I recently read through Stephen King’s debut novel Carrie for the first time (review of that coming within the next month or two!), and so I decided to go back and watch the movie adaptation of it as well. I actually saw this movie as a kid, which is kind of funny because it’s definitely not suitable for children. Still, I have fond memories of it in the sense that I remember it being an intense horror movie, and I’m happy to say after rewatching it that it still holds up as a very well-done horror classic.

Most people who have heard of Carrie know what the story is, even if you’ve never actually seen/read it. It’s about a high school girl named Carrie White, who lives under the ruthless ruling of her religious fanatic mother Margaret. Because of her awful home life, Carrie isn’t very well-socialized with the other kids at her school, and so she becomes an outcast. The movie opens with a scene of Carrie in the girls locker room at school with her classmates, and she ends up getting her period for the first time. Due to her terrible upbringing, she isn’t even aware of what a period is, and so she has a massive freakout, which the other girls laugh at her and ridicule her for. This sets in motion a chain of events where one of the girls, Sue Snell, feels bad about what went down, so she has her boyfriend Tommy Ross ask Carrie to the prom. Meanwhile, another girl, Chris Hargensen, is pissed about the punishment she’s received for bullying Carrie, and so she takes it upon herself to play a huge prank on Carrie that will humiliate her. All of this starts happening alongside Carrie starting to discover that she has telekinetic powers.

This is a very straightforward story, yet it works so well. Since I watched this after reading the book, I do briefly want to talk about how Carrie is as an adaptation of the novel. I think that, for the most part, this movie is a pretty faithful adaptation of the book. For most of the movie, it’s just minor details that are changed, such as the name of the gym teacher. These things are fine, and don’t harm the story in any way. However, towards the end of the movie some major things really start to be altered. I was still okay with most of these decisions, though. There’s this weird mix of some things working way better in the book, while other things work way better in the movie. It’s a “take-your-pick” sort of thing, but for the most part I found this to be a really great adaptation of the novel.

Believe it or not, though, I actually prefer this movie to the book. Don’t get me wrong, like I said there are things that I think work better in the book, but for the most part I think this story works better in a visual medium. What I think the book does better than the movie is give way more context into what’s going on, and flesh out a lot of the story. The movie barely mentions anything about Carrie’s backstory or how people react to the tragedy at the end, and so the book really does a better job at contextualizing all of these things. Because of this, I think that Carrie’s snap is more believable in the book, and feels much more earned. However, on the flip side, I found Carrie to be a much more sympathetic character in the movie, and so for me this elevated what a tragedy it was to have the prank played on her. I think the biggest reason for this is Sissy Spacek’s amazing performance as Carrie, but even just the way director Brian de Palma crafts all of the scenes really heightens how tragic it all is. I connected way more with Carrie in the movie than I did in the book.

Overall, I just think that Carrie is a really effective horror movie. It still holds up really well, and I think everyone should give it a shot. I think the performances and the directing are what really make the movie as strong as it is. Brian de Palma gets some really interesting shots in the movie, and these sorts of things really stick with you. I remembered flashes of this movie from when I saw it as a kid, and seeing it now as someone who understands how movies are made can appreciate this even more. The way that the prom scenes are shot really heightens the intensity of the moment. While Carrie’s destruction is much more short-lived in the movie than it was in the book, I am never bothered by it because of how amazing the tragic prom scene looks. Also, I remember Carrie’s final confrontation with her mother always sticking in my mind as a child, and watching it again now I see why. It’s absolutely terrifying, and de Palma shoots it and mixes the audio in a way is seriously one of the most terrifying moments I think I’ve seen in a horror movie. It’s truly remarkable.

So, in the end I think that this is an amazing adaptation of the book Carrie, one that even surpasses the book in my eyes. This is because it works so well as a movie, and Brian de Palma crafted something that plays so well in a visual medium. While I think some things could have been done a little bit better, I love this movie so much. It might be missing some of the depth that the book had, but on the other hand it also cuts out a lot of the unnecessary fat that the book has too, and focuses on what makes this story so remarkable in the first place. Definitely check out Carrie if you never have before. It’s a really wild ride, and you won’t be disappointed.

4.5/5