About the Adaptations

Carrie, Stephen King's first published novel in 1974 was also his first to be turned into a film and as of 2018 is his most adapted work not including sequels. Carrie was first adapted by Brian De Palma with a script from Lawrence D. Cohen. In 2002, three years after a loose sequel to the first film, The Rage: Carrie 2 was released, NBC commissioned a television movie based on King's book written by Bryan Fuller who would go on to create the original series Pushing Daisies and develop the adapted series Hannibal and American Gods. A little over a decade later, a studio remake was released directed by Kimberly Peirce and written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and later rewritten by writer of the 1976 film Lawrence D. Cohen.

All three adaptations are fairly faithful to the text with the exception of ending to the 2002 version in which Carrie White survives (a open ending, no doubt, created with the hope of spawning a TV series) and the Margaret White dies by Carrie-induced heart failure instead of multiple stab wounds. The second and third adaptations made some adjustments to compensate for technical advances. The 2002 and 2013 film show Carrie researching telekinesis on the internet in addition to the books in the school library. The 2013 adaptation also incorporates the smart phone as an additional tool to torment Carrie, allowing her peers to record and share Carrie's embarrassing moment in the bathroom, spreading and ridiculing Carrie in way even more powerful than the gossip of the previous two films.

The 1976 version was filmed in Southern California while the other two were filmed in Canada, the 2002 version in Vancouver, British Colombia and the 2013 version in and around Toronto, Ontario.

Each version of Carrie was recorded on significantly different versions. Brian De Palma filmed Carrie (1976) on Panavision Panaflex camera with 35 mm film and spherical lenses with an aspect ratio of 1.85 : 1. Carrie (2002) was filmed with Panasonic Video Cameras in an analog video format The aspect ratio is 1.33 : 1, a standard for television. Kimberly Peirce filmed Carrie (2013) shot on the Arri Alexa with spherical lenses in the ARRIRAW 2.8K format but used 2K as the digital intermediate (for color processing and VFX). The aspect ratio is 2.35 : 1, a format significantly wider than the previous two adaptations.