Carrie/YMMV


 * Acceptable Religious Targets: Christian fundamentalists. To be fair, the novel makes it clear that Margaret's behavior is not typical of most Christians.
 * Adaptation Displacement: Most people have only heard of the book as a result of this movie.
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: *Sigh*... they're doing another remake just ten years after the last one. And it's being made by Screen Gems, at that. Uncreative imbeciles. Directed by Kimberly Peirce? Alright, Boys Don't Cry was pretty good, so this might actually be decent, let's see who they're casting as... CHLOE GRACE MORETZ IS PLAYING CARRIE? With Julianne Moore as Margaret? Screen Gems, shutupandtakemymoney!
 * Although it does make one wonder just how they're gonna be able to shoot the opening shower scene without running afoul of the law.
 * Wow, this is a pretty cool fan-made poster of Moretz as Carrie. Kimberly Peirce likes it too? Even cooler! Looks like she knows what she's doing.
 * Casting model quality as Carrie White is Completely Missing the Point. What you want is an actress who looks like a young Kathy Bates.
 * YMMV. Moretz is a really, really talented actor, and Sissy Spaceck did a fantastic job despite not matching King's original description either. Ultimately it'll come down to her performance.
 * Anvilicious: It's one thing to point out that bullying and picking on people is bad (mmmkay?). Turning nearly everyone other than the protagonist into an overblown Jerkass and/or complete whackjob to drive the point home is just plain ridiculous. On the other hand, this is exactly the way a troubled teenager might see the world, so it might just be a case of identification with the protagonist.
 * And seeing how big a problem bullying still is,--and these are just SOME of the recent examples--Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped.
 * Complete Monster:
 * Chris Hargensen. Her triggering the bloodbath at the prom is just the culmination of a lifetime of her bullying and tormenting Carrie. Apparently, her father knows how bad she is, but chooses to ignore it, making him an even bigger monster.
 * Billy Nolan. Not in the movie so much, but the book makes it clear that he's a total psychopath. He often beats up his girlfriend Chris and humiliates her, and his own "friends" are terrified of him. What makes him the scariest character is that he has absolutely no connection to Carrie but insists on doing the pig blood prank against her -- the book even says that Billy took over the plan from Chris and did most of it himself.
 * To top it all off, in the book, Billy promises to take Chris along with her as they run away together. In reality, he plans to abandon her pretty quickly.
 * Margaret White could be seen as this in the film version. We see her savagely beat her daughter, lock her in a small room, feed her a fundamentalist guilt trip every day after school, turn her into a social pariah, and ultimately tries to kill her at the end. In the book, her genuine insanity is more evident, but her Freudian Excuse just doesn't cut it when it comes to explaining away her actions in the film.
 * Cult Classic: While it's still as revered as ever by horror fans, much of its modern fanbase consists of teenage girls and gay men, who watch it for its '70s Camp and for being able to relate to Carrie's high school hell.
 * The Musical adaptation as well. Although it was never officially recorded, bootleg recordings have helped maintain a fanbase.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: For decades, Carrie: The Musical was considered to be the biggest flop in Broadway history. Recently, though, its Medal of Dishonor has been claimed by another Broadway adaptation of an existing property -- the infamous Spider Man Turn Off the Dark. And now, the theatrical remake of Carrie is being written by... Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, one of the writers who had been brought in in the hopes of fixing Turn Off the Dark after Julie Taymor left/was fired from it. Nearly twenty-five years later, Carrie is once again associated (at least tangentially) with a notorious disaster from the Great White Way.
 * Hollywood Homely: Played with. Sissy Spacek in the 1976 film is far too pretty to be considered a freak, but it's shown that she would look better if she made an effort with makeup and flattering clothes, which she does at the prom. Averted with Angela Bettis in the remake who was definitely believable as a freak.
 * Bear in mind Sissy Spacek isn't ridiculously attractive or anything and it's Carrie's social awkward and ineptness that made her a "freak", not her unattractiveness.
 * It Was His Sled: By now, it's a Foregone Conclusion that any version of this story will end with Carrie getting pranked and killing everyone.
 * Les Yay:
 * Carrie and Miss Collins in the original movie. It doesn't help that Betty Buckley said that she played Miss Collins as a lesbian...
 * A case could be made for Sue and Carrie in the remake. Sue gives Carrie beauty tips, . She even jokes about being a lesbian with Carrie.
 * Memetic Mutation:
 * "They're all gonna laugh at you!"
 * It's even given a techno remix in the sequel.
 * The term "dirty pillows" has become a satirical euphemism for breasts, used primarily to make fun of Moral Guardians.
 * Moral Event Horizon:
 * The first five minutes establish Chris as a Complete Monster by having her lead her classmates in chucking tampons at Carrie, who's cowering naked in the corner of the shower while having her first period, all while chanting, "Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up!" And that's before the pig blood prank. By the end of the film, you're rooting for her to die.
 * In the book, Miss Desjardins, the gym teacher who had been very helpful to Carrie throughout the novel, . In the film, however, it is not clear if Miss Collins . A little later in the book, Carrie also learns through crude emotional telepathy that Miss Desjardins (who enjoyed slapping Carrie in the showers) feels a mixture of pity for her and annoyance at her social awkwardness.
 * Margaret probably crossed it long before the story begins (probably the second she first locked Carrie in a prayer closet, actually), but when she decides to murder her daughter, you know there's absolutely no hope of her ever being redeemed.
 * Seinfeld Is Unfunny: The ending of the original film is often ranked up there with some of the greatest scary moments of all time. Many people, not knowing that Carrie was the first horror film ever to have a shock ending, wonder why, seeing as how it's now practically expected of a horror film to shock the audience one last time. Nowadays, the final scene in Carrie doesn't seem so scary anymore.
 * Signature Scene: The prom.
 * Special Effect Failure:
 * The Conspicuous CG in the remake.
 * At the time the musical was made, there was no convincing way to make Carrie move objects around with her powers. So... they just didn't try at all. Instead, she seemed to kill people by using lasers, flashing lights, and a disco ball.
 * While filming the original movie, John Travolta was so nervous about hitting Nancy Allen that he could only get up the courage to give very soft light slaps to the face with the back of his hand. They tried to cover this by adding in the sound effect of a loud painful open palmed strike, and it's pretty obvious.
 * Most, if not all the CGI imagery in the sequel.
 * Tough Act to Follow: The sequel's an alright movie on its own, but following a classic like this? It's guaranteed to get trashed.
 * The Woobie: Carrie, of course, but also Sue, who only wanted Carrie to be happy, and ended up possibly afflicted with some form of guilt disorder.
 * Also Tommy. The guy so obviously warms up to Carrie in the time he spends with her, and when the bucket of blood prank happens, he's visibly pissed. And then he gets knocked out by the bucket and left to die along with all the rest in the burning school, having done nothing to deserve such a fate.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Also Carrie.
 * Jerkass Woobie: Possibly Chris in the book, given how her boyfriend treats her and how negligent her father is about her obvious social and mental problems.