Carrie vs. Carrie

So here's something a little different, I'm going to compare two movies to the novel off of which they were based.  Stephen King published his first novel, Carrie, in April of 1974.  For some reason the book took place in 1979.  The original film was release in 1976, and the remake (so obviously a made for TV movie) aired in 2002.  In the book, both Carrie and her mother Margaret, are supposed to be large women.  Heaven forbid Hollywood put anyone bigger than a 0 in their films so in both adaptions, they were pretty skinny women.  As most people know Sissy Spacek played Carrie in the original, and as I mentioned in my blog about The Help, Sissy will always be Carrie to me.  Her unique facial features helped her portray her the best.  In the 2002 version, Carrie is played by Angela Bettis (Girl, Interrupted) who was 29 when she played the role, but even though she was only 2 years older than Sissy was she was not a very convincing Carrie.  Her face looked too old to be playing a high school kid (Sissy still had a young face) and she wasn't unique looking enough for me to believe her as Carrie.  The 2002 adaption shows the shower of rocks on the White household that is mentioned in the beginning of the book, and it also goes back to it as well.  The scene where young Carrie is talking to the sunbather remains in the newer version, something the original left out along with the rock shower which I found an ideal part of the story.  Another difference in the beginning of both films is the time when Carrie gets her period.  First of all, for all you men out there that are naive and believe everything the movies show you, women don't typically caress themselves in the shower, as these movies portrayed, or at least I don't so maybe I'm the oddball.  In the second film, the girls immaturely yelled "Period" at Carrie, which I can't imagine anyone their age doing.  The book and first film has them throwing tampons at her and yelling "plug it up" which I find a little more creative.  Instead, in the newer edition, they write Plug it Up on her locker and fill it with tampons.  In the principal's office, the director also decided to make her telekinetic powers less subtle by having her move the whole desk instead of just the ashtray like in the original. Shock value I guess. 

I like that both films showed how Carrie's mother's religious beliefs played a role on Carrie.  It was easy for King to describe the background in the novel since we were reading it.  In the first film, Margaret visited a fellow classmate's (Sue Snell) home to preach and ask for money for her church while in the second the teacher stated Carrie was excused from the evolution lesson in science class per her mother's orders.  I'm sure that's still likely to happen today.  

Before I get too off topic, I just want to point out something that bothered me.  The character Norma, in the first film, always wore a red baseball cap, even to the prom.  Maybe it's suppose to be symbolic or whatever, but I just found it annoying.  I would like to know what was up with that stupid hat.  If anyone can tell me, I'd appreciate it.

Another difference I noticed was the boy on the bike taunting Carrie as she leaves.  In the remake she has him thrown against the tree when in the original and novel she just tipped the bike over.  I liked the more subtlety because she is first learning of her telekinetic powers and to throw a boy into a tree is a little intense for a first time learner just like lifting the desk.

One thing that kind of bothered me is King describes an eerie picture hanging in the closet which is part of the reason Carrie doesn't like going in it.  Neither film versions had the picture which didn't give the closet such a haunting affect for me.

It seemed both films pretty much had the same script, except the remake kept the names that the original didn't.  In the Sissy Spacek version, they changed the name of the gym teacher Miss Desjardin and the highschool name, Ewen, was changed as well.  I also like how the remake included the scene with Chris's dad and him threatening to sue the school.  It showed how much the faculty cared for their students, and didn't tolerate bullying.  That whole dialogue between the father and the principal was probably my favorite in the novel because I liked how he sticks up for Carrie and was quick with the comebacks.

Finally, or course, I was glad that the sex scenes between Sue and Tommy and Chris and Billy were taken out.  In the novel, both girls use the sex to get their boyfriends to do what they want (Chris with the prank, Sue with getting Tommy to ask Carrie to prom), but both directors did a great job getting the point across without using sex.  So kudos for that.

Well, this has been my longest blog because I compared three pieces of work which I will most likely not do again thankfully.  As for the point of my blogs and rating the films, well they're both so entirely different but the same, but of course for me, nothing beats an original.  (Same is true in Vampire Diaries!)