"I can see your dirty pillows. Everyone will."

Faithless mortals, Old Scratch has a favor to ask of you.

You see, the movie I want to tell you about is based on a Stephen King book. It's actually one of the better adaptations of one his better books. Inevitably, some literate person is going to display their prowess not by actually reading this review, but instead by commenting that the book was better.

Obviously, the book format allows for a more detailed story, in case you wonder things like where Billy Nolan kept two buckets of pig's blood those couple days between butchering the animals and crashing the prom. It's generally taken at face value that reading a book is better for your brain than watching a movie. I've always been of the opinion that you can simply enjoy both.

Here's the favor I'm asking, mortals: contradict these self-righteous people. You don't have to attack them or insult them. Just get under their skin by telling them, "No way. The movie was way better than the book." You can make up reasons if you like -- the dumber, the better. For example, you could say, "The book wasn't even in color." I just want to see what happens. Thanks in advance.

Without any further ado, this week's Thursday Thriller is Carrie.

Brian De Palma directed this 1976 adaptation of King's first novel about a 16-year-old social misfit named Carrie White (Sissy Spacek). Carrie's mom Margaret (Piper Laurie) is such a religious nut she didn't warn her daughter about menstruation, because she thinks the curse of woman is punishment for sin rather than biological fate. When Carrie gets her first period in the shower after gym class, the poor girl thinks she's bleeding to death, and runs screaming to her classmates to help. They respond by pelting her with tampons and chanting, "Plug it up! Plug it up!"

If that's not enough trauma for Carrie, when she gets home from school, Mom locks her in the closet and tells her to pray for forgiveness.

You can probably guess how mom reacts when Carrie tells her that Tommy Ross (William Katt), the most popular boy in school asked her to prom.

Everyone except Tommy is pretty cruel to Carrie the whole movie, and King didn't give her a whole lot of self-esteem or coping mechanisms to deal with it, unless you count telekinesis as a coping mechanism. You know what? Maybe it comes out even.

John Travolta is in it. P.J. Soles from Halloween is in it. Carrie is one of the best films of the 1970s. It streams on Hulu Plus.

And remember, the book wasn't even in color.