Carrie (2002) (TV)

Director:

David Carson

Writers (WGA):

Bryan Fuller (teleplay)
Stephen King (novel)

Release Date:

4 November 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

If you've got a taste for terror...take Carrie to the prom...

Plot:

Carrie White is a lonely and painfully shy teenage girl with telekinetic powers who is slowly pushed to the edge of insanity by frequent bullying from both classmates at her school, and her own religious, but abusive, mother.

Plot Keywords:

Prom | Teacher | Teenage Girl | Shower | Tampon

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Angela Bettis	...	Carietta 'Carrie' White
Patricia Clarkson	...	Margaret White
Rena Sofer	...	Miss Desjarden
Kandyse McClure	...	Sue Snell
Emilie de Ravin	...	Chris Hargensen
Tobias Mehler	...	Tommy Ross
Jesse Cadotte	...	Billy Nolan
Meghan Black	...	Norma Watson
Chelan Simmons	...	Helen Shyres
Katharine Isabelle	...	Tina Blake
David Keith	...	Detective John Mulchaey
Miles Meadows	...	Kenny Garson
Sean Tyler Foley	...	Lou Garson (as Tyler Foley)
Laurie Murdoch	...	Principal Morton
Michael Kopsa	...	John Hargensen

Also Known As:

Stephen King's Carrie (UK) (complete title)

Runtime:

132 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) (video rating) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) (video rating) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) (video rating) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (video rating) | USA:TV-14 | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

MGM Television

Trivia:

Bryan Fuller added some more positive dialogue about religion after he was asked to do so by David Keith. One example is the scene in which Carrie makes statements about her own faith as opposed to her mother's views.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The class photos pages of the Ewen High School yearbook, which Det. Mulcahey looks through while at Carrie's home, are identical (i.e., they use the same six student photographs).

Quotes:

Sue Snell: [watching Chris walk in] Has Chris said anything?
Helen Shyres: Only that she hates your guts.

Movie Connections:

References She's All That (1999)

Soundtrack:

Exit

In The Shadow Of A Masterpiece

It seems to make as much sense to remake a great movie like Brian DePalma's 1976 horror/suspense masterpiece CARRIE for television as it did to make a sequel of it in the form of THE RAGE: CARRIE 2 three years before, but that's what has been done. A lot of bells and whistles have been added to this television remake, but in the end this CARRIE is still in the shadow of the DePalma original.

Angela Bettis (GIRL INTERRUPTED) has the unenviable task of stepping into the shoes (and the prom dress) of Sissy Spacek in the title role of a New England teen tortured at school by cruel classmates (because she doesn't belong) and at home by her religiously fanatical mother (Patricia Clarkson, in the Piper Laurie role). Soon, she discovers she has telekinetic powers; and when the most gruesome of gags is played on her on prom night, all bets are off.

Though looking much more glazed in the eyes than Spacek ever did, Bettis gives a fairly good performance as Carrie; and Clarkson's portrayal of her uprighteous mother is much more low-key, but no less threatening, than Laurie's portrayal. The special effects, however obvious they might be, are also quite good. But in the end, the reputation of the 1976 original, with its combination of psychological horror and teen-angst drama, still hovers over this remake. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the pig's blood scene. It doesn't have the same jarring emotional impact this time around--not so much because we've seen it before, but because here it looks slightly laughable when the blood gets poured onto Bettis. Because of DePalma's use of slow-motion in the original, the blood hits Spacek like a tidal wave.

I give the CARRIE remake a '6' just for trying. I only regret that its shortcomings as a film have less to do with its execution as a film than the fact that the original movie still resonates much more fully.