| Carrie | |
|---|---|
Promotional release poster |
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| Directed by | David Carson |
| Produced by | David Carson Bryan Fuller |
| Written by | Stephen King Bryan Fuller |
| Starring | Angela Bettis Patricia Clarkson Rena Sofer Kandyse McClure Emilie de Ravin Tobias Mehler Katharine Isabelle Chelan Simmons |
| Music by | Laura Karpman |
| Cinematography | Victor Goss |
| Editing by | Anthony A. Lewis |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Release date | November 4, 2002 |
| Running time | 132 minutes |
Carrie is a 2002 horror television film based on the novel Carrie by Stephen King, originally intended as a pilot for a TV series in which Carrie moves to Florida to help others with telekinetic problems, which never materialized. NBC executives were hoping the series idea would follow the success of an earlier similar effort, The Dead Zone, but due to poor ratings, NBC soon dropped the idea of the Carrie TV Series. Therefore, the movie stands today on its own as a "modern" version of the original story.
This version of Carrie has only been released on Region 1 DVD.
Contents |
The film begins in a police station. Several people, including high school senior Sue Snell and gym teacher Ms. Desjarden, are being interviewed by a detective about the disappearance of high school senior Carrie White.
The film then flashes back to one week before the prom at Ewen High School. The popular girls at school constantly harass Carrie, with Chris Hargensen being especially vicious. After gym class, Carrie has her first period in the shower room and panics. The other girls swarm around the shower and taunt her. Hearing the commotion about this, Ms. Desjarden comes into the shower, and finds Carrie lying by the drain in a fetal position as the other girls hound her. As she comforts the terrified girl, Carrie asks her if she is dying, revealing she had no idea about menstruation and thought she was bleeding to death.
Later, the school principal determines that Carrie should go home to calm down after the incident. When the principal repeatedly mispronounces her name, Carrie snaps and screams out her name. Suddenly, the principal's desk moves several inches in the opposite direction. While Carrie is getting her things, she discovers someone spray-painted "Plug it up" on her locker, and it's filled with tampons. On her way home, Carrie is accosted by yet another vicious child, this time a pre-teen boy on a bicycle. With no warning, his bike smashes into a tree, throwing the boy to the ground and breaking his arm. When she reaches home, Carrie's mother, Margaret White, receives the phone call from school. Due to her bizarre religious beliefs, Margaret considers menstruation a sign of sexual sin. She beats Carrie and locks her in the "Praying Closet".
The next day, an enraged Ms. Desjarden notifies the girls that they are to have 50 minutes' detention in the gym every day for a week for their bullying. If they skip the detention, they face three days' suspension and banishment from the prom. Chris storms out in protest, but none of the other girls follow her. At the same time, Carrie researches "miracles" in the library to understand what has been happening to her. Eventually, she finds out about telekinesis, an unusual gift that enables the carriers to move or control objects with their minds.
After her lawyer father unsuccessfully attempts to get her prom ban rescinded, Chris enlists her boyfriend Billy Nolan to get revenge on Carrie. At the same time, Sue, trying to atone for tormenting Carrie in the locker room, asks her popular jock boyfriend Tommy Ross to take Carrie to the prom instead of her. At first Tommy disagrees, but then gives in. After some hesitation, Carrie agrees. That evening, Carrie tells her mother about the prom invitation, only to have her mother go into rage and forbid her to go. Carrie uses her powers to finally confront her mother. Margaret seemingly gives in.
As prom day approaches, Sue helps Carrie prepare for the big event. Tina and Chris overhear their plans and develop a full revenge plan. Chris and Billy kill a pig at a nearby farm and gather up its blood. On the day of the prom, Margaret begs Carrie to stay home and beg God for forgiveness, but Carrie uses her powers to throw her mother out of the room. As the infuriated Margaret leaves the house, Tommy comes to pick her up for the prom, impressed by her makeover into a beautiful young woman.
As the prom progresses more people begin to accept Carrie. Tina manages to switch the ballots for prom king and queen for fraudulent ones that declare Carrie and Tommy the winners. As Tommy and Carrie take their place on stage, Carrie notices blood dripping on her arm and looks up, seeing the bucket of pig's blood placed above the stage. Chris, who has been hiding with Billy backstage, pulls the rope, sending a wave of blood on Carrie, with some hitting Norma and Tommy. The duo ran away, letting go of the rope, which drops the bucket on Tommy's head, knocking him out.
Carrie goes into a shock-induced trance, and loses control of her telekenesis. She locks everyone inside the gym and drops several spotlights on the floor. The sparks set the gym ablaze, causing a mass panic. As Tina screams in horror, Carrie crushes her to death with a basketball board. Ms. Desjarden along with Norma manage to get a few kids into a vent, where they make their escape. Carrie opens up all the sprinklers, then causes the scoreboard to fall, electrocuting everyone else on the floor.
Carrie leaves the burning gym, locking the doors behind her and leaving almost all of the students and staff to burn to death. As she makes her way back to town, she brings the destruction with her, nearly obliterating the adjoining neighborhoods. Chris and Billy, witnessing the destruction from Billy's truck, encounter Carrie and attempt to run her over, but Carrie stops it and sends it slamming it into a telephone pole, killing them both.
Once Carrie gets home, she takes a bath to wash off all the blood. She finally snaps back to herself, and doesn't appear to remember what happened. Margaret, now completely insane, calls Carrie a witch and attempts to drown her in the tub. Carrie begins to lose consciousness, but uses her last ounce of strength to mentally stop her mother's heart, killing her.
Unknown to everyone, during the disastrous aftermath of the prom, Sue goes out looking for Carrie and finds her near death in the bathtub with her mother's dead body nearby. Sue manages to revive Carrie with rescue breathing and hide her while the scandal quiets down. Sue agrees to sneak Carrie out of town to somewhere in Florida. As the two drive off into the rainy night, Carrie receives a nightmarish vision of her mother, who warns her that "sin never dies".
The fight songs played during the prom scene are those of Dartmouth College, as performed by the Dartmouth College Marching Band. Executive producer Mark Stern, an alumnus of Dartmouth, requested a recording of the Dartmouth tunes from faculty director Max Culpepper for use in the movie. After finding the Dartmouth Wind Symphony recording of the songs to be too professional-sounding, he requested a recording that was more "wild and enthusiastic." The marching band then recorded the songs at the loudest volume possible, in order to distort tone and intonation and sound more like a high school band.[1]
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