Characters / Carrie — White Family

aka: Carrie Margaret White

White Family:

Carrie White

Carietta "Carrie" N. White

1976

2002

2013

Played by:

Sissy Spacek (1976 version)
Angela Bettis (2002 version)/Jodelle Ferland (child)
Chloë Grace Moretz (2013 version)

"It was bad, Mama. They laughed at me."

The Cinderella of the story, Carrie White is a shy, lonely teenage girl who is frequently bullied and abused by both her classmates and by her fundamentalist Christian mother Margaret. Her life seems to be getting better once the attractive, kind-hearted athlete Tommy asks her to the prom, but then it goes right back into hell, and then some. She possesses the ability to manipulate objects with only her thoughts, which makes angering her... not advisable.

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• Accidental Misnaming: 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)
  • Averted in the 2013 version. The principal only gets her name wrong once, and remembers it after he's corrected. Instead, the thing that sets off her mini-freak out (telekinetically cracking the water cooler next to her) in his office is having her mother informed of the shower incident.
• 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, Angela Bettis and Chloë Grace 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.
• Adaptational Badass: In the 2013 version. Aside from being more adept in using her powers, she is more ruthless in punishing her tormentors.
• Adaptational Heroism: Both the '76 and '02 versions of Carrie (especially the '02 version) hold less rage and vengeful fantasies inside of them prior to their breakdown, and in the ‘02 version, her breakdown itself is explicitly portrayed as her being in something of a trance rather than fully conscious and culpable in her actions.
• Adaptational Modesty: In the '13 version, Carrie is covered up by a towel during the shower scene due to Chloe Moretz being a minor. She was naked in the book and the other two films.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: While she doesn't deserve what happens to her in any version, the movie versions of her remove some of her disturbing traits (such as having murderous revenge fantasies), and make her just a Nice Girl who only wants to be loved and treated with kindness, and who seemingly wouldn't hurt a fly until she snaps.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the book and all the movies, Tommy is already dead by the time the rampage starts (it's confirmed in the novel that his neck snaps when the bucket hits him, and in all the film adaptations, he doesn't move after he's hit). In the musical, the bucket doesn't hit him, and Carrie singles him out during the rampage to kill him personally.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the book, Carrie has Mousy Brown hair. She’s a redhead in the 1976 film, dark Brown in the 2002 version and Strawberry Blonde in 2013.
• All of the Other Reindeer: She's shy, awkward, and totally naive to things as universally known as a woman's period. This is due almost entirely to her being raised by her zealous mother—as a child, the lessons Carrie's mother put into her head made her judge the other kids her age unfairly, and even though she's outgrown that as a teenager, she still has no idea how to act with other people. Needless to say, very few people have a nice word to say about her.
• Anti-Hero:
  • Classical Anti-Hero in most of the movie/book, Nominal Hero or Tragic Villain in the end. Carrie has spent her entire life being bullied, tormented, and abused by her mother and classmates, and in her only moment of happiness, she's cruelly pranked and humiliated. Her resulting rampage, however, goes far, far beyond ruthless, murdering her classmates and even people she's never met before.
  • They take this to another level in the 02 version, where before her massacre at the prom, her mental break causes her to go into a trance, and unconsciously unleash her powers on the gymnasium and the town, only to awaken with no memory of what she just did after getting home, and horrified to find herself in a bath with reddish water and covered in blood, and the implication from her mother that she committed a great sin.
• Anti-Villain: The Woobie variety. Carrie brutally murders and tortures her classmates and the town citizens in her rampage, but it's in response to years and years of abuse coupled with a deteriorated mental state.
• The Atoner: In the 1976 version, she is incredibly remorseful about what she's done once she finally snaps out her trance, and seemingly collapses the house on herself as a self-imposed punishment. The 2013 version is mostly the same, but takes it even further, as just before she makes the house collapse, Sue comes in to talk to her, and she telekinetically shove Sue out just before letting the house cave in.
• Ax-Crazy: Near the end, famously. She quickly begins to take joy in the pain she's causing her classmates and citizens.
• Back from the Dead: Potentially implied at the end of the 2013 version, when her headstone begins to crack apart.
• Badass Adorable: Carrie is a shy, insecure, attractive girl, but turns out to be a force to be reckoned with when she unleashes her psychic powers.
• Ballroom Blitz: She brings the pain at prom night, trapping many of the students inside.
• Beautiful All Along: Carrie cleans up rather nicely when she's allowed to. Tommy himself, when having a conversation with her, is surprised to see that she's actually very pretty underneath her poor posture and refusal to make eye contact.
• Beauty Inversion: In the 2002 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.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: In the 2013 version, she spares Ms. Desjardin and saves her from a High-Voltage Death because she was the only school faculty member who was even remotely nice to her and tried to reach out to her.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Carrie's bullying and her mother's Abusive Parenting is what made her into a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
• Berserk Button: She can't stand blood... or getting laughed at... or people thinking her name is Cassie.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Not at first, due to her demure and submissive nature. Once she begins to accept her powers and grows a bit more backbone, though, Carrie starts pushing back against her mother in particular. Then the prom happens, and she REALLY turns out to be no one to mess with.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: She is a quiet, lonely girl. Because of this, her classmates love making fun of her.
• Blessed with Suck: Her powers cause her mother to think that she's an evil witch and try to kill her.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: In the three films: Carrie is Strawberry Blonde (partial Redhead) in the 1976 version, Brunette in the 2002 remake and Blonde in the 2013 reboot.
• Blood Is the New Black: Just before her rampage begins, Carrie's soaked in pig's blood from the prank, creating a haunting image.
• Blood-Splattered Innocents: What caused her to snap in the prom. She did absolutely nothing to deserve what she got, and only got dumped with pig's blood in her happiest moment because one Alpha Bitch simply couldn't stand her.
• Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: Her Iconic Outfit is this, except a prom dress instead of a wedding dress.
• Blue Is Heroic: She mainly wore blue at first, and starts out as a shy Nice Girl, before she has a Face–Heel Turn.
• Break the Cutie: A cute, shy outcast who definitely suffers a lot.
  • First she's bullied by her classmates when she had her period and abused by her crazy mother.
  • Second, when she gets pig blood splattered on her when she was elected prom queen and hallucinates that people are laughing at her. She eventually reaches her breaking point and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Bully Hunter: Subverted. She does hunt down Chris and Billy, but it's actually one of the biggest misconceptions that she is this, when she in fact kills indiscriminately throughout the town. It is mostly played straight in the 2013 remake, as, with the exception of Freddy Holt, she only directly targets people who mistreated her, and notably lets Ms. Desjardin live.
• Bully Magnet: Carrie is an unfortunate target for bullies.
• Butt-Monkey: A tragic exaggerated example. She's cruelly made fun of by everyone at school and also mistreated by her crazy abusive mother.
• Coming of Age Story: One that goes horribly, horribly wrong. Over the course of the novel, she starts to grow a backbone, embraces her powers, and becomes a little less naïve. Unfortunately, her growing strength is what leads her to react so strongly at the end.
• Cute and Psycho: When she gets bullied enough, she eventually becomes this and terrorizes her tormentors, killing them one by one.
• Dark Magical Girl: Save for her not having a heroic Magical Girl to oppose her (Sue comes closest, but doesn't have powers of her own), she otherwise meets most of the criteria, being a lonely teenage girl with magical powers whose feelings of worthlessness eventually cause her to snap and become an Anti-Villain.
• Death Equals Redemption: In the 2013 version, Carrie seemed to believe this, as she chose to stay in her collapsing house with her mother's body rather than escape, despite having time to do so.
• Death Glare: Gives one to everybody during the prom scene.
• Despair Event Horizon:
  • After a lifetime of being made to 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.
  • The 2013 version adds an interesting touch: showing her crying over Tommy after the bucket hits his head and knocks him out/kills him (unclear which), implying that she knew he was innocent, and what happened to him just pissed her off more. Tommy in the 2013 version was also visibly angry at the prank, shouting "What the hell!?" at the gym in general. (He also yells "What the hell?!" in the 1976 version, but while his words are clearly visible on his lips, it's played as a Moment of Silence.) This may have contributed to Carrie realizing that he wasn't in on it and genuinely was trying to show her a good time.
• Deus Angst Machina: Not only does she have to contend with an abusive mother, but she's also a complete social outcast in school.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: In Sue's arms at the end of the novel.
• Disappeared Dad: 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. In the 2013 film, the reason for his absence is never stated. In The Musical, it's heavily implied he ran out on Margaret after she became pregnant (which would certainly explain a lot about Margaret's distrust towards men).
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: A teen outcast, subject to heavy bullying by peers, snaps and goes on a killing spree... even Stephen King has made the connection. (In On Writing, he outright calls Carrie a female version of Harris and Klebold). This counts as a retroactive example, however, given that Carrie was published 25 years before Columbine.
• The Dog Bites Back: Once she realizes her gift, she's quick to turn it on her abusive mother, and the town that's abused her for so long.
• Driven to Madness: One of the traits that just about every adaptation tones down (although most leave it ambiguous how much she actually loses her mind), but it's clear in the novel that she has gone completely insane by the end of Prom Night, even being lampshaded as she walks down the street of her burning town.
• Driven to Suicide: In every adaptation except the 2002 film, she allows herself to die to end her suffering.
  • In the novel, she bleeds out without seeking help after stumbling to the roadhouse where she was conceived.
  • In 1976 and 2013 movies, she lets her house crumble onto herself after regretfully killing her mother.
• Face–Heel Turn: She starts out sympathetic, but after the prank, she gives in to her hatred, and murders her classmates before massacring her entire town.
• Fairytale Motif: Carrie is the Cinderella of her story, a poor, plain-looking girl abused at home by her mother and bullied by her classmates instead of evil stepsisters. Her "fairy godmother" Sue gives her a chance to go to the prom for one night, wear a beautiful dress and dance with Tommy, the most handsome boy in school who might as well be a prince. Of course, it all goes horribly wrong.
• Faking the Dead: In the '02 version, she does this with Sue's help in order to start a new life for herself.
• Freudian Excuse: Having Margaret White as a mother can excuse practically anything. Her naivete and awkward nature is due almost solely to her mother abusing and tormenting her.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Subverted. Carrie goes mad from having the bucket of pigs' blood dropped on her, but she thinks that the revelation that drives her mad is that Sue and Tommy were setting her up, which they didn’t do.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: In all the film versions... at least before prom night.
• The Hero Dies: Dies at the end of the novel and films. Averted in the 2002 version in which she's Spared by the Adaptation. The final scene of the 2013 film also implies her resurrection.
• 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.
• He Who Fights Monsters: In the 2013 movie, Carrie is lifting up Chris' car and is about to gleefully kill her until she sees how frightened and helpless Chris looks, an expression that's been on Carrie's face many times (often because of Chris). All in Carrie's ensuing facial expression, it can be seen that she realizes that her and Chris switching positions like this doesn't make her feel better, it only means that she is now the bully.
• Horrifying the Horror: Margaret is clearly terrified by her Psychic Powers. The book reveals that Margaret first learned of this when she say her levitating a baby bottle when she was a baby, which is implied to be the main reason she treats her so badly to begin with.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: The whole reason why she's skeptical of Tommy's offer initially. One of the songs in the Brian DePalma film soundtrack is called "I Never Dreamed Someone Like You Could Love Someone Like Me", a touch on the nose.
• Iconic Outfit: Her blood-drenched pink prom dress.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Subverted. Her desire to be treated as an equal among her classmates and other people extends to her psychic powers, after reading about psychic phenomena and finding that she wasn't the only one to have such supernatural abilities.
• The Ingenue: Deconstructed. She is incredibly naive due to her mom not teaching her anything about sex, or even basic female biology. As such, she thinks she is bleeding to death when she gets her first period, and all of the other girls terrorize and humiliate her for it.
• Innocently Insensitive: In the book and the 2013 film, Chris justifies her mistreatment of Carrie by saying that Carrie has previously expressed the sentiment that everyone but herself and her mother are going to Hell. Given that Margaret says similar things around Carrie all the time and that Carrie was kept sheltered for years until the state said that she couldn't be homeschooled anymore, it's extremely likely that Carrie thought that this was a perfectly normal thing to say, having never learned that other people would find it offensive. It efficiently explains why even the students who don't actively bully her still prefer to keep their distance.
• Invincible Villain: Once she undergoes her full Face–Heel Turn into a Tragic Villain, nothing can stop her. The sole thing that does stop her is her heart giving out from overusing her powers, and her own Heel Realization of what she's done, which holds true for all the versions of her across the movies and the original novel.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: She follows up her prom massacre by destroying her entire town, killing hundreds of people.
• Kick the Morality Pet: When she murders Miss Collins in the ‘76 film. Up to this point, Miss Collins was one of the only people who was nice to Carrie and even began to see Carrie as a daughter of sorts. She still ends up suffering a Cruel and Unusual Death via a falling basketball goalpost.
• Last Disrespects: In the '76 and '13 versions, her grave is defaced with the words "Carrie White Burns in Hell".
• Leave No Survivors: In the novel, she locks all the doors to ensure that there would be no survivors, but there was one she failed to hold shut. She actually succeeds in the 1976 film.
• Legend Fades to Myth: In the sequel, Rachel mentions that a mountain of conspiracy theories has developed around Carrie and her rampage.
  Rachel: Supposedly, she set the fire as some sort of revenge-suicide thing, Elvis was her date and they escaped in a UFO.
• 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.
• Meaningful Name: The color white is associated with innocence and purity, values her mother is trying to instill in her.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In both the 1976 version and the 2002 version, she has this reaction when she returns to her house and takes a bath, and it only escalates from there. In the 2013 version, she has it earlier when she's about to kill Chris, only to see Chris' fearful expression and realize that she's become just like her - and then is forced to kill Chris anyway in self-defense.
• Mysterious Middle Initial: Her full name is "Carrietta N. White", but it's never been revealed what the N stands for.
• Nice Girl: The film adaptations portray her as a shy, sweet girl who deserves none of the cruelty heaped upon her. However, this is not the case in the book, where she's far more misanthropic and harbored violent revenge fantasies for years.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In the 2013 remake, she actually snaps out of her psychotic break and decides to spare Chris. Chris returns her mercy by trying to run her over, forcing her to kill Chris in self-defense.
• Non-Malicious Monster: This varies depending on the adaptation. The 1976 movie implies she's gone insane during the prom massacre, as she imagines that everyone is laughing at her, but she is in a state of Tranquil Fury while she kills everyone and destroys the place, and when she seeks comfort from her mother afterward, she still claims that everyone laughed at her. The 2002 version explicitly has her go into a trance and lose control when she kills people, and she wakes up with no memory after the fact, making her morally innocent. The 2013 film and especially the book avert this, as it's made clear she knows full well what she's doing and wants revenge.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: She stops fearing Margaret when she realizes she has a bit more power than she thought, and can use this power to protect herself and/or punish Margaret. She almost says this word-for-word in The Musical.
  I am not afraid of you / at all. / I have nothing left to lose. / I have power I can use. / Nothing you can say / or do / will ever stop me / again...
• Not Quite Dead:
  • In the '02 version, where she is somehow resuscitated by Sue after spending hours submerged in a bathtub.
  • Potentially implied at the end of the 2013 version, when her headstone begins to crack apart.
• Odd Name, Normal Nickname: Carrie's full name is Carrietta in the book. This is Adapted Out of every film version, probably due to this trope, and borders on being forgotten in the book itself, as she is Only Known By Her Nickname.
• Ordinary High-School Student: At the start of the story, Carrie appears to others as an ordinary student, only notable for being one of the school outcasts. In reality, Carrie has supernatural powers that even she was not entirely aware of.
• 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.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: In the book, before killing Margaret:
  "I'm going to give you a present, Momma. [...] Do you know what the present is, Momma? Darkness. And whatever God lives there."
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: She goes from a sympathetic bullying victim to a mass murderer in one night. This is especially the case in the book, where her rampage is premeditated and she's fully aware of what she's doing.
• 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. In the 2013 version, she uses various hand-motions.
• Psychic Powers: Of the Mind over Matter variety. In the book, she's also telepathic.
• Psycho Pink: In the 1976, 2002, and 2013 films, and the musical, Carrie's prom dress (which gets drenched with blood and which she wears throughout her school massacre) is a very gentle, feminine pink. This marks a deliberate departure from the book, where Carrie's prom dress is red.
• Puberty Superpower: Zig-zagged. She had latent powers since birth, but only managed to gain control over them at adolescence.
• The Quiet One: Throughout the book.
• Religious Bruiser: Especially in the novel. Despite the abuse she takes, some of her mother's fanatical beliefs do take heart. During her Roaring Rampage of Revenge on the town, she noticeably takes the time to visit a church and pray, all while still causing flaming carnage all around her.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After the prank, she loses her shit and begins slaughtering anyone who crosses her.
• Sadist:
  • In the book, where she has repeated fantasies about using her powers to hurt people, and her entire revenge is premeditated, with her fully aware of her actions and enjoying every second of it.
  • She's a downplayed example in the 2013 movie. Unlike the first two movie adaptations, she's definitely smiling a bit as she kills people at the prom.
• Self-Made Orphan: In the short time between Margaret's death and her own.
• 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.
• Shrinking Violet: She has absolutely zero friends due in no small part to being as shy as a mouse.
• Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Well she eventually falls for Tommy Ross, but it doesn't last long when he dies.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the 2002 version. Rather than dying with her mother, she fakes her own death, and she and Sue run away to Florida.
• Squishy Wizard: Has dangerous psychic powers that she uses to kill a whole lot of people, but a single stab in the back from her mother is enough to be fatal. Of course, it's justified since she's just a teen girl who managed to control her powers only very recently.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: She sews her own prom dress.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: In the 1976 film. She thinks everyone is laughing at her after the prank when everyone is really in stunned silence. She still goes mad in most other adaptations, but there really are people laughing at her, especially in the book.
• Took a Level in Badass: Played with. She went from Shrinking Violet school outcast from entire life, once she got her powers, she became much powerful especially in the prom massacre.
• Tranquil Fury: Averted in the book. Carrie quite gleefully enjoys the carnage she causes. Played straight in all film adaptations but especially the De Palma film.
• Unstable Powered Child: As a young child, her powers caused her to inadvertently cause a rock rain over her own home. Given that she's still a teenager, she straddles between this and the trope right below, especially as her struggles are consistent with a child's: bullying and parental abuse being the main focal points for her instability.
• Unstable Powered Woman: In the book and all films. If anything, the trope is more muted in the original novel, where Carrie already struggles with her emotions as a result of her mother's abuse. However, after she obtains her psychic powers, she becomes homicidal, vengeful, and eventually goes completely insane and murders 400+ people in a single night in her hometown. The films up the ante by portraying her as kind and sweet before her powers awaken, and especially before the Black Prom.
• Unstoppable Rage: After snapping, she descends into this. She is mostly in Tranquil Fury, but some bits her calm demeanour slips to reveal the absolute fury within.
• Villain Protagonist: More precisely she's a Woobie Anti-Villain, starting off sympathetic but turning into a revenge-seeking monster by the book's end.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: When one of Tommy's friends starts goofing around at the prom, Carrie briefly thinks he's attacking Tommy, and is considering using her powers to knock him away before she realizes they're just having fun.
• Who's Laughing Now?: Her entire character is defined by this. It's especially poignant in the novel and the 2013 film, where much of the crowd is explicitly laughing at her. In fact, the 2013 film plays it straight the most, as the moment she reveals her power to the crowd, they immediately stop laughing and look at her in shock before she starts her vengeful rampage.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Her reaction to the prom prank is one of the all-time great cautionary tales about bullying. Carrie might well be the quintessential Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. She is certainly one of the most popular examples of the trope.

Margaret White

Margaret White (née Brigham)

1976

2002

2013

Played by:

Piper Laurie (1976 version)
Patricia Clarkson (2002 version)
Julianne Moore (2013 version)

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. She's the Wicked Stepmother of the movie's Cinderella Plot, although she's actually Carrie's biological mother.

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• Abled in the Adaptation: A minor example; she wears glasses in the book, but not in the 1976 movie.
• Abusive Parents: She's a completely deranged fundamentalist who treats things like menstruation and holidays as sinful and has a special "prayer closet" to lock Carrie in when she misbehaves.
• 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).
• Adaptational Intelligence: In the original novel she mainly just flies into violent rages and physically beats Carrie if she disobeys her, but in the film adaptations she also emotionally manipulates Carrie, praying on her fears of being bullied and tricked again, and trying to convince her Tommy is merely deceiving her.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the book, she has a pretty big Freudian Excuse: it's implied she was herself abused as a child, and we also learn that her husband Ralph White died in a freak construction accident while Margaret was pregnant with Carrie. She was also raped by Ralph at one point and had a miscarriage, which likely led to her belief that Sex Is Evil. The 1976 movie cuts all of this out except the rape, making Margaret an evil psycho with no context or reason given. The 2002 version goes even one step further by removing any hint of Margaret's tragic backstory.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • In The Musical and in the '13 film, while still abusive, she's more human and she genuinely loves Carrie thinking that the punishments she subjects her to are for her own good. In The Musical she even expresses remorse for having her locked in the closet. Also in the '13 film she hesitates to stab her daughter claiming that she's always loved her.
  • While she isn't humanized as much as in the above mentioned adaptations, the 2002 television film's Margaret is a lot less psychotic and physically abusive than her 1976 counterpart.
• And Starring: In the 1976 and 2013 versions. Patricia Clarkson is credited second in the 2002 version.
• Antagonistic Offspring: To her mother and stepfather in the book, to the point that they both wanted her out of the house.
• Asshole Victim: After years and years of abusing and tormenting her daughter, it's hard to feel sorry for her when Carrie finally kills her at the end.
• Ax-Crazy: Quite. Although it makes itself most obvious near the end, where she tries to murder Carrie, her own daughter.
• The Baroness: A combination of the two types. While she's obviously rather pretty, she's also old enough to also count as the "evil hag" type.
• Big Bad Ensemble: She is the story's main antagonist along with the Chris/Billy couple. She is, however, the True Final Boss.
• Catchphrase: "Go to your closet and pray."
• 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. (Carrie recalls that Margaret used to be a Baptist, before forming her own church with her husband.) Averted in the 2013 version, where she quotes some decidedly bizarre and skewed scripture that Carrie claims isn't in the Bible. She'd probably know, though.
• Crucified Villain Shot: In the '76 film and the 2013 remake, Carrie kills her by crucifying her against the doorway with kitchen knives, in the style of the St. Sebastian figurine in her chapel.
• Death by a Thousand Cuts: Carrie telekinetically stabbed her with multiple knives in the 1976 and 2013 versions. Her 2002 death is more closely matched to the book.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Carrie causes her to have a fatal heart attack in the novel and 2002 film. The 1976 and 2013 films instead have Carrie telekenetically stabbing her with multiple knives.
• Dies Wide Open: In the 1976 version.
• Does Not Like Men: After what her husband did to her, she compares all men to be dogs and thinks the same thing might happen to Carrie.
• Establishing Character Moment: "And God made Eve from the rib of Adam. And Eve was weak and loosed the raven on the world. And the raven was called sin. Say it, the raven was called sin."
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Which is why Carrie usually submits to her. She wants nothing more than a healthy relationship with her mother and heavily regrets killing her.
• Evil Is Hammy: Particularly, Piper Laurie's portrayal. (see Large Ham below)
• Evil Matriarch: Carrie's mother, and the only family she has. She controls everything Carrie does and forces her daughter to abide by her own distorted religious beliefs.
• Evil Redhead: In all three films.
• Female Misogynist: She believes that women are sinners by nature, and only start getting periods and/or developing breasts as punishment for sinning.
• The Fundamentalist: Taken to its most insane extreme. In the book, she and her husband formed their own church because none of the existing ones were extreme enough for them, and 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."
• Hate Sink: The 1976 version removes all her sympathetic traits, so she's just an abusive bitch.
• 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, just about everything 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.
  • For the record, the first sin was disobedience, not intercourse. Since God asked Adam and Eve to multiply and replenish the earth while they were still in the garden, sex was not inherently sinful.
• The Immodest Orgasm: In the 1976 version, she moaned multiple times before dying.
• Impaled Palm: Her Death by a Thousand Cuts above started with this.
• In-Universe Factoid Failure: She quotes some made-up "verses" not found any version of The Bible, and says the Original Sin was sexual intercourse, when the Bible clearly says it was eating the Forbidden Fruit, which you'd think she'd know if she's The Fundamentalist. Then again, she is Ax-Crazy.
• Insane Troll Logic: Her entire worldview is built on this, particularly in the book. She thinks that all Sex Is Evil, even for reproduction, and when she's pregnant with Carrie she thinks it's God giving her cancer as punishment for having sex. She also seems to think almost everything is a sin, even random things like summer camps, and thinks women only have periods and grow breasts as punishment for sin.
• Insufferable Imbecile: An incredibly vile example: she is both a sadistic tyrant and insane idiot whose entire worldview is made out of Insane Troll Logic.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: In the book, when Carrie was a child, she really wanted to go to Christian Youth Camp even though Margaret told her it was horrible and sinful. The other kids bullied her so badly that she came home crying a week early. When they got home, Margaret told her that she should remember the pain and treasure it as proof that she was right, and locked her in the prayer closet for six hours.
• Knight Templar: After Carrie has gone on her revenge, burning the town and killing many of its citizens, Margaret attempts to kill Carrie. Though Carrie is undoubtedly too far gone at that point, it's doubtful she would have ended up in such a way if Margaret hadn't damaged her so much. She had also pretty much made up her mind to murder Carrie as soon as she got home, even before the prank happened.
• Knocking on Heathens' Door: In the original, she is seen doing this at Mrs. Snell's house.
• Large Ham: Piper Laurie's performance in the '76 version. Laurie felt that her character and performance were so over-the-top that the film had to be a Black Comedy, and she still maintained that to be the case for the rest of her life. In an interview on the DVD extras for the 1976 version, Betty Buckley (who played the gym teacher in the film and Margaret in the Broadway non-parody musical) notes the relationship between Margaret and Carrie to be "operatic".
• Madness Mantra: "If the eye doth offend thee, pluck it out."
• Meaningful Name: "Margaret" means "pearl", which fits her last name as pearls are usually white.
• 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.
• Offing the Offspring: Always an option for her. She ultimately succeeded except in the 2002 version.
• New England Puritan: Fits this trope to a T, believing that sex even within marriage is immoral and going door to door to preach the gospel. This results in her and her daughter being outcasts in the town.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: She is rather similar to Augusta Gein, Serial Killer Ed Gein's mother. Augusta was also a very abusive religious nut and Female Misogynist who taught Gein that all Sex Is Evil and women should be hated. Like Carrie, Ed ended up going insane and killing a lot of people (although Ed didn’t have any Psychic Powers like Carrie.)
• Psycho Knife Nut: In her more psychotic moments, including the end, she goes after Carrie with a butcher's knife.
• Religious Stereotype: She is every stereotype of Christian fundamentalists rolled into one and mixed liberally with raving insanity.
• Room 101: Her favorite punishment is to lock Carrie for hours in a prayer closet with a picture of God casting multitudes of screaming sinners into the fiery abyss. The book describes it as "the home of terror, the cave where all hope, all resistance to God's will – and Momma's – was extinguished."
• Room Full of Crazy: Her entire house is this in the book, with a bunch of odd and disturbing religious murals painted on the walls, as well as random quotes from the Bible scrawled in places, a prayer closet she locks Carrie in as punishment, and a massive four-foot-tall plaster crucifix mounted on the wall depicting the agony of Jesus during his last moments.
• Sanity Slippage: Margaret starts off insane, but gets even crazier once Carrie insists on going to prom.
• Self-Harm: She is prone to hitting and scratching herself as a means of guilt-tripping Carrie, especially after Carrie starts using her powers and Margaret can no longer control her. She also does it covertly at the sewing shop while talking to a customer about a dress, clearly self-aware enough to realize that insulting the customer would be a bad idea. Carrie telekinetically stops her later on, telling her that it isn't going to work any more.
• Self-Made Orphan: The 2013 version implies that Margaret murdered her own mother for having the same powers as Carrie. This differs from the book where it was Margaret's grandmother who had powers and died of natural causes.
• Sex Is Evil: She believes all sex, even within marriage, to be sinful.
• Slut-Shaming: She does this to Estelle while sunbathing with her bikini on.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: In the 2013 movie. "You know the devil never dies...he keeps coming back. You gotta keep killing him."
• Textile Work Is Feminine:
  • The narration makes mention of her sewing doilies.
  • The 2013 film shows her not only sewing at home (possibly implying she hand-makes all of Carrie's clothes, which would make sense if she considers 2013 feminine fashion for teenage girls sinful), but she works professionally as a seamstress.
• Too Dumb to Live: In the book, Carrie sends out a psychic "broadcast" threatening everyone in town. Rather than getting in her car and flooring it, or at least begging Carrie to spare her once she shows up, she decides to try to kill Carrie with just a knife. while she manages to wound Carrie, Carrie immediately uses her Psychic Powers to stop her black heart in her chest.
• Troubled Abuser: She was raped by her husband. Now she abuses her Child by Rape Carrie.
• True Final Boss: In the films. Just when you thought that chaos will be over once Carrie gets the Chris/Billy couple, Margaret tries to kill her once she gets home.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Everything she does in the story, from visiting people's doors to attempting murder, is because she genuinely believes she's helping people in desperate need of saving. Her intentions may be good, but her actions are clearly reprehensible.
  • Even more prominent in The Musical, where she doesn't want to kill Carrie, but thinks she has to because she's a "witch". In most stagings, she's crying as she stabs Carrie — and she sings "Carrie (Reprise)" as a way to give her one last moment of comfort just before she dies. While it's still a horrible, horrible thing to do, and we're glad when Carrie kills her, but it's hard not to sympathize with Margaret, just for a moment...
  • In the musical, Margaret has an eleven o'clock ballad called "When There's No One," where she contemplates what her life would be like after murdering Carrie.
• White Shirt of Death: Was wearing her white nightgown when she dies.
• Valentine's Day Vitriol: She doesn't view Valentine's Day much better than Christmas; the message in February for the viral marketing in 2013 had Margaret insulting the caller as a "whore" for celebrating the holiday.
• Villainous Breakdown: She starts off as an abusive monster, but she becomes completely deranged by the time Carrie reveals her power and goes to prom.

Ralph White

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.

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• Adapted Out: Unlike in other adaptations, he is never alluded to or even mentioned in the 2002 television film.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Relating to superpowered genetics rather than any powers he has himself. In the universe of the '76 film (which includes its sequel), Ralph is the one who possessed the telekinesis gene and passed it down to Carrie. Due to possessing the gene, he was able to have another telekinetic daughter with a different woman. However, in the book and the 2013 film, Margaret is the one who possesses the TK gene.
• Disappeared Dad: In the film. It's revealed that he ran off with another woman.
• The Fundamentalist: The book notes that he always carried around a Bible... and a revolver (in case he met the Antichrist).
• The Ghost: He is never seen in the book or in any of the films, only mentioned and discussed. As a result of Writers Cannot Do Math, he is also a literal example, as he would had to have come back from the dead to stop Margaret murdering Carrie.^note It's also quite possible that Margaret, who is not exactly the poster girl for mental soundness, simply hallucinated his involvement in that incident.
• Pet the Dog: In the novel, he stopped Margaret from killing Carrie when she was a baby. This is quite a feat, considering he had already died before Carrie was born.
• Really Gets Around: In the film universe, he fathered two children with two different women two decades apart.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the book he died in a construction accident. In the '76 and '13 film, as well as the stage musical, he ran off with another woman.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He ran out on Rachel's mother as well, and it's unknown what happened to him afterwards.