Thursday, December 15, 2005

Carrie

Last night I happened to come across this late-night movie titled "Carrie" on TV. It was based on the same-titled novel by Stephen King that I had read earlier this year. The scenes were exactly the same as that of the novel itself, therefore my quick identification of the novel. There was a part where I can still recall vividly, as I watched the movie, which was of the calculated and malicious nomination of Carrie to be the Prom Queen by her fellow schoolmates who always bullied and ostrascized her due to her retarded behaviour and weird family upbringing.
As some background knowledge, I would like to mention that Carrrie came from a very pious family which basically consisted of only her and her mother. As a girl, she was not allowed to interact with boys and her mother viewed sex as absolute sin. The girls in her school ostracised and despised her as they felt that she, due to the lack of social interactions, behaved retardedly and weirdly. She was viewed as DIFFERENT, fundamentally because she did not do the things like all her teeenage female peers do and she would often be locked inside the closet by her mother to pray and ask for God's forgiveness for everything sinful her mother thought she had done. Another remarkable point I would like to bring up is that she had telekinetic (TK) powers (there is actually no such word in the dictionary I checked, it seems rather like a biological term I learnt *lol* ) , which is a supernatural power that is oft-mentioned in Stephen King's novels.

So this fateful night, which was Carrie's high school prom, her schoolmates resolved to make her again, and this time worse by far, the greatest butt of jokes, by pouring red paint on her when she was on stage with the Prom King. So the sinister plan was meticulously carried out and the sweet and angelical-looking Carrie (or at least the actress) became grossly washed with blood-red paint at the happiest moment of her life, just after she danced and kissed with the Prom King onstage, naively thinking that nothing was amiss. It was then that her telekinetic powers started working...

She was shaking in fury, helplessness and embarrassment when her powers, apparently subconciously controlled by her emotions, came into action. The empty paint can, which was hanging above the stage, came down smashing on the Prom King's head, killing him on the spot. The school hall's doors suddenly slammed shut, breaking the hand of an accomplice who tried to escape. When Carrie's teacher who knew of her TK powers came forward to calm her down, she fell backwards as a force exerted by an unseen hand, pushed the whole crowd backwards. Then, furniture was hurled all over the hall and fixtures on ceilings came down on the frightened crowd of students and teachers. Electrical wires snapped and caused a fire in the hall. The crowd, now turning into an insanely desperate mob, tried to break open the doors and climb the windows, but to no avail. Water pipes burst as the rage in Carrie continued to brew, and electrocuted the headmaster as he tried to calm the mob down. One by one, the remaining people went down, electrocuted and charred.
It was a cruel episode, which actually was what Carries' agitators brought onto themselves. I think this punishment was too harsh, especially for the Prom King and many other innocent people who unfortunately perished in this event. Of course, there was a handful of lucky ones who escaped to tell the story, but they were no doubt permanently scarred by the inexplicable and life-threatening episode that they endured.
It was a rather violent and bloody story, I would say, but it were also the very attributes that made this story heart-thumping and heart-wrenching. It leaves us to think about the nasty treatment that we give to the weaker ones around us everyday, be it unintentional or cruelly malicious. Should we, as a fellow human being, spare them a thought, or only regret when something has happened to them and it is too late?

Posted by charles at 10:50 AM