Category: Stuff

Carrie, Carrie, Carrie: How he humanized a monster

I finally finished the Mike Flanagan adaptation of Carrie. I don’t know if this series will be a continuation for me because YA mutants aren’t my typical form of entertainment, but I do like how he changed aspects about Carrie and her mom.

There will be spoilers to a degree because I rarely write a well-informed piece when I do decide to write. I just like writing off the cuff. You’re welcome.

A major complaint I have read on Reddit is that Carrie’s agency was taken away from her in the last episode as Emmaline convinces Carrie to let her take over the violent revenge. I don’t really see it that way. Carrie basically has a come-to moment on the stage when she realizes the consequences of her powers killed the one kid who was really nice to her and had a fondness for her. Had Emmaline not intervened, Carrie may have had a very different outcome because she was written as more compassionate and kind kid compared to Stephen King’s original. Then I think people would have also complained because Carrie would be seen as weak for not finishing her total vengeance against the entire town as was part of the original story.

Also, yes, she is remorseful because that was her nature, Mike Flanagan’s version of Carrie. But if you pay attention, Emmaline has a way of getting Carrie out of that state. When they are riding in the car at the end, Carrie has a mischievous look of complete happiness when she is told how powerful she is and how the world is hers. The smile widens even still knowing she destroyed an entire town killing around 200 people and possibly killed her mother. That’s complexity. I get people are fans of the original and preface sometimes that they aren’t trying to be purists to the original, but Carrie’s not some two-dimensional freak of nature who hits the end of her rope and goes bat shit. This Carrie has more nuance, is intelligent, is naturally kind, wants the best for all, and is learning to balance that nature with the other side that is slowly developing, the one who is learning her power and what she is capable of and wants in her life.

I love Flanagan’s stuff, but the YA I kind of avoid. I am more into his adult shows, but watching Carrie was fun, I like what he did with it and now I am off to watch the original or one of the adaptations to refresh my memory of King’s Carrie.

I realize I didn’t get to Mags/Margaret White, but I freaking love that actor. Flanagan’s regulars are always a delight. And even though like so many I love, love, love Kate Siegel, I hated her character at the end. She did it well, too well. But damn she sure is pretty.

Stuff

This is so dumb

I was watching the beginning of the first episode of Crystal Lake. I sometimes have the attention of a gnat, so I kept thinking how it reminded me of (possibly) the most bizarre horror flick I watched just a few months back. The movie is called Sleepaway Camp (1983). And being that Camp Crystal Lake is a summer camp, the relation is not such a leap. And if you haven’t seen it, it’s not so bizarre really until the very ending. I had that laugh reaction you do when you’re hit with something your brain has no idea how to process in the moment so you don’t really know how to react. Some cry, some laugh, I assume most laugh, maybe some scream? I laugh, but more so if I am scared with someone else. When I am alone and freaked, I do what I tell most horror flick victims to do, breathe so slow and shallow you can’t hear me. I don’t see why that is so hard, they are always huffing and it drives me nuts. Breath control, people.

I digress. The Sleepaway Camp scene wasn’t scary in a thinking there’s a monster in the closet kind of way, but it was terrifying in that you will never forget this scene/ending/movie for the rest of your days way. It was really a great mix of audio and visual that just sears itself into one’s brain. I don’t know if I can think of anything I have watched that had a similar effect.

I have never been to a summer camp or sleepaway camp. I grew up in a relatively middle class family, but camp just wasn’t a thing. I don’t recall any friends going away either, so I don’t think I really knew it was a thing for others until I was older.

Well, there was another odd thing in the film. There was a teenaged (14-16ish) camp counselor who was hot for the owner who was obviously above 40. That on its own is gross (duh), but unfortunately also very of the time — if 70’s/80’s music wasn’t so damn catchy and I didn’t grow up be-bopping to it, I probably wouldn’t be jamming to it today. But what was odd is he was unattractive (and annoying, and gross, and had nothing going for him) and she was very pretty. Total (pervy) male fantasy I suppose.

Anyway, I realize that I am at the age where scantily clad teens and young women make me want to wrap them in a muumuu. I get that’s not very feminist of me, people should wear what they want without feeling gawked at or criticized, though I have been stared at for wearing sweats. I do live in Florida, but my prerogative, bitches. My formative experiences with perverts can be easily projected when I see men looking in ways they shouldn’t at unsuspecting babies. Okay, they aren’t technically babies, but I am also a bit of an ageist in some ways and at my big ol’ age, 29 years old and younger are babies. Argue with me in the comments if you must.

I am also watching Carrie, the adaptation directed by my favorite director Mike Flanagan, but I am such a sap I have to watch it in increments because bitches be too mean. I have three episodes to go and it’s like I just need to rip the band-aid off and binge it. I felt for one asshole character for about 2.5 seconds before she went complete socio. There’s another I don’t have any idea how I am supposed to have any type of mixed/complex feelings about. Redditors were touting how Flanagan wrote it in a way you see why some choices would be made based on what that character is going through, but there’s one heifer I have yet seen fleshed out and I just wish she’d get her just desserts.

Great acting had by all. I just wish I was less of a pansy. I can watch true crime docs, listen to true crime podcasts, watch horror films, but have one person or a group be cruel to another as is done in bullying, I’m incensed and on the verge of tears. Pathetic!

Stuff

Astrology

If I’m being honest—though it’s rare that I’m not—astrology sounds like bologna to me. I haven’t tried to untangle the trickery of it; I just remember looking up why it’s considered a pseudoscience, and one website mentioned that it doesn’t evolve and that horoscopes are written to feel specific while actually being super general. The same can be said about the supposed personality traits, too.

At the same time, I’ve often felt like a true-blue Libra. I’ve read descriptions of other signs and never felt like they fit me. But I still firmly believe astrology is bunk. Why planets and stars and the moon—if that’s even part of it—and whatever they’re doing at the exact moment you appear in the world would shape who you are as a person is beyond me. And here’s my random side thought: I’ve always wondered if the recorded times are even accurate. Whether someone is born or dies, what if they write down 2:53, but the clock is actually a few minutes off and the real time is 2:56? Does that mean your whole birth chart is thrown off? Or is there some kind of arbitrary grace period built in for sloppy timekeeping?

I don’t know. Right now I’m exhausted from mowing the lawn in what feels like the ninth circle of hell located in Satan’s armpit—also known as Florida summer—while I wait on groceries because my cupboards are bare. I rarely write, even though I want to, and since I haven’t exercised that muscle in a long time, this is what came out in my current delirium.

You’re welcome.