First Things First…
I saw this once, along with all the other Carrie adaptations, after I read the book the first time. It originally aired as a TV movie. From what I remember, I didn’t like it very much. But I don’t remember much about it, other than that the actress who played Claire on Lost plays the main bully.
5 Things I Like
5. Interlude Investigation
“Look, I’m all for believing whatever it is that you want to believe; but you say “religion” and I’m thinking Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper.’ Jesus looks sad, the Apostles look miserable – I don’t want to go to their party. Shouldn’t religion be more like ‘Dogs Playing Poker?'”
Sue Snell
The book is told through a series of letters, testimony, press releases, and book excerpts, along with the main narrative. This isn’t the same thing. But unlike the original movie, this version does tell the story in flashbacks, with interludes set in the present where the cops are investigating the prom night massacre.
Sue is at the center of the investigation, especially early on. And she’s played by Kandyse McClure, who I like from Battlestar Galactica, so I’m glad she gets a lot of screentime. She has some snarky banter with the detective.
This structure isn’t better or worse than a more traditional structure. But it breaks things up and keeps it moving, which helps since the movie is more than two hours.
4. A Little More Kindness
As much as Carrie is about bullying, I always found it hard to believe that everyone would be mean to Carrie, especially when the prank at prom is played on her.
Here, not only are there a few horrified looks in the audience, but Miss Desjardins never laughs at Carrie alongside the other students. She tries to help her right away, until she flees for her life. Another girl rushes the stage to try to help Carrie, too. It’s a small thing, but it’s more realistic. There will always be at least a few good people who would try to help in a terrible situation like this instead of joining the crowd in jeering at the person who’s been humiliated.
3. Psycho Billy
It’s amazing that in the original, John Travolta plays Billy, and I don’t like the performance at all. But here, an actor I’ve never heard of, Jesse Cadotte, plays him, and he nails it.
When he first appears, I thought he might look a little too dorky and scrawny. Turns out he’s a convincing psycho. He seems absolutely menacing when he needs to. I would very much fear for the safety of Chris and his buddies if they ever cross him.
2. A Little More Sue
“You feel sorry for me because you think you’re better than me.”
Carrie White
In addition to the present-day interludes at the police station, Sue also has a couple of slightly deeper relationships in this adaptation that give her even more screentime. She has a more distinct falling out with Chris, and she has more interactions with Carrie.
The scene in the department store, when Sue helps Carrie try on lipstick, is pretty awkward. But I like how it shows Sue try to be a friend to Carrie once she’s agreed to go to the prom with Tommy. And even better, I like how Carrie calls Sue out for pitying her and thinking she’s better than her. Carrie’s no dummy.
1. Meek Carrie
In every Carrie adaptation so far, regardless of the quality of the movie, they nail the casting of Carrie (or Rachel, the Carrie stand-in from The Rage: Carrie 2).
I don’t know Angela Bettis from anything else, but she’s really good here. More than anything, she plays Carrie even more meekly than the other depictions. And it works. Carrie as a character can easily become pathetic and annoying—as many of her classmates feel about her—but here, her meekness makes her extremely sympathetic.
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. Staying Alive
“We shouldn’t be here. People thinking you’re dead is sort of contingent on nobody seeing you alive.”
Sue Snell
Carrie is such a tragic figure that it almost defeats the purpose to allow her to live at the end of the story.
Apparently, this was filmed as a potential backdoor pilot for a series that would pick up after Carrie leaves town at the end. If not for that possibility, maybe they would’ve killed her off on prom night, like in the other versions.
I don’t hate it, but I’m not sure what’s gained from keeping her alive.
5 Things I Don’t Like
5. “Small” Accidents
There’s at least one time early in the movie, before Carrie has any control over her powers, when she gets agitated and makes a lightbulb burn out. That’s the kind of accident that should happen.
But a few of the other things she does accidentally are too big to ignore or pass off as coincidence—like causing the principal’s desk to slide five inches across the floor. And instead of making the little boy who laughs at her simply fall off his bike, she chucks him into a tree. (I guess technically that’s not an accident, but the point is basically the same—it can’t be passed off as anything but what it really is.)
4. Mellow Mrs. White
Don’t get me wrong, Mrs. White still abuses Carrie. And she tries to drown her in the bathtub at the end. But for most of the movie, she just doesn’t come off quite as crazy, dangerous, or out of her mind as in the book or original movie.
3. Bad VFX
I know—it’s a TV movie that came out in 2002. But I can’t ignore the lousy special effects. Whether it’s the meteors pelting the Whites’ house when Carrie was a child, the fire in the gym, or pretty much any time Carrie uses her telekinesis, it doesn’t look good.
2. Light on Horror
I have to give the exact same disclaimer I just gave—it’s a TV movie that came out in 2002. I think it premiered on basic cable, and it’s rated TV-14. So there’s only so much they can do in terms of horror.
But man, it’s not scary at all.
Even as Carrie starts the massacre, there’s some kind of jaunty music playing. And despite how bad Carrie’s home life is, her house doesn’t seem foreboding in any way.
It’s not gory. It’s not creepy. It’s not spooky. Nothing.
1. Slaughter in a Trance
Having Carrie kill dozens of her classmates and teachers while in a trance, so she can’t remember it, changes the story for the worse much more than keeping her alive at the end of the movie does.
It’s a copout.
Maybe they did it because, if they really did want to spin off a TV series from this, with Carrie as the protagonist, they didn’t want her to be an intentional mass murderer.
But the beauty of the story is in the push and pull of whether Carrie is 100% victim whose actions are justified because she’s been pushed past her breaking point by bullies, or if she deserves to be demonized for her killing spree, no matter how she’s been treated or what pranks have been pulled on her.
Here, they take away any gray area and make it clear she’s a victim.
I don’t like having that decision taken from me.
This also neuters the character. Now, not only is Carrie just a victim, but if she’s subject to these uncontrollable trances that she can’t remember when she’s in this much distress, then she’s lost her agency to choose to fight back.
Tim Matassa
