FAQ

Carrie White (Chloë Grace Moretz), a shy and mousy high school senior and the daughter of her religiously fanatical mother Margaret (Julianne Moore), is constantly taunted by her classmates. One of the girls, Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde), takes pity on Carrie and talks boyfriend Tommy Ross (Ansel Elgort) into asking Carrie to the senior prom. However, another of the girls, Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubleday), hates Carrie enough that she gets her boyfriend, Billy Nolan (Alex Russell), to pull a trick on Carrie, embarrassing her in front of the whole school when she is named prom queen in a rigged election. What no one realizes is that Carrie has the power of telekinesis (moving things with her mind), a power which is released violently when she gets angry.

Carrie is the third film adaptation of the 1974 novel by American horror writer Stephen King, preceded by Carrie au bal du diable (1976) and the made-for-television film Carrie (2002). The novel was adapted for the movie by American screenwriter Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and then re-written by Lawrence D. Cohen, who also wrote the screenplay for the 1976 version.

With the school ablaze behind her, Carrie walks home. She draws a bath to wash off the pig's blood, then goes in search of her mother. As Margaret holds her daughter, she says that she should have "given her to God" when she was born and explains how she was conceived "in sin". As they kneel to pray, saying the Lord's Prayer together, Margaret stabs Carrie in the back with a butcher knife. Carrie falls down the stairs, and when Margaret begins coming at her again with the knife, she uses her powers to send knives and scissors at her mother, crucifying her in the kitchen doorway. Just then, Sue Snell arrives and offers to help, but Carrie doesn't want help; she only wants her mother back. Her heightened emotions cause the house to collapse and rocks to rain down hard on it. Carrie reaches out her hand to Sue, then realizes that Sue is pregnant. "It's a girl", Carrie tells her and uses her ability to eject Sue from the house before she is injured. As the house collapses around Carrie and Margaret, Sue stands in the street watching. In the final scene, Sue places a white rose on Carrie's grave on which someone has painted "Carrie White burns in Hell". As Sue walks away, Carrie's grave begins to crack, and her enraged scream is heard.

For the Blu-ray release, MGM announced an alternate, more graphic and violent ending billed as "Too Shocking for Theaters!" Director Kimberly Pierce said in several interviews that she prefers the alternative ending.