Carrie/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • 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 the original movie.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Carrie's control over her powers in the prom massacre. In the book and 2013 remake, she's in complete control of her actions. However in the 2002 remake, she appears to go in a trance when the blood is poured over her. The most debatable of these is the original 1976 film, where she seems to be in a trance, however she also looks at her victims with severe Tranquil Fury. So was she or was she not in control? Both?
    • While much more obvious in the following remakes, there's also a debate over if Carrie caused Chris and Billy's death in the original movie. Did she cause them to swerve and the car to explode or did Billy swerve to try and avoid Carrie but did it too harshly, making the car tumble down and causing their own deaths?
  • 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.
  • Complete 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 1976 film version. An insane religious fanatic who uses her own distorted version of the Christian faith to control her teenage daughter Carrie and all other aspects of her life, we see her savagely beat her daughter, drag her and lock her in a small room whenever she feels she needs to be punished, feed her a fundamentalist guilt trip every day after school, turn her into a social pariah, openly declare her a sinful child cursed by the Devil and set upon her by God as punishment for her own sins (even likening her to a cancer!), and ultimately stabs her in the back with a knife and tries to kill her at the end with a ghoulishly deranged Slasher Smile on her face. 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.
  • Common Knowledge: For some fans that only know the story because of its premise and the prom massacre, they know Tommy as Carrie's boyfriend and not Sue's. To be fair, the scene is predated by Tommy kissing her (though in 2002, that was Carrie's head and in 2013, it was a deleted scene), so the accusations aren't too out of left field.
    • No, the bucket didn't just knock Tommy out, leaving him to be killed by the flames, the strike of the bucket killed him. Granted, Reality Is Unrealistic is also in play here.
  • 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.
  • Fanon: In 'good ending' retellings have Carrie taken away from Margaret via social services and/or Ms. Desjardin adopts her.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: For some fans, nothing bad ever happened! Carrie had a nice time at the prom and her life got better after that.
  • 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 2002 production. Sue gives Carrie beauty tips, gives her mouth to mouth CPR, and takes her to Florida to hide. 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:
    • Chris Hargensen, Billy Nolan, and all of their punk friends cross it with their prank at the senior prom, dumping a bucket of pig's blood all over Carrie after having rigged the votes for Prom King and Queen so that Carrie and Tommy won. All the lives that are lost afterwards is a direct result of these bullies horrible action.
      • Chris actually crossed it before the story started. A prank that she did to someone else involved putting a firecracker in their shoes, which resulted in missing toes. And then of course there's what she does to Carrie, pushing her even further over the line. This qualifies for Billy as well.
    • 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. In the novel and the 2013 version, it's made clear that she almost murdered her when she was a baby — the moment she first showed signs of her powers.
    • Carrie's prom massacre feels like karmic retribution for a lifetime of being shunned, bullied, and abused in the film version. In the book, though, Carrie, fully aware of what she was doing, also murdered several innocents at the prom who had nothing to do with her, hadn't laughed at her or thought ill of her at all, and were trying to flee in terror. And then she took things further and tore up the entire town, even shutting down the fire house equipment so that the fires she'd start wouldn't be able to be put out. This is the reason Stephen King came to think of Carrie as being a female version of the Columbine shooters.
    • In the book, Miss Desjardins, the gym teacher who had been very helpful to Carrie throughout the novel, laughs at her with the rest of them when the prank occurs, although she does express regret later on. In the film, however, it is not clear if Miss Collins is really laughing, or if Carrie only thinks she is (and the latter is implied). 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.
  • Narm: The 1976 film Carrie using a water hose to attack people. Even people who know they can actually do some damage, do admit it still looks goofy.
    • The bucket falling on 1976 Tommy's blonde curls and killing him. To some, it looks unintentionally ridiculous. To others, they think he should've been able to survive that because of that Tommy's large locks of hair compared to his more common hair style in the later remakes.
    • To some modern viewers, the 1976 dance scene between Tommy and Carrie has them dancing while the camera spins arounds them.
  • Reality is Unrealistic: Carrie attacking people with a firehouse might look silly however at full power can actually pack quite a punch, it actually could knock out people like it did Norma in the film.
    • While getting knocked on the head by a hard object is survivable, it can actually be fatal if the object in question (in this case, a bucket) cause enough trauma to the brain.
  • 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.
  • She's Just Hiding: Carrie. Fans like to think she was able to survive the house caving in on her. The fact the 2002 remake version faking her death with help of Sue has increased these thoughts. Even the 2013 remake (where has a scene at the end with Sue at Carrie's actual grave) has this, considering her gravestone is seen breaking while screaming is heard.
  • Signature Scene: The prom.
  • Special Effect Failure:
    • The Conspicuous CG in the '02 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 2002 TV movie and the 2013 movie are also this compared to Brian De Palma's film.
  • Unintentional Period Piece: All the movies/remake have these. One example is that while some schools are utilizing firehoses to avoid school shootings, they generally aren't used in schools anymore. In the two remakes, it is replaced with more of the times sprinkler systems.
  • What an Idiot!: In the 2002 remake, Carrie spots the bucket of blood...and doesn't do anything. Considering how you know what's going to happen, you're just begging her to move for her own sake. Of course, that unfortunately doesn't happen.
  • 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 killed by the bucket and left to incinerate along with all the rest in the burning school, having done nothing to deserve such a fate.
    • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Also Carrie. And even her insane fundamentalist mother Margaret in all versions except the 1976 film.
    • Jerkass Woobie: Possibly Chris Hargensen in the book, given how her boyfriend treats her and how negligent her father is about her obvious social and mental problems. This is made clearer in the 2013 film adaptation, as opposed to the original 1976 film in which Chris had no even remotely sympathetic traits.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Carrie/YMMV?oldid=2014516"