With ''Carrie'' the payoff comes in the last half-hour. Gasp! Crash! Ka-chung! This was true of the 1976 theatrical movie, and it's true of the remake that sprawls across all three hours of NBC's prime time tonight. The producers of this new version claim to be more faithful to the original Stephen King novel, but they are most faithful to the rigors of network television. Thus the climactic scenes of that hellacious high school prom must be wrapped around several commercial breaks, sapping the film's momentum and dimming the impact of some passable special effects.
Better than passable is the performance of tonight's Carrie, Angela Bettis, who appeared in the most recent Broadway production of ''The Crucible.'' As the pathetic teenager who is caught between a morbidly religious mother (Patricia Clarkson) and a school full of insensitive jerks, Ms. Bettis manages to breathe some life into Mr. King's allegorical character.
Carrie, you may recall, is the ultimate outsider, a stand-in for anyone who ever felt undone by adolescent alienation. When she is terrified by her first menstrual period, which arrives while she is in the high school shower room, she becomes the victim of vile ridicule. Her classmates' cruelty earns some of them punishment from their gym teacher (Rena Sofer), and the ringleader, Chris (Emile de Ravin), swears revenge.
''She's been working that martyr bit since the first grade, and I'm sick of it,'' Chris declares. (She's not as sick as she's going to be when she finds out that poor Carrie is rich in telekinetic powers.)
Feeling guilty about the way the kids have treated Carrie, another student, Sue (Kandyse McClure), decides to make it up to her. Sue asks her boyfriend, a sweet hunk named Tommy (Tobias Mehler), to take Carrie to the prom, not as a joke but to show her a good time.
Continue reading the main story''It would be a nightmare,'' Carrie says. (Note the subtle foreshadowing.) At that moment Ms. Bettis's face movingly conveys the welter of emotions that stir in Carrie -- fear, longing, doubt, dread -- before she accepts. But the film, directed by David Carson from a script by Bryan Fuller, affords Ms. Bettis few opportunities for such genuine acting. As for the rest of the cast, no one displays much skill beyond the generic made-for-television standard, a label that could be slapped on this whole enterprise.
This limitation is not imposed by the medium, as shown by several satisfying series and the occasional mold-breaking network movie. But the homogenized quality of much network fare is especially frustrating here, in what should have been, if not a heartfelt study of youthful angst, at least a horribly good time.
The filmmakers showed some creativity by framing the story in flashbacks, as a police detective (David Keith) tries to piece together what happened on prom night, and by ending their film on a note that is different from that of the earlier movie.
Still, they doomed themselves with their start-and-stop treatment of what should have been a whopping ending. Perhaps the network could have been flexible in allowing the story to build to its conclusion. Or maybe the creative team could have devised a more compact finale.
In any case, when there's a gap of several minutes between the Gasp and the Crash, you may not want to hang around for the Ka-chung.
CARRIE
NBC, tonight at 8, Eastern and Pacific times; 7 Central time.
Written by Bryan Fuller, based on the novel by Stephen King; directed by David Carson; Mr. Fuller, Mark Stern, Pen Densham and John Watson, executive producers; David Livingston, producer; director of photography, Victor Goss; production designer, Stephen Geaghan; edited by Jeremy Presner; music by Laura Karpman; digital effects by Stargate Digital USA; distributed by MGM Worldwide.
WITH: Angela Bettis (Carrie White), Patricia Clarkson (Margaret White), Jesse Cadotte (Billy Nolan), Emilie de Ravin (Chris Hargensen), Kandyse McClure (Sue Snell), Tobias Mehler (Tommy Ross), Rena Sofer (Ms. Desjarden) and David Keith (Detective John Mulchaey).
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