Case File 034: Carrie

There was probably no one more surprised by the success of Stephen King's novel Carrie than King himself. He'd only made it a few pages into his original manuscript before throwing it into the trash. Even after his wife dug it out and urged him to push forward, he was convinced he was writing something that there was no audience for. But Carrie was a breakout hit and one of its fans was director Brian DePalma. His 1976 film adaptation is now regarded as a classic in the horror genre (and one of the best interpretations of King's work), but even with the popularity of the novel, there was once again some initial skepticism about the story's commercial viability. And once again, Carrie proved to be a much bigger hit than anyone was expecting. Topics include: the real life events that inspired the plot and the title character, key differences between the book and the movie, why those changes don't feel as egregious as the deviations made in some of the other cinematic adaptations of King's novels, the epistolary structure of the novel and how surprising it is that none of the remakes have drawn more heavily from that, what DePalma thought of those more recent versions, and more! Facebook | Twitter | Instagram Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play | Spotify Chris's Instagram & Twitter | Kristen's Instagram Chris & Kristen's Web Series: The Strange Case of Lucy Chandler