Fifty years ago, two titans of horror that became formative in my love of the genre began their journey to icon status, but while John Carpenter was still fumbling about with a Beach Ball in Dark Star, Stephen King was unwittingly about to change the face of horror forever.
On May 5, 1974, Stephen King published his debut novel, Carrie. A tragic tale of a special teenage misfit who has to endure the hardships of high school while dealing with even darker forces.
Carrie White is special because she has telekinetic powers, but this gift is drowned out by an abusive home life and constant torment at school. The world seems to hate Carrie, and surely, one day, it will push her too far, but what will be the catalyst?
Carrie at 50: The Legacy of a Troubled Teen
That’s the hook for Carrie. As she commandeers her sad, friendless existence, you feel the anxiety of her encounter with any other person in the town of Chamberlain, Maine. Even kindness towards her comes with a heavy dollop of pity. It’s clear from early on that Carrie’s existence is doomed. King’s brilliance lies in showing that but still having us along for the ride to see what horrid fate will befall this quiet, shy, and browbeaten girl.
Of course, famously, Carrie metes out some bloody vengeance with her powers at Prom after the popular kids play one too many cruel tricks on her. A scene made vivid flesh by Brian De Palma two years later in the now classic film adaptation (the first of many King adaptations).
Fifty years on, King looked back on the story with typically morbid fascination, writing that it’s, ”Hard to believe I’m alive to see it”.
To think this chilling tale of an abused schoolgirl was the start of a career that saw King conjure genre classics such as IT, The Shining, The Stand, The Green Mile, The Dark Tower series, Cujo, Misery, Pet Sematary, Salem’s Lot, Revival, and Needful Things.
And so many classic movie and television adaptations! De Palma set the bar high with Carrie, but King’s work has been the soil that grew cinematic legends such as The Shawshank Redemption and The Shining. Names such as Darabont, Cronenberg, Romero, Flanagan, Kubrick, Carpenter, Reiner, and Hooper have helmed movies based on King’s words over the years.
And the prolific author of more than 70 books and 200 short stories is still going strong to this day. Next month sees the release of his latest short story collection You Like It Darker, which features a sequel story to Cujo.
And of course, adaptations keep rolling in. In the near future we’ll have a new Salem’s Lot and The Dead Zone, plus a film version of short story The Monkey.
When I think back to every time a Stephen King story made a memorable impact on my life, it always surprises me how often that happened—being given a dog-eared copy of IT by a school friend that I still have to this day. My uncle letting us watch The Shining a bit too young. Seeing and reading Carrie for the first time in the same week, and being excited, I finally had to wear glasses last year because I’d wanted them ever since reading IT and connected with Richie ”Trashmouth” Tozier.
I’m sure there are many others who have their own personal stories connected to King’s work, maybe without even realizing it. Such is the cultural impact of everything that followed the tragic tale of Carrie White.