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Norma Watson is a major character in Carrie. She is a student at Ewen High School in Chamberlain, Maine.

Novel[]

In the novel, Norma is senior class president and she, along with fourteen other students were decorating the gym for the upcoming Senior Prom.

At the Prom, she was handing out programs and seating people according to a pre-arranged chart. Not long after, Norma dropped a ballot for Prom King and Queen on Carrie White and Tommy Ross's table and said "Good Luck!", which was false, as they realized. She and Tina Blake then replaced the ballots with fake ones, that named "Tommy Ross and Carrie White". She survived The Black Prom, but barely got out with Tina by escaping through the fire exit in time with others like Miss Desjardin. She is condemned to never forget about what happened at the Prom. Some time later, Norma described her version of the tragic downfall of the Prom in her book "We Survived The Black Prom" without mentioning how it came to the catastrophe while also lying about her role in it.

Her fate has since then become ambiguous, but it is implied that she is hiding from the world because of the role she played in the Black Prom out of fear it may come out and told in her book only a watered down version of the Black Prom without telling her very guilty part in it to make the best out of it and to partially ease the burden of guilt that is going to haunt her forever.

1976 Film[]

Norma Watson appears in the 1976 film and is portrayed by P.J. Soles. This version of Norma is almost as cunning, sadistic, ruthless, unforgiving, malicious, sinister, wicked, unsympathetic, clever and conniving as Chris Hargensen and was more of a major player in the film.

For starters, she hung around Chris for nearly the entire duration of the film. She also was the one who hit Carrie White in the head with her baseball cap in the film's opening scene and she was near Chris when Carrie began to panic over her late first period. Soon after, Norma was trading spitballs with a fellow classmate during a reading from Mr. Fromm in English class. Norma can be also seen at Kelso's Cafe where Billy and Chris were going to in Billy's car if you look closely at her hat. This version of Norma was fleshed out as being Chris's closest, right-hand girl. Norma hung around with Chris for most of the film and played a key role in the prank against Carrie at the Prom. At first, Chris was reluctant to tell Norma anything about what she was up to, but eventually cracked up and told her role in the prank. At the Prom, Norma collected the ballots for King and Queen. After she collected the ballots she replaced them with with fake ones, so that Tommy Ross and Carrie would be elected King and Queen of the Prom and gave them to the committee for evaluation, giving Chris the "okay" signal from under the stage. After the pig's blood was "mysteriously" dumped on Carrie, Norma was the first to laugh at the terrible sight, along with her friend, Kenny Garson. She could not contain her laughter, causing Carrie to hallucinate and believe everyone else to doing the same. Norma, Freddy DeLois and Kenny then made their way through the crowd, heading for the exit door. However, Carrie had other plans and slammed both Freddy and Kenny in between the gym doors. Norma screamed for help, as all the lights in the gymnasium turned into a darker red color and the fire hose turned on by itself, spraying anyone that crossed its path. Norma screamed in terror and fear with the rest of the students until Carrie finally got her revenge and mercilessly killed and slaughtered Norma by spraying her into a table with the fire hose. This likely lost her consciousness and if not, it killed her.

If she wasn't dead before, Norma was ultimately finished and killed off for real when she was burned inside the gymnasium with the rest of the students and teachers. She was dead, as the gymnasium collapsed and falls on her corpse.

Trivia[]

  • Norma is based on herself and Tina Blake. In the novel, Norma was more perky, while Tina was Chris Hargensen's best friend who is implied to have played an important role in the prank. In this film, Norma is Chris's best friend, instead, who plays a role in the cruel prank.
  • In the original script, Norma is hit by a light bar in the gym and is knocked into the wall, thus breaking her skull in the process.
  • When Carrie White sprays her in the face with the fire hose, she probably also died from breaking her neck bone on the table.
  • P.J. Soles actually got injured while filming her character's death. In an interview with Terry Bolo, she said P.J Soles injured her eardrum and went to the hospital.
  • There was a stunt in the scene where Norma falls to the table.
  • Norma in the script is a lot closer to her novel counterpart, with Tina being the minor part of the role like Norma was in the film.
  • P.J. Soles was originally hired for two weeks of filming. But after she hits Sissy Spacek on the head with her red baseball cap during the volleyball game scene, Brian De Palma decided for her to stay a little longer.
  • In Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, there is a character name Norma Watson.
    • Ironically, P.J. Soles was originally approached for the role but she eventually lost it, because she never gave a straight answer as to what she wanted to do.
  • P.J Soles, along with Charlotte Ayanna, William Katt and Judy Greer appeared in the 1999 film, Jawbreaker.

1988 Episode[]

2002 Film[]

This Norma is similar to the 1976 film in name only. Norma was the senior-class president and was good natured, showing a large amount of pep. She was not very popular and she was not liked by her peers due to her overly friendly and annoying ways of interacting with people. Norma was also occasionally taunted by Chris Hargensen and Tina Blake for her knowledgeable know-it-all demeanor. Norma was one of the girls, who tormented Carrie in the locker room, when she had her period, but later complimented Carrie at the prom, and sympathized for her when she got drenched in pig blood, which also fell on her.

She announced Carrie and Tommy as prom queen and king, thinking that their winning was because of a large amount of pity votes. She also had blood spilled on her dress, though only marginally when compared to Carrie. When Carrie began her rampage, Norma panicked, though she survived by escaping through a vent along with a few classmates and Miss Desjarden (Rena Sofer).

Norma later testified what she knew to the police and was shocked and disgusted when she found out through Detective Mulchaey that the ballots were switched by faked ones. She realized at once that Carrie had been the victim of a carefully orchestrated evil prank, which also cost Tommy his life and sabotaged the prom she organized on the way as well.

2012 Musical[]

2013 Adaptation[]

Although the sadistic and unsympathetic Norma did not physically appear in the 2013 adaptation of Carrie at all, her character was heavily similar to Tina, in the film, who originally in the book and 2002 TV movie, was also a bully of Carrie White. In this film, Norma was ultimately written out.

2013 Musicals[]

2015 Musicals[]

2021 Mexico Musical[]

2021 Spain Musical[]

2024 Musical[]

2024 Comedy[]

Gallery[]

Norma Watson (1976)[]

Appearances[]

Trivia[]

  • In the original script of the 1976 film, Norma is a combination of herself and Tina. In the actual film, she is almost a direct Tina with only minor of Norma’s tendencies.
  • Norma from the 1976 film is mainly based on Tina from the novel. Tina in the 2013 remake is based more on Norma from the 1976 film than her novel counterpart. She's a combination of both characters, but more so on Norma.
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