visiting Book Analysis that we can support charities, such as Teenage Cancer Trust. It is a motif in that you see it quite a bit. The novel ends with an Appalachian woman writing to her sister about her daughter, who exhibited telekinetic powers. When Carrie was released on Blu-Ray, it came with an alternate ending, one of the few pieces of cut footage released to the public. The Female Revenger: Gothic Influence in Stephen Kings Carrie and Gillian Flynns Gone Girl, Emergent Sexuality and Religious Shame: How Stephen King in 'Carrie' and Peter Shaffer in 'Equus' Use Stylistic Features. A primary fault for Carrie being a social reject in her school was her mother, who was a religious fanatic. Stephen Kings choice of fanatical religion as a primary cause for Carries ostracization created a backlash in his book. This version strands the supporting characters between realism and archetype, an awkward spot. In the final pages of the novel, it got revealed that Sue was late on her period; this leads to the conclusion that she was indeed pregnant with Tommys child. The motif of Carrie's life is bullying and so this is also a motif in the book. During her rampage, Carrie was projecting her thoughts into the minds of others, allowing Sue to track her down. So what is it about Kings ending that filmmakers consistently shy away from, no matter how faithfully they adapt the rest of hisnovel? Carrie and Tommy get crowned as prom king and queen. Psychologically, Carrie White (white as a baby's innocence) is a baby going to school with teenagers. Chris is beyond evil. Trying to overrun her, Carrie sends Chriss car flying through a wall, killing them. The film that resulted after excessive studio tinkering is much closer to de Palmas movie than Kings novel. 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? Sue thinks about Carrie almost constantly throughout the novel, but the connection between Sue and Carrie comes to a head at the end. Most significantly, Sue is the only person who willingly opens her mind to Carrie. This kind of horror story suits a spooky or bloody twist ending; it may even demand one. And the shock ending of Kings novel is that just for a moment and far too late she isnt. The gruesome nature of the novel made Stephen King feel disconnected from the main character as he could not fully indulge in Carrie . In the beginning of my section, pages 217 to 290, Carrie is onstage at the prom and just won prom queen. Made by Carrie out of crushed red velvet, her prom dress has a princess waistline, Juliette sleeves, and a simple skirt. In the end, Spacek was placed inside a box at the bottom of a hole in the ground, where she waited for the camera to be set up to film the scene. However, she discovers herself, and her life completely changes. To create a surreal effect, the shot was filmed backward. It is a scenecomprised of telepathic communication. In this scenario it does not matter whether Carrie is conventionally "pretty" or "not pretty." write out a theme statement for Blood in the book. In the final scene of Carries story, Sue finds a wounded, dying Carrie on the road after Carrie has killed her own mother and her tormentors, Chris and Billy. King crafts a lean, chilling, and insightful story that has at its heart a pair of complicated teenage girls who resist easy characterization. Blaming themselves for the incident, Desjardin resigns. These various adapted endings all have their points of interest but its hard to argue with Kings original. Its about the horror of being alone in the dark. It's totally mean. Carrie locks her classmates inside the school and unleashes terror on them by electrocuting and burning them to death. Carrie's original sin was being born. At school she is bullied for her appearance, her general difference to others and of course the very public beginning of her menstruation. Carrie discovers she has the power to move objects with her mind. Sue tells Carrie to go somewhere no one knows her and offers to drive her as far as Florida. She acknowledges that yes, her boyfriend and all of her friends died that night, but she knows what she saw. In de Palmas version of the story, Sue is locked out of the gymnasium just before the bucket of blood drops and does not appear again on screen until after Carrie is dead. Carrieis an exceptional novel whose story got propelled by Stephen King intricately. In the novel, Carrie and her mother lack a healthy mental life. She has telekenesis, the ability to manipulate things without touching them. As Sissy Spacek's unlikely prom queen takes the stage to be crowned, De Palma toys with us to the point of cruelty. After getting pigs blood poured on her, Carrie realized that her life would never change no matter how hard she tried to be happy. But when famed production designer Jack Fisk suggested his wife Sisssy Spacek audition, everything changed. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The diegetic sound (apart from the blood in the bucket) is muted to emphasis the action. It doesnt matter whos innocent or not its the fact that they are laughing. After refusing to adhere to the strict punishment given to her, the bullies leader, Chris, gets prevented from attending prom. Expand Your Bookshelf With These 8 Interstellar Books Like The Expanse, The Best Sci-Fi Spaceships from Across the Galaxies, When Children's Book Authors Don't Like Children's Books, Love & Other Epic Adventures: Science Fiction Romance Books, 10 Bedtime Stories for Adults to Help You Get Some Shut Eye. Director Brian De Palma's 1976 adaptation of Stephen King's debut novel is consistently hailed as one of the greatest horror. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . The scene is then split into two frames; one of De Palma signature trademarks is the use of a split scene. The shot lingers on the hysterical Carrie forcing us to sympathise with her and possibly even ignore her approaching actions. The intention of the editing and sound is to set up tension in the build up to the pigs blood being poured on Carrie. The original ending was restored in the 2013 remake. Their clapping stops and the score slowly distorts into an empty silence, the only diegetic sound present is the dripping of the blood from the bucket. Throughout Carrie's story, she does become more comfortable in her body, and powers, through exploration. In contrast to DePalma's version, Carrie's mom seems less a standard-issue, frothing-at-the-mouth "religious nut" movie character than a mentally ill single mom, eking out a living as a seamstress and dry cleaner. Carries mother forces her into the closet. One overlooked theme in Carrieis mental health. Her story is just beginning. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy, https://bookanalysis.com/stephen-king/carrie/summary/. Getting elected as prom queen was the worst event of Carries sad life as she got forced to experience the brutality of how no one cared about her. She was so cut off from the real world that she thought she was dying after getting her period for the first time. The prom crowd doesn't start lusting after her the moment she walks in. 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. After the incident at prom, Carrie snapped, and that was when all her emotions of hate and revenge came flooding back in. It's on this last point, though, that "Carrie" falters most conspicuouslyand ironically, its failure is a product of its decision to depart from the novel and the first film, but without going far enough. This infantilizing is made clear when her mother fails to tell her about menstruation, her first period being her rite of passage, as it were, into womanhood. RELATED: Every Carrie Movie Ranked, Worst To Best. 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. A state of emergency is declared in Chamberlain as the death toll reaches four hundred people. I. t happens almost entirely inside a teenage girls head, a place we know Hollywood is often reluctant to go. The Question and Answer section for Carrie is a great 40 years ago, Carrie White went to the prom. When Carrie accuses Sue of trying to trick her and forces Sue to experience the depth of Carries pain and misery, Sue offers her mind up to be read: (look carrie look inside me). Carrie sees ugliness in Sue but some goodness, too; she sees that Sue never intended to hurt her. There is another interesting perspective, however. Carrie faced the torture of adapting to an overzealously religious mother and terrible classmates. A bond, however conflicted and short-lived, forged between the pair. Spacek also examined the body language ofthose stoned to death for their sins. Thank you for signing up! the protagonist is jolted awake by a nightmare of the sadistic cannibal strangers who hunted him throughout the film. was released on Blu-Ray, it came with an alternate ending, one of the few pieces of cut footage released to the public. A bucket of pig blood is pulled and it covers her and her date, Tommy. '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. Sues insecurities and internal conflicts are verbalized and mirrored back to her in a scene with the cruelly perceptive Chris. Her myopic view on religion got passed on to her daughter, and after Carrie resisted, Margaret used subjugation to break her. Carries mind was far from innocent; this made her feel like a terrible sinner as part of her mothers fanatism was present in her. She would hole up in her trailer, which was adorned with a slew of religious regalia including Gustave Dore's illustrated Bible. Its after this point that things take a turn for the nonsensical. Carrie is not the monster; she is Carrie the good Christian girl. The fact that there is non-diegetic and diegetic sound but no dialogue may suggest that the impending violence cant be justified by verbal means, instead what happens is based on the heat of the moment. Bad dream? Sue asks, before her face is transformed into that of Chris Hargensen. Sue tells Carrie to go somewhere no one knows her and offers to drive her as far as Florida. Sue Snell, Carries sometime-bully, sometimes-ally, is also a complex character. Its not an entirely faithful adaptation of the original end of Carrie, but for the most part it is consistent with the spirit of Kings ending. The crossing cutting between Carrie on the stage, and the audience and Chris and her boyfriend, creates a frantic atmosphere as the audience are aware of Chris plan but feel happy for Carrie as she is being praised. 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. Carries mother is also there, of course, always whispering into her ear (or shouting into her terrified face) with the reminder that the powers which lay mostly dormant and mostly untapped are the work of her father: "You spawn of the devil. It becomes a motif, a recurring refrain Carries hears throughout her life: it's you devilspawn witch imp of the devil it's you doing it. And after enough time of hearing the same thing over and over, who wouldnt start to believe it. When she is pushed to her breaking point, she doesnt (as many film adaptations often suggest) go into a trance or react instinctively and without intention. The camera is static when showing Carrie, in contrast to her victims, this shows that she is now in control. The iconic prom scene in Carrie took two weeks and roughly 35 takes to create. Chris decides to ruin Carries life and follows her boyfriend to a farm where they kill pigs and drain their blood into a bucket. There is a note that is left in reference to Carrie White, saying that she is burning in hell. In a sense this suggests that now the reality of the situation kicks in, as the hazy cinematography and almost fairy tale mise-en-scene elements give the scene a make-believe mood. Margaret was born into an average family. Keep an eye on your inbox. 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 it. It will make you think of the evil that goes on in parking lots and roadhouses.. Critics panned the Pierces adaptation and called it unnecessary given its similarity to the still-iconic de Palma film. He would have scored Carrie as well but passed away in 1975. Carrie Themes and Analysis . She may have been listening to rock n roll music on the radio. Killed a bunch of people. Mentioning Stephen Kings 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 pigs blood just as she was crowned prom queen. Carrie makes it home to kill Momma. A loose bucket falls on Tommys head as he bleeds out to death. NEXT: The 10 Best Brian De Palma Movies, Ranked (According To IMDB). This is a good impulse, but the movie doesn't properly follow through on it. Her story is just beginning. After receiving her first period, she acquires telekinetic powers, which turns her world around; especially since she did not understand what the change meant for her as a new woman. After that, they were thrown out of the garden of their innocence, or ignorance; each counterplot or attempt to make amends is a doomed attempt to return to the garden. Using epistolary writing, Stephen King designed Carrie to show different angles of characters who mattered to the story. Although several witnesses describe being able to vaguely intuit Carries feelings and intentions, Sue is the only character who is so in tune with Carrie she is actually able to track her. Once Sue passes, the music builds, nearby fallen leaves begin to levitate in the air, and, with the sound of a scream, Carries headstone cracks.

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