Adaptational Attractiveness: In the book, she is portrayed as being rather pudgy and covered in acne. Among the actresses who have played her are Sissy Spacek and Chloe Moretz. However, the book's description is given as she is looking in a mirror at her own face, so the written portrayal could be interpreted as how she sees herself at that moment, in which case her flaws are being exaggerated (as teenagers in Real Life are fairly prone to doing), whereas most might actually see her as rather pretty. Tommy actually thinks she's beautiful when he picks her up for the prom.
Averted with Angela Bettis in the '02 version; see below.
American Accents: She has a Southern one in the 1976 film. "If ah concentrate hard enough, ah can move things!"
Beautiful All Along / She Cleans Up Nicely: At the prom. Justified in the novel; before the prom, she deliberately wore unflattering clothes, because her mother believed that trying to look attractive is sinful.
Beauty Inversion: In the remake, her drab clothes, messy hair and something about not washing her face or anything definitely hid any beauty that Angela Bettis had, making it that much more special when she went to the prom.
Dawson Casting: 26-year-old Spacek in the '76 version, 29-year-old Bettis in the '02 version.
Inverted with 15-year-old Moretz in the 2013 version, is a year younger than Carrie in the book.
Despair Event Horizon: After a lifetime of being made feel worthless by everybody around her — especially her own mother — the three people to finally reach out to her also (at least in her mind) betray her. Tommy, Sue, and the gym teacher were all completely innocent (the real villains were Chris and Billy), but she didn't know that. Understandably, this would dash any last shred of hope for humanity she might have had. The utter shame of it all is that Tommy had genuinely fallen in love with her, and (in the movie) was visibly angry when the prank was pulled.
Death Glare: Gives one to pretty much everybody during the prom scene.
Deus Angst Machina: Not only does she have to contend with an abusive mother, but she's also a complete social outcast in school.
Disappeared Dad / Parental Abandonment: In the novel, Carrie's father was killed in a construction accident seven months before she was born. In the 1976 film, he ran off and left the family.
Faking the Dead: In the '02 version, she does this with Sue's help in order to start a new life for herself.
Famous Last Words: As heard telepathically by Sue, "[Momma Momma Momma oooooooooooo 0000000]"
Freudian Excuse: Having Margaret White as a mother can excuse practically anything.
Heroic RROD: In the book, her overuse of her powers, combined with blood loss from being stabbed by her mother, cause her to have a heart attack after killing Billy and Chris.
Legend Fades to Myth: In the sequel, Rachel mentions that a mountain of conspiracy theories has developed around Carrie and her rampage.
Little Dead Riding Hood: In the book, her prom dress is red. It's pink in the movie, although Margaret mistakes it for red (and she promptly corrects her).
Loners Are Freaks: This trope is a large part of her problem with getting accepted by her classmates.
My Name Is Not Durwood: The school principal constantly calls her "Cassie Wright", and doesn't even seem to notice when she corrects him, spurring this exchange:
Mr. Morton: We're really sorry about this incident, Cassie...
Carrie: IT'S CARRIE!(With her mind, she knocks the ashtray off the table)
No Periods, Period: Averted in the first five minutes. She gets her first period at age 16 — and she is under the impression that she is bleeding to death.
Person of Mass Destruction: She burns down her high school and kills scores of people during her rampage. In the book and the remake, she also destroys most of the town.
"I'm going to give you a present, Momma. [...] Do you know what the present is, Momma? Darkness. And whatever God lives there."
Pstandard Psychic Pstance: She does this subtly — usually, all she does is look at her target, as evidenced when she throws the asshole kid off his bike, or locks down the school gym. However, when she slams shut all the windows and doors in her house, she doesn't even do this.
Margaret White (maiden name Brigham) is the mother of Carrie. She is a hardcore fundamentalist Christian who feels that all sex, even within marriage, is sinful, and regularly abuses her daughter in the name of God.
Adaptational Attractiveness: While not as extreme an example as Carrie, in all of the movies she's been played by actresses far more attractive than the white-haired, heavyset woman she was described as in the book (Piper Laurie in '76, Patricia Clarkson in '02, Julianne Moore in '13).
Christianity is Catholic: In the '76 film, a lot of the religious iconography that shows up in her house is Catholic, even though it's strongly implied in the book that her beliefs are rooted in fundamentalist Protestantism of the old-time Puritan variety, which has... issues with the Catholic Church.
Crucified Villain Shot: In the '76 film, Carrie kills her by crucifying her against the doorway with kitchen knives, in the style of the St. Sebastian figurine in her chapel.
The Fundamentalist: Taken to its most insane extreme. In the book, she's considered crazy even by other Christian fundamentalists.
The Grinch: The Viral Marketing for the 2013 version includes a phone number that people can dial, with a recording of Carrie and Margaret on the other end. Around Christmas, the message on the other end had Margaret grabbing the phone from Carrie and telling the caller that Christmas was an evil holiday that had been corrupted by greed, and that it should only be spent praying.
"The birth of our Lord is a time to repent, not to feast on cake."
She doesn't view Valentine's Day much better; the message in February had Margaret insulting the caller as a "whore" for celebrating the holiday.
Hollywood Heart Attack: In the book and in the '02 version, Carrie kills her by psychically squeezing her heart until it stops beating.
Hypocrite: For a fundamentalist, Margaret has no problem flat-out making up Bible passages. Specifically, justabouteverything from her rant to Carrie about how women are cursed with sin is nowhere to be found in the Bible. Given the strong statements found in Scripture against changing or adding to it...
This is recognized in the '13 version. While Margaret is ranting at Carrie, Carrie calls her out for making up passages from The Bible to suit her agenda.
Large Ham: Piper Laurie's performance in the '76 version. Laurie felt that her performance was so over-the-top that the film had to be a comedy... before she saw the finished product, of course.
My Beloved Smother: Julianne Moore went into depth on this at ComicCon, saying that, for Margaret, Carrie is the only family she has, and the thought of her leaving her grasp and leaving her all alone is something that she can't bear.
Religious Stereotype: She is every stereotype of Christian fundamentalists rolled into one and mixed liberally with raving insanity.
Sex Is Evil: She believes all sex, even within marriage, to be sinful.
Soft-Spoken Sadist: In the 2013 movie. "You know the devil never dies...he keeps coming back. You gotta keep killing him."
Woman in Black: In the novel, she usually wears black clothing. She's evil, of course.
In the '76 film she not only wears black, she wears a cape.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Everything she does in the story, from visiting people's doors to attempting murder, is because she believes she's helping people in desperate need of saving. Her intentions are good, but her actions are reprehensible.
Widow Woman: In the book. The film has her claiming this, but Carrie counters that her husband merely ran off with another woman. As shown by the sequel, Carrie's right.
Sue Snell
Played by:
Amy Irving (1976 version, and its sequel) Kandyse McClure (2002 version) Gabriella Wilde (2013 version)
Susan "Sue" Snell is a popular high school student who feels guilty about taking part in the humiliation of Carrie in the showers. To make up for it, she asks her athlete boyfriend Tommy to take Carrie to the prom instead of her, choosing to stay home on prom night. She is one of the survivors of Carrie's rampage, and in the sequel, she has become a guidance counselor at the new high school.
Convicted By Public Opinion: In the book, after the "Black Prom" she and Tommy are blamed for having driven Carrie over the edge. From the snippets we see of her memoirs, she spends the rest of her life trying to live it down.
Dawson Casting: 23-year-old Irving in the '76 version, 22-year-old McClure in the '02 version, and 23-year-old Wilde in the '13 version.
Final Girl: She is the only survivor out of the main cast in the '76 version.
Mind Rape: At the end of the book, a dying Carrie does this to her, angry about the prank that she thought Sue had pulled on her... only to find that she had meant her no harm, and that she hadn't planned to humiliate her at the prom. She even lets her into her mind intentionally to prove this to her.
Oh Crap: In the sequel, she has this when she sees Rachel telekinetically destroying the snowglobe in her office in a fit of anger. She remembers very clearly what had happened with Carrie, thank-you-very-much.
Teen Pregnancy: Suggested in the book. During the climax, it's strongly implied that Carrie uses her powers to cause her to have a miscarriage.
There Are No Therapists: Averted in the sequel. It's revealed that she went into psychiatric care after surviving Carrie's rampage, and by the events of the film, she is the therapist.
The World's Expert on Getting Killed: In the sequel, she is the only one who knows what psychics like Carrie and Rachel are capable of. She gets killed trying to stop Rachel.
Thomas "Tommy" Everett Ross is one of the stars of the school's baseball team and the boyfriend of Sue, and their relationship has recently become more intimate. After taking part in Carrie's humiliation in the shower, Sue, feeling sorry for what she did, asks Tommy to take Carrie to the prom in order to make up for it, to which Tommy reluctantly agrees.
Academic Athlete: In the novel, he's a straight-A student and a talented amateur writer who has had his poems published in several journals, and wants to get a university degree before pursuing a career in professional baseball.
Brainless Beauty: Both film adaptations retain his niceness, but turn him into this for no readily apparent reason.
Dawson Casting: 25-year-old Katt in the '76 version, 26-year-old Mehler in the '02 version.
Killed Off for Real: Very likely. Either by fractured skull or burned to death in his unconsiousness.
Lovable Jock: In addition to being a star athlete, he's also a very good-hearted, likable person, and one of the few people who stands up for Carrie, though he is reluctant to take her to the prom. It's also mentioned in the Scrapbook Story that none of his surviving classmates had anything bad to say about him, which, considering that most of the survivors were social outcasts who hadn't been invited to the prom, suggests that he was pretty much the opposite of the "jerk jock" stereotype.
Jerk Jock: However, as shown by the book's Scrapbook Story, he's treated like this afterwards (along with Sue, who gets retconned into an Alpha Bitch) so that the people investigating the incident can have an easy scapegoat.
Only Sane Man: He seems to be this at the prom. Too bad he gets knocked out before the disaster occurs.
Rita L. Desjardin is the gym teacher at the high school, who feels a mix of pity and annoyance at Carrie for her social awkwardness. After Carrie is humiliated in the showers, Rita is quick to punish those responsible with a week's detention, with her, after school, with failure to show up leading to one being barred from the prom.In the 1976 film, her name was changed to Miss Collins, while in the Broadway adaptation, she became Miss Gardiner. Both remakes kept the name she had in the books, but the 2002 version changed the spelling to "Desjarden".
Air Vent Passageway: She and some students use this in the '02 version to escape the burning gym.
The Atoner: In the book, this is why she retires from teaching after the prom.
Does Not Like Men: In the book and the '02 version, she says that the reason why the administration made her tone down her punishment was because all of them were men, and that none of them would understand what Carrie had gone through.
Lesbian Jock: Betty Buckley has said that she played her as one in the '76 version. However, instead of being a Butch Lesbian like many versions of this trope, she has a very feminine appearance, and the bulk of her interaction with Carrie is complimenting her looks and giving her beauty tips. She also mentions having taken a date to her own prom, although this doesn't rule out her being bisexual and/or closeted — she most likely would have attended her prom in The Sixties, before the gay rights movement lifted most of the taboos surrounding homosexuality.
Race Lift: A comparatively mild example. The 1976 film changes her ethnicity from Frenchnote Or more specifically, French-Canadian. The story is set in Maine, where a quarter of the population has French ancestry, nearly all of whom can trace it to Quebec or the former Acadia. to Irish, while the Broadway adaptation makes her English.
Stern Teacher: She doesn't hesitate to give her class a week of boot-camp detention and threaten them with expulsion from the prom as punishment for humiliating Carrie. However, she drops this attitude when she's with Carrie, treating her with the respect that nobody (save for Sue and Tommy) gives her.
Chris Hargensen
Played by:
Nancy Allen (1976 version) Emilie de Ravin (2002 version) Portia Doubleday (2013 version)
Christine "Chris" Hargensen is the Alpha Bitch of the school, and Billy's girlfriend. She leads the class as they humiliate Carrie in the shower. Feeling that Carrie is responsible for her misfortune, she sets out to get revenge on her after finding that she is going to the prom with Tommy, enlisting her Girl Posse, her boyfriend Billy, and his friends in the plan.
Adaptation Dye Job: She was a brunette in the book, but blonde in the '76 and '02 versions.
Alpha Bitch: To a sociopathic degree. Lampshaded in the parody Scarrie!:
Chris: "The Carrie Whites of the world aren't meant to go out with the Tommy Rosses of the world! For if God had wanted that, he would have given her a kick-ass bod, and long hair that layers easily and DANCES IN THE WIND!!"
Blondes are Evil: In the '76 and '02 versions. Averted in the book and in the '13 version — Portia Doubleday, a natural blonde, dyed her hair brown for the role.
Dawson Casting: 26-year-old Allen in the '76 version, 20-year-old de Ravin in the '02 version, and 24-year-old Doubleday in the '13 version.
Delinquent: Her characterization in the book. It's stated that she's been sent to detention 73 times in four years, twenty of them for bullying, and that she skipped most of them. In addition, during Junior High, she had once put a firecracker into a girl's shoe and nearly blew off two of her toes. The film adaptations largely downplay this to focus on her Alpha Bitch tendencies.
Never My Fault: Though it was clearly her fault that she got detention and was banned from the prom, instead of taking responsibility, she decides to plot an elaborate revenge against Carrie. She even tries justifying herself by claiming that Carrie was "running around saying everyone except her and her gilt-edged momma were going to hell" as an excuse.
Spoiled Brat / Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Her father, a rich lawyer, got her into Oberlin despite her poor grades, and threatens to sue the school if they punish Chris for what she did to Carrie in the shower. He backs off when he sees her record of violations. Later, after getting kicked out of the prom, she plans to humiliate Carrie as payback for it, feeling that she is entitled to go to the prom. She's so annoying you just want to squash her. Thanks, Carrie!
John Travolta (1976 version) Jesse Cadotte (2002 version) Alex Russell (2013 version)
William "Billy" Nolan is Chris' boyfriend. He is one of the school's delinquents, and his characterization ranges from merely a jerkass (in the 1976 film) to outright thuggish (in the book). He frequently hits Chris, and in the book he forces himself on her. He breaks into a local farm in order to kill the pigs and drain their blood into the buckets.
The Alleged Car: The original book has him driving a rusty, beat-up, jacked-in-the-back '61 Chevy Biscayne with a broken headlight. The film, fortunately, upgrades him to something much cooler.
Lack of Empathy: He barely knows who Carrie White is, he just wants to destroy her life. In the book, it's stated that he does the prom prank only For the Evulz, and that he would find it just as funny if Chris was the target of the pig blood.
Tina Blake / Norma Watson
Played by:
P. J. Soles (1976 version) Katharine Isabelle (2002 version) Zoe Belkin (2013 version)
Tina Blake is Chris' best friend and part of her Girl Posse, and just as catty as she is. She assists Chris in her plan to humiliate Carrie; she is the one who switches out the ballots to get her and Tommy in position.In the 1976 film, her character takes the name of Norma Watson, who was a fairly minor character in the book.
Adaptational Villainy: Norma was a Student Council President in the original book and in the '02 version, and barely figured at all in the story. The '76 version upgrades her to Chris' partner-in-crime, replacing Tina.
Adorkable: P. J. Soles as Norma in the '76 version. She may be The Dragon to Chris' council of high school villainy, but she is so dorky and cute you kind of want to let it slide. Especially after seeing her get her hair done in the salon, and still wearing her trademark hat on top of the dryer.
Bare Your Midriff: In the '02 version, most of Tina's shirts are tied off at the bottom so that they do this.
Girl Posse: Part of it, and the most important member barring Chris herself.
Iconic Outfit: Norma's red baseball cap in the '76 version, which she is never seen without — she wears it to prom, and even at the hairdresser. Reportedly, this was P. J. Soles' idea.
Ralph White
Carrie White's father, and Margaret's husband. A former construction worker who found God, Ralph promised to Margaret that their marriage would be free of "sin" (i.e. sex), but came home drunk one night and raped her, producing Carrie. The book says that he was killed in an accident on the job not long after, but the film has him running off with another woman instead. The sequel reveals that he later fathered Rachel Lang, making her and Carrie half-sisters.
A high school outcast who has been bounced around the foster care system after her mother was institutionalized. Like her half-sister Carrie White, she possesses Psychic Powers and uses them to take revenge against bullies — in this case, the Jerk Jocks who drove her best friend Lisa to suicide.
Abusive Parents: While not as bad as Margaret White, Rachel's foster parents are very neglectful and are depicted as Lower Class Louts, and her father has no problem hitting her. In an early scene, it's stated that the only reason they raise her is to get $300 per month from the foster care system.
Marked Change: After she goes berserk, her tattoo of a thorny rose starts spreading itself all over her body, causing her to look as though she is covered in vines.
Sorry, I'm Gay: She claims she's a lesbian in order to stop a classmate from hitting on her.
Lisa Parker
Played by: Mena Suvari
Rachel's best friend. At the start of the film, she throws herself from the roof of the school after finding out that her boyfriend Eric, whom she gave her virginity, was only dating her for sex in order to score literal points with his buddies.
Death Is Dramatic: Invoked. She kills herself in the middle of the school day in order to get the most attention. Naturally, her death drives much of the plot.
Jesse Ryan is a member of the Bates High School Bulldogs football team. He is highly uncomfortable with his teammates' contest, known as the Game, in which they hook up with girls and score points depending on how hot the girl was, how far the two went, and other variables, and feels pressured into it by them. He strikes up a relationship with Rachel, only for it to be disastrously derailed when she finds out about the Game.
Expy: He seems to be a combonation with of Tommy and Sue.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: The burn scar he gets on his arm during Rachel's rampage is one that can easily be concealed under a sleeve, making it an example of the good kind.
Mark Bing is the starter of the football team, and the one most committed to the Game. Feeling that the integrity of the team is on the line, he orchestrates a plan to humiliate Rachel after her best friend Lisa kills herself due to his teammate Eric's actions, so as to prevent her from going to the police and spilling the beans as to what they had done.
Eric Stark is the football player who inadvertently drove Lisa to suicide by taking her virginity and then breaking up with her. Fearing for his future, he teams up with his teammate Mark to prevent Rachel from spilling all the details to the police.
Jerk Jock: On top of playing the Game with his teammates, he also plays very dirty on the field, badly wounding a member of the opposing team during the big game.
My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction to Lisa's death, though it's mostly out of fear that he'd piss off his father and lose his shot at a football scholarship.
Oh Crap: His reaction when the police officer holds up to him the picture of him and Lisa together.
Tracy Campbell
Played by: Charlotte Ayanna
Tracy Campbell is Jesse's girlfriend, and a member of the cheerleading squad. She happily joins Mark's plan to humiliate Rachel, seeing her as trying to steal her boyfriend Jesse.
Jesse: "Doesn't it bother you that some girl offed herself yesterday?" Tracy: "Why? She wasn't anybody." Jesse: "What?" Tracy: "I mean, I didn't know her."
Your Cheating Heart: She goes along with the plan to humiliate Rachel because she thinks Jesse is cheating on her with Rachel.
Monica Jones
Played by: Rachel Blanchard
Monica Jones is Tracy's best friend, going along with her participation in Mark's plan out of obligation to a friend.
Eye Scream: Rachel kills her by smashing her glasses and shoving the broken glass into her eyes.
