Stephen King Movie Review-Salem’s Lot (2004)

Here is another adaptation of Salem’s Lot. Another TV mini-series remake made in the year 2004. This review will be short because I already explained the basic plot a couple times. So will I not like this movie like I did the remake of Carrie? Read on and find out. 

So first off does this movie follow the book? Let’s see Ben Mears comes back to Salem’s Lot? Check. Two foreign strangers also move in? Check. The Marsten House is there and a beacon of evil? Check. The two Glick boys have an encounter? Check  Vampires? Check. Small town life? Check. Group joins together when learning the secret and goes after the vampires? Check. 

I will have to say this movie follows pretty close to the book even though they set it in more modern times and like the original movie combined characters and changed the situation and scenes around. Usually I would knock the movie from doing that but since they handled it pretty well I let it slide. This movie showed more of the small town life then even the original movie. Smaller characters that you enjoyed in the book were present here with their stories. I felt that added so much to the narrative of the story. The Marsten House was fleshed out more as the beacon of evil it is supposed to be. 

Rob Lowe plays Ben Mears in this and I must say he did an excellent job. He captures the essence of Ben Mears from the book and acted well. Andre Braugher played Matt Burke (hey they used his actual name from the book this time) who is used more in this and also played the part well. I thought it was a pretty strong performance by him. Samantha Mathis played Susan Norton who was much more prominent and gave more emotion then in the original movie. Robert Mammone played Dr. Cody. He did a good job even though his character was definitely changed from the book but at least they used him this time instead of combining his character with Susan’s dad. Dan Byrd played Mark Petrie and again was a stronger performance. They changed him some again from the book but still was good. Father Callahan was played by James Cromwell whose character had way more screen time than the original and expressed the faith aspect well as from the book. Straker was played by Donald Sutherland.  It still did not capture the description of the character as in the book he did a great job and had the same fate as the book which made it great. Kurt Barlow was played by Rutger Hauer and did a wonderful job as the head vampire. He spoke in this movie and did not have the crazy makeup. He was played very well as he was written in the book. 

As I said the movie captured small town life great. People kept saying they are bored in the town and want to get out but what they don’t know is all the secrets the people have in town. I know there are secrets in the big city but in a small town where everyone knows everyone it is kind of a big deal. I like how in this book that one person hears something and someone says everyone probably knows now. Isn’t that true in a small town? This movie shows this and again I was sucked into it. The special effects were well done along with the vampires. There was some gore which added to the horror as it should. The movie used a lot of the words from the book which was a nice touch.  

The only nitpick is the major change of the Father Callahan character for the ending. That was way different but I am coming to the acceptance that these mini-series are either trying to start a series and have to change the ending or that they want to fool the lovers of the books. Also they did focus on a character (Larry Crockett’s daughter) that was only a little bit in the book but that is ok because it added more to the small town life stories. Besides that I find this adaption to be very well done. For those of you who just refuse to read books or don’t want then picking up this movie would be the next best thing, especially if you like vampire tales. Have you seen to movie? If so how close did you think it was to the book? Did you enjoy it as much as I did? What didn’t you like abou tit? It was a great adaptation of Stephen King’s novel in my opinion. I give this movie three and half stars out of five. My next book and movie series is The Shining. Hope you are ready for that. Here is a teaser trailer of Salem’s Lot (2004) so you can see if you want to see it:

 

Like I said in the past I will have a tracker of the final ratings of each book or movie I reviewed to show what I liked or didn’t like. It is a rating based out of five stars. For previous reviews if you missed it you can click on the title and it will link to that review for you to read.

Books Reviewed:
Carrie ***
Salem’s Lot ***1/2
 


 Movies Reviewed:
 
Carrie (1976) ****
The Rage: Carrie 2 ***
Carrie (2002) ½* (Yes a half of a star out of five) 

Salem’s Lot (1979) **

A Return to Salem’s Lot *
Salem’s Lot (2004) ***1/2

Stephen King Movie Review-A Return to Salem’s Lot

With the open ending to the original Salem’s Lot movie what will they do to follow up with that? What adventures does Ben Mears continue in this franchise? What became of Salem’s Lot after the vampire epidemic? What secrets does the Marsten house still have? Will we find this out in the movie I am reviewing called A Return to Salem’s Lot? 

The answer to the above questions is a resounding nothing and no. The only link to the original movie is there is a town called Salem’s Lot and there are vampires there. That is it. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. Even if I based this review on the merits that I never read the book or watched the first movie I would still be disappointed. 

The movie starts out with the introduction of an anthropologist named Joe Weber (Michael Moriarty) who is out filming tribal natives performing a ritual that involves cutting out the heart of another person. He is summoned by his ex-wife stating that his son, Jeremy Weber (Ricky Addison Reed), is terminally ill. He returns to find out that his son is fine and it was a ploy by his ex-wife to take his son with him. So Joe gives a choice of either going to Peru or to an old cottage his Aunt gave him when he spent a couple of days with her in Salem’s Lot. I will let you guess what they decided to do.  

The father and son head to Salem’s Lot where they meet a gas station attendant who is strange and rude to them and the cops start harassing them. Well at least they kept the connection of locals being weary of outside people. They also notice no one in town in running around except for a couple of people in the daytime. The story continues when a bunch of teens driving through Salem’s Lot get stopped by the cops and then attacked by vampires. Joe tries to help one of the teens that escaped the vampire attack by bringing her and her son to the town judge. 

Judge Axel (Andrew Duggan) welcomes them in and after conversing with them he lets them know they are vampires and they proceed to kill and suck the blood of the teen. The judge wants Joe to write a vampire bible saying how good vampires are and Joe is like ok sure. He didn’t really care they just killed a girl. He is also reunited with his aunt that is a vampire and his high school crush that was turned into a vampire when she was in high school. Joe is ok with this and has sex with his high school crush leaving his son to go play with the vampire children. The judge explains to Joe that vampires only feed on humans on special occasions and refrain from it because of all the sexual diseases and drugs in humans. Instead they feed off the blood of cows. The people that roam the town during the day are called Drones or basically their day keepers. It is like Straker in the original but not as cool or intelligent. 

Jeremy meets Amanda played none other than Tara Reid in her first film role. He falls in love with her and kisses her. The next day Jeremy is happy and can’t wait for night to see Amanda again. Another character comes to town, Van Meer (Samuel Fuller), who is looking for someone he thought was around there. It turns out he is a Nazi hunter and thinks a Nazi is in Salem’s Lot.  Basically Joe finally realizes he doesn’t like what is going on and what is happening with his son and the fact he impregnated his high school vampire sweetheart (Is this Twilight?) and decides he is done with the vampires. This leads to Joe, Jeremy and Van Meer to team up to take on the vampires. If you dare watch this movie I won’t ruin the ending. 

What can I say about this movie? As stated above this really has no connection to the real Salem’s Lot universe. It makes it seems like there has always been vampires in Salem’s Lot which is not true. If this was named a different movie and the town was named different then this would be fine. Not harking on the story not following the original is the acting is pretty bad. They are bland. The direction of the characters do not make sense at times like Joe just dismissing the vampires just killed someone and is willing to help them write their vampire bible and sleep with some chick. Some effects of the gore were ok but some of the vampire makeup when it was used was not well done. I didn’t even really see vampire fangs. It was a very dull movie. 

I did enjoy the character of Van Meer. He was smart, funny and made the film a little watchable. The judge had his moments too but not enough to make is better. I did like the final act when you ignore some of the acting because it was pretty neat. I guess this story was trying to make some statement with vampires being a race and that humans were bad because of all the STDs and drugs they used but it becomes lost with the dullness and way the story present itself.  

I usually have exposition and a theme relating these movies to life but I really have nothing. This movie left me with a bad taste. Also Stephen King was not really involved in this movie but had to review it because it is a “sequel” to his story. If it wasn’t for parts of the last act and the character of Van Meer this would be another half star out of five. I will have to give this one start out of five. 

Has anyone seen this sequel that is not really a sequel? If so what did you like about it if anything? As a standalone movie ignoring is it supposed to be a sequel do you think it had any good ideas? Tell me your thoughts below. Here is the only trailer I could find for this movie so you can see if you think you want to watch it. 

Books Reviewed:
Carrie ***
Salem’s Lot ***1/2


 Movies Reviewed:
 
Carrie (1976) ****
The Rage: Carrie 2 ***
Carrie (2002) ½* (Yes a half of a star out of five) 

Salem’s Lot (1979) **

A Return to Salem’s Lot *

Stephen King Movie Review-Salem’s Lot (1979)

I had to watch these movies on my own this time but here is my review of Salem’s Lot (1979). Let’s see how my opinion is of the vampire story originally written by Stephen King. 

To start off this was not a movie released theatrically but it was actually a TV mini-series. This will also become a common occurrence when reviewing Stephen King movies is that a lot of them were TV mini-series. Sometimes this is ok but others times it is not. This movie is also directed by Tobe Hooper who directed the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist. Both I thought were decent movies who had a good horror element and are very well known as classics in the horror field today. 

 The movie itself starts out similar to the book. It has Ben Mears (David Soul) returning to Jerusalem’s Lot (Salem’s Lot) to get inspiration for writing his new book. The subject is what he believes to be a beacon of evil in the town is the Marsten House. He feels that evil is drawn to it and those who stay there is evil. He finds out that two foreigners bought the house, Richard Straker (Jason Mason) and Kurt Barlow (Reggie Nalder). They are two strangers who plan to open a shop in town. Ben becomes romantically involved with a local girl Susan Norton (Bonnie Bedelia) which seems more sudden then in the book. He rekindles a relationship with his old high school teacher Jason Burke (Lew Ayres) who also has a name change from the book. It was Matt Burke in the book. Strange things start happening in town after the disappearance and death of the Glick boys. People start getting sick and dying and becoming vampires. Ben is joined by Mark Petrie (Lance Kerwin), Susan’s dad Dr. Bill Norton (Ed Flanders) and very briefly Father Callahan (Robert Lussier) as they fight the vampires and try to get Kurt Barlow. 

Salem’s Lot is an ok adaption of the novel by the same name. I feel it starts off decently building the tension but the payoff is not as great as I expected. David Soul plays the character of Ben Mears well. His acting is spot on what I would think Ben would act like as in the book. However, I feel his appearance does not match what was described in the book. That is only a minor gripe. I think Susan’s character was underdeveloped and was just there. The same underdevelopment happened with Jason Burke’s character. He didn’t have the same presence as Matt Burke had in the book. Sure he is still the first one to tell Ben that vampires are around but he did not have that extra development and leadership he possessed in the book. Dr. Norton is the movie became a hybrid of two characters, one being Susan’s dad and the other being Dr. Jim Cody. They probably did this to same on character space. He was ok and did a lot of actions as the doctor in the book but was not as relevant. Mark Petrie was done ok but I just think the actor did not do a good job. Father Callahan was barely in this movie at all and was a real waste. 

The character Straker was acted very well. He was ominous and threatening and had a certain charm to him in an evil way. While he did not have the same physical features as was in the book he still pulled it off well and was my favorite part of this movie. However, the biggest disappointment was the vampire Kurt Barlow. His design reminded me of the vampire from the old Nosferatu movie. He never spoke which was very disappointing because in the book he was very cunning and manipulative.  

The movie was of course condensed way down to fit the three hour runtime. This will be a common complaint in these reviews and I apologize and I completely understand we can’t have a twenty hour movie to fit everything in. The small town stories and life was really cut down. The good news they did try to incorporate a couple of stories albeit they were jumbled and different. Even with these short little stories it did show some snippet of small town life and was interesting. Events in the movie were also jumbled from what they were in the book. It even had a different ending to the book which like the Carrie 2002 movie I guess was trying to make this into a series. It watered down the heroics of Mark in the book which I won’t spoil but wish they had for the movie.  

Of course this is all nitpicking because I just read the novel. As a movie it is ok. The vampire makeup is pretty good. I especially liked the design of the kid vampire makeup. The music was well done and built tension as a horror movie should. The atmosphere in the small town was well done along with the design of the Marsten House. I did not like Kurt Barlow’s design as I alluded to earlier and the ending felt rushed. There was no gore or a real bloody moment in the movie which I will guess this is because when this was made. The gore isn’t necessary but I feel would of added to the horror. I give the movie two stars out of five. 

Has anyone watched this movie before? If so what did you think about it? Even if you haven’t read the book do you think Kurt Barlow was a big let down? If you read the book how do you think the adaption was? Like always here is the trailer for the movie. Check it out anyway if you like vampire movies. 

 

Like I said in the past I will have a tracker of the final ratings of each book or movie I reviewed to show what I liked or didn’t like. It is a rating based out of five stars. For previous reviews if you missed it you can click on the title and it will link to that review for you to read.

Books Reviewed:
Carrie ***
Salem’s Lot ***1/2


 
Movies Reviewed:
 
Carrie (1976) ****
The Rage: Carrie 2 ***
Carrie (2002) ½* (Yes a half of a star out of five) 

Salem’s Lot (1979) **

Stephen King Book Review- Salem’s Lot

My next Stephen King book review is Salem’s Lot. The first Stephen King novel that leans more to the supernatural then what was presented in Carrie. While Carrie did have an element of telekinesis, Salem’s Lot had a more deep supernatural emphasis on it. What supernatural element did this story have? Well there are two which are that a place can be a beacon of evil and also there are vampires in the story. 

The story is about a writer name Ben Mears who is returning to a small town called Jerusalem’s Lot (Salem’s Lot for short) in which he lived for a while as a kid. The town is a small town out in rural Maine and people passing by would probably not notice it. I would like to point out that a character being a write and the setting being in Maine would become a common occurrence in future Stephen King stories. Ben has come to his old town to write a novel with inspiration from an experience he had at a house known as the Marsten House. It was there as a kid he thought he saw the ghost of the mob boss who lived there that killed his wife and hung himself. 

While there he meets a young lady by the name of Susan Norton who meets by chance while she was reading one of his previous novels. They begin a romantic relationship even though her controlling mother does not approve but her dad does. Ben also runs into a high school teacher who has been there for years named Matt Burke. He also wanted to try and stay at the Marsten House but was denied when it was found out that two foreign strangers have bought the house that plan to open up a shop in town. Straker and Kurt Barlow are the two strangers who arrived at around the same time Ben did and only Straker has been seen by the public. 

The story continues with the disappearance of a young boy named Ralphie Glick and the eventual death of his brother Danny. As strange deaths and sickness starts happening in the town Ben Mears, Susan, Matt, a young boy that is into monsters named Mark Petrie, a doctor by the name of Jimmy Cody and priest named Father Callahan soon discover the secret of what is happening to the small town and the secret of the mysterious strangers (especially Kurt Barlow). Vampires run amok in the town and it is up to the small group to stop them. I will not spoil the book as I find it very intriguing and captivating.  

This novel is written in more of the Stephen King style that people are used to unlike the jumping back and forth of Carrie. The story starts off nice with a little curiosity thrown in there and you get sucked into the story not wanting to put the book down. You get engaged into all the characters and even feel that you are part of this community. 

That is what I feel is the greatest strength of the novel. Stephen King does not just focus on a few main characters, he writes about a lot of the citizens of the town. As you know I grew up in a small town and I feel he has captured the small town feel and mentality in this book through his characters. For example when these strange deaths start happening, the town people feel it has to do with Ben or the two strangers in town because they are new to town. Like some small towns in America if something changed when new people arrive then it must because of them. 

A big narrative in the story is that even people in small towns have secrets and ways about them. You have a character that beats her 10 month old baby. You have a controlling parent. You have a woman having an affair that probably the whole town knows about except for her husband. You have a town drunk, the town gossip and everything you can probably find in any small town in America. I feel Stephen King wrote about small town life real well and that engages a small town person like me. 

The book also explains that evil can be anywhere and it can manifest itself even in a small town. In this case the beacon of the evil is not exactly the vampires or the head vampire itself. The beacon seemed to be the house itself which has saw horrors like no others. It draws evil to it. This is also shown through the faith of the characters, especially of that in the alcoholic priest Father Callahan. 

I recommend this book to everyone. It is a good story and keeps you interested. The character development is amazing. It is your common vampire story that you would see today but back in 1975 this was rare to see a vampire in your backyard. So if you are interested in an engaging book, you like Stephen King, or you are interested in vampire stories then I would recommend picking this up. You can see how the proclaimed “master of Horror” deals with vampires. 

Moral of the story: Evil can manifest anywhere, even in the backyard of a small town. Every small town has secrets.   

I have three movies to review based on the book. Look for those coming soon. It is the original movie (miniseries), a sequel loosely based on the original movie and a remake of the movie which is also a miniseries. It should be interesting to see how the movies come off based off the book.  I give the book three and half stars out of five. 

Has anyone read Salem’s Lot before? If you lived in a small town what do you think about it? Do you think there are dark secrets being kept? Do you think there is a manifestation of evil in your small town? If you never lived in a small town what do you perceive the small town life? Just some questions I would like to hear from my readers and for you to think about. Comment below so I can hear from you.

Like I said in the past I will have a tracker of the final ratings of each book or movie I reviewed to show what I liked or didn’t like. It is a rating based out of five stars. For previous reviews if you missed it you can click on the title and it will link to that review for you to read.

Books Reviewed:
Carrie ***
Salem’s Lot ***1/2

 

Movies Reviewed:
 Carrie (1976) ****
The Rage: Carrie 2 ***
Carrie (2002) ½* (Yes a half of a star out of five) 

Love and Marriage

What does love and marriage mean these days? Too many times I see relationships not working and it appears a lot of times it stems from either cheating or the people not truly committing to each other and still “living” their single life. I always hear a married person tell me that they went partying a lot the other night and saw this hot chick and had strippers or something of that nature. I mean is this really what love and marriage has come to? 

Love and marriage to me is a lifetime commitment where you spend the rest of your time with the one who love. It is not where you get married and in a year or two get bored and want to mess around and say you need your space. You are married and this should be a commitment that should not be taken lightly. It takes both people involved to make it work and it isn’t easy. If it was easy then the divorce rate would be so low. The two people should know what they want out of the marriage and stick to it. 

I will tell you what love and marriage means to me. This way of thinking and believing may not work for everyone but it has worked so well for me with almost six years of marriage of my wife.  

After a rough couple of relationships before meeting my wife, I knew I had to get serious and find someone I was compatible with. I dated a few different people and they were just not for me. Trust was a major factor at the time for obvious reasons. Again as I mentioned in my Decision blog that you can read here, I was upset with my job and was looking to just get out of Reno. I called in a favor to see if I can get a job interview in southern California. I did and looked at myspace profiles of people that lived down there to start making friends and meeting people.  

One of the first people to pop up on my search was my wife. I thought she was cute and sounded cool so I messaged her. She actually just put a myspace profile up just recently and wasn’t ever going to do one until her friend set one up for her. See what I mean when I say things happen for a reason. Well we were talking and got to know each other. I finally got the interview and went down her and met her in person weeks before the interview so I can see the town and meet her. 

I remember that day like it was yesterday. It was amazing and I felt this girl was something special already. She was not like any person I have met before. When I left I wanted to start being with her even though I lived six hours away and didn’t even know I was going to get the job. She even told her family about me (which is a big deal) and told them that I will be the guy she would be married to. 

There was so much chemistry and feeling that we could feel something special. The job eventually said they did not have a position for my field of work. I was hurt (but it ended up being the best thing which is a story for another time) but I continued traveling six hours when I could to see my wife on the weekends and such. I emailed her, myspaced her and called her whenever I could (and I hate talking on the phone). Eventually we got married. 

Now after that backstory you ask well what does love and marriage mean to me? I wake up in the morning and the first thing I think of is happy I am married to such a beautiful wife. The next thing I think of is what I can do to make sure my wife is happy. I look at her every day and know she is the most beautiful person I have ever saw and tell her that and mean it. On special days I make sure it is very special (get her the gift she always wanted, show her the time of her life, be romantic, write poems etc). Even on days that are just normal days I try to make her feel special because seeing her smile is the highlight of my day. Feeling that I made my wife and best friend have a great time is the best feeling in the world. 

I am always there for my wife when she is down or having a problem and always try to help it through it the best way I can. We try to find common things we like to do and do them together even if we don’t really like doing it because we love each other. We give and take. We don’t need to go out and party all the time and be apart because why would you want to be apart from someone so great. I want to be with my wife and enjoy being around her because she makes me happy. Even when we make each other upset we always make up and resolve the issues and are our happy self again. 

There are always ups and downs in a marriage and nothing is perfect. However there are always more ups then downs in our marriage and we always work through them. The biggest down right now is I am gone a lot because of my job and we don’t get to see each other every day like we used to. However that was a sacrifice we made and decided together for the better of the family and our plans for the future. We communicate everything together and support each other’s decisions. That makes a strong marriage. Finally every night before I go to sleep I think how lucky I am to find someone so special. That completes every aspect of me. How I could not imagine my life without her with me and that I can’t wait to wake up and be with her again. 

That is what I feel love and marriage means to me. It is the biggest commitment of your life and you must be strong and know that is what you really want. You can’t destroy it by not fully committing to it. You can’t do things that will destroy the marriage and hurt the one you supposedly love more than anything on this planet. Comment below and tell me what the meaning of love and marriage is to you? Is there anything I missed above? Am I completely wrong and if so why? I want to hear from you. 

On a side note I actually am almost done reading Salem’s Lot and will hopefully be doing some reviews on that and the movies in the next couple of weeks. So watch out for those. Thanks for reading.   

Stephen King Movie Review-Carrie (2002)

Here is my last review of the Carrie saga. This one will be very short as it is a remake of the original movie and I won’t have to go into detail about the plot. This was a made for TV movie called Carrie (2002).

What do we got here. Girl gets period for first time and thinks she is dying, check. Other girls make fun of her, check. Psycho mother, check. Girl with telekinetic powers, check. Prom prank that ends in tragedy, check.

In all seriousness this movie follows the book pretty well. It goes the route in the book where investigators are questioning the survivors about the incident and is told in flashback. To understand what I mean go check out my review of the book. It has some missing scenes from the original movie that were in the book which was Carrie’s displays of powers when she was younger and the lawyer scene I alluded to in my Carrie movie review. They even show more destruction of the town which was nice to see.

However, that is mostly the only praise I have for this movie. I found the acting to be horrible. I know it is a made for TV movie but it was just plain bad. The actress who played Carrie (Angela Bettis) did not make me feel like I was watching Carrie. She acted crazy from the get go and I thought she was going to bring a gun to school anytime. I did not feel as much sympathy for her as I did in the book or the original movie. The mother was also not as psycho as other portrayals and was pretty tame in my opinion. She didn’t really have the intensity. The rest of the supporting characters were bland.

The movie seemed to drag a lot since it was probably made with TV in mind and commercials. The “cuts” to commercial got a little annoying. Of course that is nitpicking but other movies made for TV wasn’t as bad at this one for cuts to commercials. The main reason this was made for TV and my biggest gripe about the movie *****MAJOR SPOILERS DON’T READ IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOK OR SEEN THE ORIGINAL MOVIE***** is that Carrie lived and did not know she did all those bad things in the end because they were going to make a TV series out of it ******END SPOILERS******. I can see why it was not picked up.

I am sorry I don’t have much else to say except I don’t like this movie as well as the others. Maybe it was because I watched them all over the weekend and if I had a break through each viewing I might have a different opinion. It was just not as well made and did not spark an emotional response as the others. I would have a more tidbit on life as I do on anything I write in this blog but I think you get the point that bullying is bad and can hurt people and destroy lives. I might write a blog post about bullying another time so look out for that.

Has anyone seen this version of Carrie? Is so did you like it? I heard they are going to remake Carrie again in 2013. If that happens I will watch it and review it. I hope it is better than this one. My next Stephen King book is Salem’s Lot. It is a longer book so it will be awhile before I return to these Stephen King books and movies. I will also have three movies that go along with the book. In the mean time if my review didn’t scare you off about this movie and you might want to watch it then check out the trailer.

 

Like I said in the past I will have a tracker of the final ratings of each book or movie I reviewed to show what I liked or didn’t like. It is a rating based out of five stars. For previous reviews if you missed it you can click on the title and it will link to that review for you to read.

Books Reviewed:

Carrie ***

Movies Reviewed:

Carrie (1976) ****
The Rage: Carrie 2 ***
Carrie (2002) ½* (Yes a half of a star out of five)  

Stephen King Movie Review: The Rage Carrie 2

My next movie review in the Carrie saga is The Rage: Carrie 2. A movie released in 1999 and one of the many Stephen King sequels that really did not involve Stephen King’s work or even involvement. As we go along this will be a trend we will see especially when we get to Children of the Corn. 

What does this movie has in store for us as an opening scene? Do we get another girl getting her period for the first time? Nope my loyal readers, this movie opens up with a scene where a mother is painting the walls red. She is speaking religious things which bring back memories of Carrie’s mother in the original. We also see she has a little daughter who is the reason why the mother is freaking out.  The cops eventually come and take the mother to a psychiatric hospital. The little girl freaks out and runs to her room with her puppy while doors are mysteriously slamming on their own. I bet she has the same power as Carrie. 

We cut to a few years later and the girl who is named Rachel Lang (Emily Bergl) is in foster care with parents that only have her for the extra money they get.  She also still has her dog. She goes to high school now and is basically an outcast with one real close friend. Now after a great opening this is when the movie turns to into American Pie meets Carrie. Which is funny since American Pie came out the same year and also features two actors from the movie. One is Lisa (Mena Suvari) who is Rachel’s best friend and the other is Arnie (Eddie Kaye Thomas) which I guess is also a friend of Rachel’s.  

Anyway basically the story follows a bunch of high school football players who is sleeping with high school girls and they are keeping points for what type of girl they sleep with. In this group is Jesse Ryan (Jason London) who participates in the game but does not really seem to like it. He also seems to have an eye for Rachel. We find out that Rachel’s friend Lisa was a victim of the game (and lost her virginity to one of the guys) and she basically gets told she is nothing to the guy. She ends jumping off the school roof and killing herself. This of course devastates Rachel and we see signs of her telekinetic powers.  

Rachel is comforted by the school counselor who is Sue Snell (Amy Irving which is the same actress who played her in the original). On a side note it looks like Sue Snell spent some time in the mental hospital also after the events of the first movie. Sue speaks with Rachel and starts to notice she has the same abilities as Carrie did. 

Rachel finally gets to talk to Jesse. Unfortunately it was at the expense of her dog getting hit by a car. Don’t worry about it the dog lived. Jesse appears to be falling in love with Rachel which all his friends and the popular kids do not like. They eventually have sex and this also takes Rachel’s virginity. Let’s just say the friends and popular kids film it and forge the points in their point book and all hell breaks loose when Rachel attends a party with them. I will let you watch the ending to see what happens to everyone. 

I will be one of the few reviewers that liked this movie. While the acting wasn’t great and reminded me of typical late 90s and early 2000s high school movies I thought it was good in the vein of Stephen King. Some call it a remake with a different story. I think it was a good continuation of the story. Now you ask how is it even linked to the original Carrie? Besides it being in the same town  (you see the old high school burnt down from the first movie) and Sue Snell being in the movie we find out that ***minor spoiler*** Carrie’s dad also impregnated Rachel’s mom which is why she has the same powers as Carrie ***End minor spoiler***.  

While I liked the movie it wasn’t great and it wasn’t bad. It was entertaining and I enjoyed it for what it was. I really did not see the extreme bullying I did with Carrie. I mean Rachel at least had a friend. I just saw that the popular kids did not like an “outsider” dating one of their friends. It was basically crossing the line over social cliques. There was a little abuse by the foster parents but not on the level of Carrie’s mom.  

That is another thing in society and especially in high school is there is always cliques. Like a jock won’t associate with the nerd or because they are fat or something like that and make fun of them. It is more prominent in high school but I have seen it in the workplace and everyday life. Do people fear what is different from them? Is it human nature? It is crazy when you look at society from a bird’s eye view. 

Anyway have any of you seen the movie? If so what did you think of it? Did you know people who played games with girl’s emotions or did a sex game like the one in the movie? Tell me what you thought of the review and comment on it or about the movie. Here is the trailer for the movie to maybe see if you would want to see it. 

Like I said in the past I will have a tracker of the final ratings of each book or movie I reviewed to show what I liked or didn’t like. It is a rating based out of five stars. For previous reviews if you missed it you can click on the title and it will link to that review for you to read.

Books Reviewed:

Carrie ***

Movies Reviewed:

Carrie (1976) ****

The Rage: Carrie 2 *** 

Stephen King Movie Review- Carrie (1976)

My wife and I watched all three Carrie movies I am going to review this past weekend. It was a lot to watch in one weekend and we got through it. This begins my first movie review of stories by Stephen King. As you know I am reviewing every Stephen King book as they were published and if there is a movie (and sequels or remakes) based on the book then I will review that also. The first movie up is Carrie (1976).

Like the book, basically the opening scene deals with a girl in high school named Carrie White played by Sissy Spacek in a shower and she gets her first period. There she goes berserk thinking she is dying while the other girls in the locker room make fun of her and throw tampons and pads at her. Leading the charge was Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen) who is basically a bully. Another girl Sue Snell (Amy Irving) is also throwing tampons at Carrie. This gets the P.E. teacher involved Mrs. Collins (Betty Buckley) to break up to torment. This leads to the first sign of Carrie’s telekinetic powers as she breaks a light.

The movie continues with Carrie being sent home where we are introduced to the abusive and ultra religious mother Margaret White (Piper Laurie). She never told Carrie about what a period was and called it a sin.

Like the book, Sue feels sorry for what she did to Carrie and has her boyfriend Tommy Ross (William Katt) ask Carrie to the prom. Chris wants to get revenge against Carrie and with her boyfriend Billy Nolan played by none other than a very young John Travolta. This entails of getting pig’s blood and dumping it on Carrie. This leads to Carrie’s rampage which you will have to see.

Sissy Spacek plays Carrie very well. She portrays a girl who has been bullied, ignored and abused her whole life. Her mannerisms speak loud volumes. She makes you think she is really dying when she gets her first period and when she finally snaps at the prom, she portrays that magnificently. Even though Sissy Spacek played her well I didn’t think she had the look of Carrie from the book but that is just a minor complaint.

The rest of the cast played their parts well. There was some minor changes from the book like the teacher had a different name and some minor details but they did a good job. However, I think who played Carrie’s mom did a wonderful job. She captured the character of Margaret White and really made you feel for Carrie.

Overall this was a pretty close adaptation of Stephen King’s book. Some scenes were left out like an incident that Carrie had as a young girl demonstrating her powers and also a scene with Chris’ lawyer father. The major change was the ending which was different than the book. However it produced the same emotional response one would get from the book. The movie also throws some small twists like who was really laughing at Carrie in the prom scene. They try to make it ambiguous about Sue’s role in the film about the plot against Carrie.

I liked this movie. It had great acting, some freaky scenes, pretty good cinematography, and produces an emotional response. There is also a lot of people being slapped in this movie also. See it and you will know what I mean. Even though it is billed as a horror movie and one would think about blood and guts from a psycho. The real horror I see is how society and the mother treated Carrie. Again as I said in my book review the abuse by the mother is horrific. Carrie being bullied was just as horrific. Being bullied is mainstream news today and this movie should be an example of when you take bulling someone too far could end up. Well maybe someone won’t go all telekinetic on you but it could have serious consequences.

That was my first movie review of the Stephen King universe. Tell me what you thought about it and leave a comment. Have you seen the movie Carrie? What are your thoughts on it and what reactions you had? If you haven’t seen the movie then I do recommend it. Here is a trailer for the movie to maybe spark your interest:

Like I said in my book review I will have a tracker of the final ratings of each book or movie I reviewed to show what I liked or didn’t like. It is a rating based out of five stars. For previous reviews if you missed it you can click on the title and it will link to that review for you to read. The next review will be The Rage: Carrie 2.

Books Reviewed:

 Carrie ***

Movies Reviewed:

Carrie (1976) ****