Carrie Evaluation
Macro elements: Character, setting, narrative. (mise en scene) • Character: Carrie is the main character who lives with her mother. They’re extreme Catholics and this has an effect on Carries behaviour throughout the film. Carrie has witchcraft powers making her an intensely scary character to the audience. Carries mother is mean and dominating. Her behaviour throughout the film shows the audience that she has devil like characteristics. A group of normal teenage girls are seen as the antagonists throughout the film as they make Carries high school life a living hell. They emotionally torture her by victimising her due to her different and unusual lifestyle. Carries mother is also seen as an antagonist throughout the film as she stops Carrie from being a normal teenage girl and this mentally tortures her. Her mother is also quite abusive towards Carrie so this behaviour makes her an antagonist. Sue Snell and Tommy Ross are the helpers in the film because they arrange to take Carrie to prom and try to protect her from dangerous and nasty behaviour. They do all they can do to make Carries high school life a little bit easier.
Setting/Location • Carrie and her mothers home was full of dark colours. Their home was very bland looking. There was holy crosses around the home to symbolise their catholic religion. The house is very old fashioned which gives the audience a sense of a presence in the home. The small closet in the home where Carrie was held if her mother was angry with her was full of pictures of God and spiritual figures. This was used to show that Carrie was to apologise to God for her sins. The appearance of the small enclosed closet made you feel as if you were trapped alongside Carrie. When Carrie was in the closet suspense was high for the audience because of its spiritual, religious look.
Narrative • Carrie is born into an extreme Catholic family with just her Mother to look after her. When Carrie is a teenage girl experiencing high school, she is unaware of the normal things like not knowing what a period is and when she experienced this for the first time at school she broke down almost scared for her life. Carrie has which craft powers which she is unaware of having. She uses these powers to her advantage towards the end of the film to kill all the people who had caused her pain and torture. Her mother treats her badly throughout the film often being abusive towards her. Carrie and her mother don’t have a good relationship at all. Being a catholic family makes Carrie and her mothers daily routine odd as it is not seen as the normal way to live.
Micro elements: Sound/ Camera work/ Editing. (Mise en scene) • Sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2W43C_CuQo In this clip from Carrie the music starts off as background sound but as Carrie raises her voice to her Mother the music gets louder and then suddenly everything drops silent. When Carries mother drops to the ground Carrie uses her voice loudly to show that she is dominating over her mother and the audience can tell that she is overpowering her mother because of the way she almost aggressively raises her voice. Carrie then uses her powers to raise her mother from the ground, as you can see from the clip sound effects of smashing glass is used to show that her powers have damaged furniture and that her powers are immensely powerful. Dogs barking in the background when Carrie uses her powers for the first time is really effective because it shows that the dogs have been effected by Carries strange mysterious behaviour and also the sound effect of the dogs barking creates tension for the audience. Towards the end of the clip Carrie uses her voice in a way that comes across that she is babying her mother and that their roles are reversed. At this point it seems as if Carrie is now the mother and mother now the daughter. It is interesting that this is clearly seen just by the way Carrie uses her voice towards her mother.
Camera work • A wide range of shots were used throughout the film. Close up shots were effective when showing the emotion on a characters face. For example in this mid shot of Carrie you can see the state of her face and also the mid shot shows the fire mayhem in the background that Carrie herself had created and it compliments the state that Carrie Is in. The mid shot allows you to see the mess Carrie had created and her facial expression after she had done it. Extreme close ups were used a lot on Carrie which was interesting because when the audience see Carries eyes directly in front of them they instantly know that Carrie is frightened of her current situation. When having extreme close ups it is good because you can tell by looking just at a characters eyes how they’re feeling.
Editing • The editing in Carrie is very well used when showing Carries powers in the film. In the ending scene of the film it is edited to look as if Carrie created a fire using her hands (Powers). This particular use of editing was really well done because it made Carrie look really aggressive and scary to the audience. Another interesting bit of editing was when Carrie used her powers on her mother for the first time. The tables and chairs in her home lifted to the ceiling along with Carries mother. Again this shows the powerfulness of Carrie and that she is more or less capable of anything. Editing in this film was vital especially when showing the audience the behaviour and violence of Carrie. Editing allows Carries powers to come to life and make it look realistic and thrilling for the audience.
Make up • Make up was only really fully explored towards the end of the film when Carrie creates a big disaster. Carrie doesn’t wear make up through out the film like a normal teenage girl would because of her oddly lived lifestyle and of course because of the way her mother limits her to living a normal life. Carrie not wearing makeup shows the divide between her and the other girl characters in the film. At the end of the film when Carrie goes crazy blood is used to cover her whole body. This makes her look disgusting and freakish to the audience and it looks as if she has been through a bloody nightmare. Makeup is again used to make her skin look pale and pasty throughout the film, this is good because it looks as if she is lifeless.
Costume • When going to school Carrie wears unfashionable clothing instantly dividing herself from everyone else. The clothes she wears throughout the film are oversized this shows that her mother doesn’t care/ have an Interest in her daughter which also shows what their relationship with each other is like. Carries mother mostly wore black clothing which went with her personality which the audience see as death like. Her clothing looked as if she was dressed as a witch, which again goes with her personality. At Carries prom, Carrie wears a pale pink dress the reason for this is because the pig blood that falls all over Carrie in the end scene stands out clearly on her pale dress to the audience.
Lighting • Lighting was used to make things throughout the film appear more sinister. For example in the ending scene where Carrie is full of pigs blood red lighting was used to compliment the blood and also to signify danger. Dark lighting was used frequently when Carrie was in the closet to show that it wasn’t a very pleasant place to be. Natural lighting was used mostly through the film only different types of lighting were explored if something was being symbolised or if something was being made to look more frightening to the audience.
BBFC • The age rating of Carrie is a 15. The reason for this is because it contains bloody scenes and very intense scenes in terms of killing of characters. It does get quite violent which isn’t suitable for younger viewers, and of course lastly it being a horror film makes it thrilling and jumpy and images are scary for the audience therefore it is important that those who view Carrie are of the right age otherwise it wont be a pleasant experience to watch as it is very disturbing in some scenes of the film.