Carrie - Full Film Analysis (Research)

Carrie (2013) – Analysis

Carrie is a thriller horror film. The film is based on Stephen King’s well known novel “Carrie” from 1974. This film is the third adaption to the book. The film is directed by Kimberly Pierce and produced by Kevin Misher, along with his company Misher Films, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Screen Gems distributed the film. The film looks at a young girl named Carrie and her mother.

The opening prologue is of Carrie’s mother giving birth to Carrie. She attempts to kill her with scissors, but there’s a force stopping her. Later we see Carrie grown up, in high school. Soon to which we discover she is very isolated and alone, but overall a sweet girl. Her mother is extremely religious and strict on Carrie, which forces her to be like this at school. Carrie isn’t a well-liked girl and an incident occurs after PE at school, which results in bullying from Chris and her group of friends, with a video of her being uploaded to the Internet. All Carrie want’s to do is fit in with everyone however she soon discovers she has the ability to move objects around with her mind. Due to the school incident Chris is suspended and can no longer attend prom, but her friend Sue feels terrible about being involved and see’s how Carrie wishes for nothing but to fit in, and as a result of this Sue persuades her boyfriend to take Carrie to prom. Carrie’s mother doesn’t agree due to the idea of lustful thoughts but Carrie attends anyway. Later Chris sneaks in with her boyfriend when prom king and queen is announces, and have set up a bucket of pigs blood to poor down over Carrie (as they rigged the results). The prank backfires and Carrie again feels humiliated, resulting in her using her powers on all of her fellow students and even her mother.

This film takes a different spin on the horror genre due to it being a supernatural thriller, unlike several horror films there is gore, however we, as an audience aren’t meant to be scared silly. Carrie is a horror film due to the use of the supernatural powers, what is done with them and also the suspense, tension and discomforting. It looks at some more important themes in an emotional, tragic and deep way – unlike many horrors. 

The film is set in a very normal town, as well as the characters being normal teenagers. The way in which it is different is due to the fact that Carrie has these super powers, and what she does with them is quite disturbing, as she kills majority of her classmates, including Chris and her boyfriend in a brutal car crash and also kills herself and her mother.

The film uses Levi-Strauss and Barthes’ narrative theory of binary opposition. The film takes a twist, as we think at first its against good and evil, but soon it turns out that Carrie is in fact the one causing the final and disturbing trouble. This looks more at Supernatural vs Natural.