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Scott's Reviews > Carrie
Carrie
by
by
" . . . and now the fairy tale was green with corruption and evil. In this one she would bite a poison apple, be attacked by trolls, be eaten by tigers. They were laughing at her again." -- page 144
There's a great and entertaining site on the Web called 'Kindertrauma,' run by two guys from the Philadelphia area (woot-woot!). On it they categorize and document the various movies, TV shows, and books that caused childhood scares and nightmares for folks that have now reached adulthood.
With that in mind, I now review the original literary version of the movie which frightened the hell out of me as a kid - and this was only catching glimpses of scenes when a UHF channel was airing it as their 8 o'clock movie, 'parental discretion advised' warning and all - Stephen King's debut novel Carrie. (There was something very unsettling about the shrieking violins on the soundtrack when 'the power' was used . . . that, and Sissy Spacek's "ghastly visage," as one reviewer correctly called it.)
The story, in a nutshell: a bullied teenager in a small New England town, under the heavy hand of a religiously fanatic (if not outright insane) mother, discovers she has telekinesis. This is the ability to physically move objects with just her thoughts. Then a classmate executes a cruel prank on her . . .
What was surprising about the book was how invisible the title character was in the plot. This was really more of an ensemble piece. Carrie's mother, fellow students, school faculty, and others receive just as much page time as she does. It gives the story a plausible, if not necessarily realistic, small town ambiance. At the time he wrote it King was working as a high school teacher, and it shows in the details. (It's now pretty well documented that a discouraged King threw his manuscript in the trash when trying to write the book back in '73. It was saved by his wife Tabitha, who encouraged him to keep at it. Let us all take a moment and thank her for putting the hubby on the right path.)
What was effective was the dreadful feeling that increased to the hellish climax -- you just know someone is going to kick the hornet's nest, and they're going to be sorry they ever considered it.
Look, this book has been around 45 (!) years now, and there have also been movie versions in 1976 (shudder) and 2013, a TV-movie version in 2002, and even an ill-fated Broadway musical (?!). It's easy enough to reduce the story description to 'social outcast is wronged for the very last time,' right?
As Aretha Franklin once sang "I ain't no psychiatrist, I ain't no doctor with degrees" but I can see why this story or the main character has appealed to many types of people over the years. It may not be King's best or most polished book, but it's memorable and it does work more often than not. I think it's important to note that while the whole thing may seem dated or stereotypical now it was the original, like the car chase in Bullitt influencing 50 years of such scenes in Hollywood movies.
There's a great and entertaining site on the Web called 'Kindertrauma,' run by two guys from the Philadelphia area (woot-woot!). On it they categorize and document the various movies, TV shows, and books that caused childhood scares and nightmares for folks that have now reached adulthood.
With that in mind, I now review the original literary version of the movie which frightened the hell out of me as a kid - and this was only catching glimpses of scenes when a UHF channel was airing it as their 8 o'clock movie, 'parental discretion advised' warning and all - Stephen King's debut novel Carrie. (There was something very unsettling about the shrieking violins on the soundtrack when 'the power' was used . . . that, and Sissy Spacek's "ghastly visage," as one reviewer correctly called it.)
The story, in a nutshell: a bullied teenager in a small New England town, under the heavy hand of a religiously fanatic (if not outright insane) mother, discovers she has telekinesis. This is the ability to physically move objects with just her thoughts. Then a classmate executes a cruel prank on her . . .
What was surprising about the book was how invisible the title character was in the plot. This was really more of an ensemble piece. Carrie's mother, fellow students, school faculty, and others receive just as much page time as she does. It gives the story a plausible, if not necessarily realistic, small town ambiance. At the time he wrote it King was working as a high school teacher, and it shows in the details. (It's now pretty well documented that a discouraged King threw his manuscript in the trash when trying to write the book back in '73. It was saved by his wife Tabitha, who encouraged him to keep at it. Let us all take a moment and thank her for putting the hubby on the right path.)
What was effective was the dreadful feeling that increased to the hellish climax -- you just know someone is going to kick the hornet's nest, and they're going to be sorry they ever considered it.
Look, this book has been around 45 (!) years now, and there have also been movie versions in 1976 (shudder) and 2013, a TV-movie version in 2002, and even an ill-fated Broadway musical (?!). It's easy enough to reduce the story description to 'social outcast is wronged for the very last time,' right?
As Aretha Franklin once sang "I ain't no psychiatrist, I ain't no doctor with degrees" but I can see why this story or the main character has appealed to many types of people over the years. It may not be King's best or most polished book, but it's memorable and it does work more often than not. I think it's important to note that while the whole thing may seem dated or stereotypical now it was the original, like the car chase in Bullitt influencing 50 years of such scenes in Hollywood movies.
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Reading Progress
April 22, 2019
–
Started Reading
April 23, 2019
– Shelved
April 24, 2019
–
Finished Reading
Thank you, Rebecca.