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"Mature Content Warning!" |
Christine "Chris" Hargensen is the secondary antagonist of the Stephen King novel Carrie and its film adaptations. She is a cruel and despicable bully who torments Carrie.
She was played by Nancy Allen in the 1976 original, Emilie de Ravin in the 2002 TV movie and Portia Doubleday in the 2013 remake.
What Makes Her Pathetic?[]
- She is a vindictive bully who regularly torments outcast students while using her rich father's influence to avoid the consequences. She viciously ridicules Carrie when she gets her period in the locker room and incites the other girls to insult and throw tampons at her, which seriously traumatizes her.
- She won't accept detention for her actions and mouths off to Ms. Desjardin, then skips detention despite knowing she'll be banned from prom.
- She gets her father to intimidate the principal and threaten to sue the school district to get her prom privileges restored and get Ms. Desjardin fired, only for this to fail due to the principal threatening to counter-sue for her long history of bullying other students.
- During this it's mentioned Chris once maimed another girl (who she apparently hated for having a cleft lip) by planting a firecracker in her shoe, nearly blowing two of her toes off.
- When Sue feels bad about how they treated Carrie, Chris shows no remorse and verbally attacks Sue for not siding with her.
- In the 2002 film she attempts to passive-aggressively intimidate Carrie in private, only for Carrie to get the better of her with a witty comeback.
- She decides to ruin Carrie's prom night out of sheer sadism, coming up with a scheme to butcher two pigs on a neighboring farm and then dumping the blood on Carrie in front of the whole school. The book also mentions the slaughter of the pigs takes place while the farmer is away at his mother's funeral.
- She gets her friends to vote for Carrie and Tommy as King and Queen of the prom so she can dump the blood on them both, which not only ruins the only good moment in Carrie's life, but kills or severely injures Tommy (the one person who was nice to Carrie) when the bucket intended for him fractures his skull. Even if this didn't kill him outright, being knocked senseless prevents him from being able to escape so either way Chris caused his death.
- While in the book and 2002 film she briefly hesitates (which is more likely out of fear of getting caught than concern for Carrie), she still goes through with it and shows no remorse afterward, and smiles sadistically in the latter. In the 1976 and 2013 films however, she has no conflict about it and is shaking in excitement when about to pull the rope in the former and insults Carrie afterward in the latter, calling her a freak.
- When she learns of Carrie's rampage, she shows no real concern for anyone but still blames Carrie for it and is only worried about not getting caught for her role in the prank, seemingly not caring that her friends are likely dead.
- In the 1976 and 2013 films, she attempts to run down Carrie herself.
- While her relationship with Billy is mutually abusive and in the book they frequently have rough sex and Chris surmises that he would have raped her if she did not give in willingly, this does not make her sympathetic as she was an awful person long before meeting him and it’s made clear that she likes his aggression.
What Makes Her a Pinhead?[]
- She fails to cover up her bullying of other students despite bullying being easier to get away with back then, as it's said she's gotten at least twenty detentions and one suspension for it.
- She has a bad sense of humor, at one point calling Carrie on the phone and telling her "pig poop" is spelled C-A-R-R-I-E.
- While it's mentioned she has a high IQ, this doesn't translate well academically as it's said she only has a C average (B- at best) and has only been accepted to a prestigious college due to her father pulling some strings.
- She refuses to accept a detention she could easily do and walks out despite knowing she'll be suspended and banned from prom, and expects her friends to walk out with her (thinking this will pressure the staff into backing down) despite them having no motive to do so.
- She doesn't think through getting her father to sue the school, which causes it to fail as the principal threatening to counter-sue on behalf of the numerous students she has already harmed in addition to Carrie.
- In the 2013 film she also records Carrie's period on her phone and posts it on YouTube, but fails to delete the video from her phone, which causes the principal to suspect her and he demands the phone, and Chris lies unconvincingly that it's not there but won't turn it over, which means she has no grounds to argue against her suspension.
- While the prom prank was fairly elaborate, the book states that it "came together in a bumbling sort of way" and was not planned out well, with Chris only having a vague idea of how to pull it off and relying mostly on Billy and her friends to do the actual work of setting it up. Also the prank was a very bad idea since even if Carrie didn't have powers it would be obvious to everyone Chris was behind it since only she was banned from prom, and since it was botched and caused Tommy's presumed death, she would have likely been expelled or faced criminal charges even had she lived.
- Despite being shocked when Billy tries to run over Carrie, she makes no attempt to stop him which gets both her and Billy killed by her. In the 1976 and 2013 films however, she tries to run over Carrie herself despite having just seen her waste an entire school with her mind. This is particularly bad in the 2013 version where she keeps trying to do so despite Carrie hesitating and appearing willing to spare her at first.
Trivia[]
- She is one of the 5 Pathetic Pinheads in the Stephen King universe alongside: Billy Nolan, Buddy Repperton, Bogs Diamond and Percy Wetmore.
External Links[]
- Chris Hargensen on the Villains Wiki
- Chris Hargensen on the Hate Sink Wiki
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 Pathetic Pinheads
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Percy Wetmore | Bogs Diamond | Chris Hargensen | Billy Nolan | Buddy Repperton | ||