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Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, William Katt, Nancy Allen ... see more see more... , John Travolta , Betty Buckley , Sidney Lassick , Stefan Gierasch , Priscilla Pointer , Michael Talbott , Cameron de Palma , Edie McClurg , Noelle North , P.J. Soles , Doug Cox , Anson Downes

This classic horror movie based on Stephen King's first novel stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy, diffident teenager who is the butt of practical jokes at her small-town high school. Her blind ... read more read more...panic at her first menstruation, a result of ignorance and religious guilt drummed into her by her fanatical mother, Margaret (Piper Laurie), only causes her classmates' vicious cruelty to escalate, despite the attentions of her overly solicitous gym teacher (Betty Buckley). Finally, when the venomous Chris Hargenson (Nancy Allen) engineers a reprehensible prank at the school prom, Carrie lashes out in a horrifying display of her heretofore minor telekinetic powers. Many films had featured school bullies, but Carrie was one of the first to focus on the special brand of cruelty unique to teenage girls. Carrie's world is presented as a snake pit, where the well-to-do female students all have fangs -- even the reticent Sue Snell (Amy Irving) -- and all the males are blind pawns, sexually twisted around the fingers of Chris and her evil cronies. The talented supporting cast includes John Travolta, P.J. Soles, and William Katt. One of the genre's true classics, the film was followed by a sequel in 1999, as well as by a famously unsuccessful Broadway musical adaptation that starred Betty Buckley, the movie's gym teacher, as Margaret White. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

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44 critics

R, 1 hr. 37 min.

Directed by: Brian DePalma

Release Date: November 16, 1976

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DVD Release Date: September 29, 1998

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Flixster Reviews (12,536)

  • TheDudeLebowski65
    April 18, 2012
    TheDudeLebowski65
    Carrie is a superb Horror film. Simply put. The book is what began Stephen King's career as a modern Horror maestro. Carrie follows the story of a young teenager named Carrie White who is disliked by her classmates and is constantly bullied. Brian Depalma stays faithful to the no... read morevel amazingly well and Sissy Spacek brings Carrie to life. The real horror begins when the kids at her school go a little too far, and they fully understand quickly that they made a big mistake. Carrie has telekinetic powers and takes revenge on her school. This is a fine Horror film that features great performances by PJ Soles (Halloween) Nancy Allen (RoboCop) and John Travolta (Saturday Night Fever, Pulp Fiction) Give Carrie a viewing, and be prepared for a great Horror film. A flawless film that is pure horror, Carrie is a classic that will delight fans new and old. This is one of the finest of Stephen King adaptations Carrie is a fine supernatural horror flick that remains after all these years a classic of the genre. If you're looking for a great King adaptation, this film is it. Brilliantly acted and directed, Carrie is a horrifying treat that will appeal to fans of horror, and is a film that I would recommend to newer horror fans Unlike more intense horror films, Carrie is a film that has effective scares, but is not as intense as so many other horror flicks. This the perfect entry level horror film a\s it has an effective plot with good scares, but it doesn't overdo anything which makes it a worthwhile film.
  • StarCrossedVoyager
    December 26, 2011
    StarCrossedVoyager
    A decent film with a brilliant performance from Spacek but not my kind of film.
  • fb619846742
    November 17, 2011
    fb619846742
    A disturbing if flawed and too melodramatic story of a bullied girl (Sissy Spacek) who unleashes Hell at her school's prom once her classmates go too far. Without Spacek's tender, heartwarming, and memorable turn, this movie might not have been completely worth it. However, due t... read moreo her understated, brilliant work here, in addition to one of the most iconic horror movie scenes ever, this film does remain intriguing. Director Brian de Palma has often been criticized for his work over the years, and fairly so, given he has some ambitious ideas but he never remains focused on one theme and running with it. "Carrie" is a lot of half-baked things thrown together, a high school drama, a character study, a damning of over-doing one's religion, a relationship forming (between Carrie and Tommy), and some balls-out horror. To put it simply, it just never comes together fully, despite some really, really great scenes (the prom scene is just so well done), and as said, Spacek really creates such a tragic, though likable figure, as Carrie's meekness is paired up excellently with her demonic "gift". Although it starts out badly (and creepily, de Palma's camera work in the opening shower scene feels dirty), it picks up some steam despite a few set-backs in between. The prom scene brings the goods, but the movie just does not know how to end correctly. So all in all, a frustrating film, it had the potential to be great, but it's mostly just "okay".
  • fb1341085175
    October 29, 2011
    fb1341085175
    Ah, the happy, cheerful and highly formative teenage school days. Carrie White, you'll always be my #1 gal.
  • blkbomb
    October 14, 2011
    blkbomb
    Carrie White: It has nothing to do with Satan, Mama. It's me. Me. If I concentrate hard enough, I can move things. 

    "Take Carrie to the prom. I dare you."

    Carrie is widely considered one of the best of the Stephen King adaptions. The movie is brilliantly directed by Brian DePal... read morema and acted by Sissy Spacek. The movie works its way slowly to wild ending, building its tension as it goes. We know something is going to happen on prom night, but we don't know what. The film is definitely creepy, but today it really isn't scary. There is no doubt that when it came out, that the Prom scene didn't scare though. 

    Carrie is an outcast in her school. She is ridiculed by her peers and spends all of her time trying to hide from everyone. At home it isn't much better for her. She has a Jesus crazy mother who locks her in the closet to pray and believes everything Carrie does is a sin. Carrie is asked to the Prom by the most popular kid in school because his girlfriend wants him to. She feels bad about an incident where Carrie was tormented in the locker room. Another popular girl has plans to ruin Carrie's Prom night though.

    Everything about Carrie screams classic horror. It has everything that makes a horror movie a classic. It has an amazing performance by its lead actress. A stunning score that sets the mood for the film. A story that works on more than one level; as a horror film and as a study of human anger. And a director that pulls no punches and makes a movie with extremely high tension and suspense. 

    Carrie is probably my third favorite Stephen King adaption behind only The Shining and The Shawshank Redemption. The movie works so well because it has a director that knows exactly what he's doing. He builds the story slowly; revealing Carrie's power, showing her home life and showing how the other kids treat her. Like the movie builds in tension, Carrie is slowly building her anger up to an extreme level, until one prank goes over the line and she unleashes her wrath. The Prom scene is brilliantly done. Not just the final part of it but the whole thing. How her date teaches her dance, her gym teacher tells her she's pretty and she sees her name on the ballot for Prom King and Queen. It finally looks to Carrie, like she is being accepted; but she doesn't see what is going on behind the curtains. 

    Carrie is a staple of the horror genre and always will be. Its bizarre nature just doesn't lose its hold on you after multiple viewings. 
  • spielberg00
    October 14, 2011
    spielberg00
    Films have been depicting how much senior prom is a rite of passage for teens nearly since film itself came to be. Of all directors and films, though, Brian DePalma does the most fantastic job with CARRIE at showing his angle of what is clearly more than just a dance. (E... read morespecially when someone invites Carrie as a date.)

    The story begins when Carrie White, in her mother's words, "becomes a woman" in the locker room. Not only are her peers prone to harassing her more, but Carrie has now also become the subject of embarrassment and extreme humiliation. And on top of that, her extremely religious (and arguably abusive) mother has found this the time to start nagging her about how she has the Devil in her and that she has sinned greatly. The girls in Carrie's gym class are punished with five days detention (jeez, I don't think I would ever be able to stand that!), but they don't care. They set Carrie up with a date to the prom, and they have a nasty, bloody prank planned. Little do they know what will happen as a result of their bizarre prank.

    This was the first case in which I watched a film based on a Stephen King novel, and not having read the source material ahead of time (excluding 1408, but that was based on a short story); therefore, I cannot quite say how faithful or how good this was in comparison to the original writing (which was, for the record, King's debut novel). What I can say is that this was quite successful for a starter (as it was the first Stephen King book put on screen), and as a film in general, it was mind-blowing.

    Even with a budget of only $1.8 million, CARRIE has some of the most inventive methods for creating supernatural chills and suspenseful terror. The music is ridiculous, eerie, but not overwhelming. The one infamous prom scene is preceded by minutes on end of build-up on the tension DePalma is creating; and when it finally comes, the director uses creative techniques such as the split screen to allow us to see the most important, most terrifying things going on. It could have certainly been much, much more scary, but think of when it had first been released: the audience barely, if at all, knew what to expect.

    That said, CARRIE is a must-see for all horror movie fans, and a superb piece of entertainment for all fans of Stephen King adaptations. It has great directing from Brian DePalma; as well as solid performances from Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, and John Travolta (no GREASE here, though); and was an original horror classic. (And still is.)
  • DreamExtractor
    September 10, 2011
    DreamExtractor
    carrie is an insane horror films and I loved it.
  • hunterjt13
    August 21, 2011
    hunterjt13
    An exile from teenage wasteland, Carrie White goes to senior prom only to be victim to a cruel practical joke.
    I think the most interesting aspect of Brian DePalma's adaption of Stephen King's first novel is the middle act. The film begins with a creepy air as the camera pans do... read morewn a girls locker room, and it's either an exploitation film or a high school boy's fantasy. But the music implies that this is the most pastoral of scenes. Then, when Carrie's first period surprises her, there is a scene of horrendous violence. Following this is the middle of the film, which is just as pastoral and idyllic as possible. It's a teenage girl's dreams come true (or at least what films like to make us believe are a teenage girl's dreams): the most popular boy asks her to prom, she rebels against her mother, and a teacher takes care of her. I think the film is made possible and effective by the sweetness of the middle. Without this section, we have no reason to hope for Carrie, and the final scenes of violence would be cheap and superfluous.
    Sissy Spacek is great at playing unassuming characters, and there is no one more unassuming than Carrie White; I think this is why Stephen King wrote that he never liked her. Good supporting work is also provided by Amy Irving and William Katt's hair. Piper Laurie rocks as Carrie's zealot of a mom; I wonder if she was ever considered for the lead in Misery.
    I think DePalma's characteristic style, his rapidly spinning camera and use of a glaring orchestral soundtrack, become over-bearing. I also thought he muddled the religious symbolism. Is Margaret really a Christ figure?
    Overall, Carrie is a horror classic for good reason, and the story construction should be seen as a "how-to" guide.
  • 76Majikat
    August 5, 2011
    76Majikat
    Not the Classic Horror film I was expecting to see and certainly not one I would have associated with Stephen King.

    I have now watched it for the sake of watching it, but it's not the greatest Horror or the greatest Stephen King adaption.
  • mumby1988
    July 30, 2011
    mumby1988
    Like Jaws a year before it, Carrie is one of the great happy accidents in horror cinema. Stephen King almost threw away his debut novel out of artistic frustration, and was only paid $2,500 for the film rights. The production was underfunded by United Artists and its director, Br... read moreian De Palma, lacked commercial viability, having had only a modest hit with Obsession. But out of this potential disappointment came an engrossing and terrifying film, one of the best Stephen King adaptations and perhaps the high point of De Palma's career.

    Like a lot of Stephen King adaptations, there was a relatively small gap between Carrie being published as a novel and the film version being released. The only contemporary production with a shorter turnaround was Christine¸ which went from a novel in April 1983 to being filmed by John Carpenter that same summer and being released in December. Hence it is difficult to judge how much of the film's success lies in De Palma's direction and how much of it lies in the source material.

    De Palma's biggest contribution, from a narrative point of view, is to take such a relatively simple premise - a high-school girl with telekinetic powers - and explore it over 90 minutes with precious little in the way of padding. Because Carrie was originally intended as a short story, it has an inbuilt modesty which is absent from It or The Shining. But what it lacks in epic storytelling it, more than makes up for in its thematic depth and the intense believability of its characters.

    Carrie at its most basic is about the horrors of high school: the bullying, the peer pressure, the feeling of being an outcast and, in an exaggerated way, having to live up to the expectations of one's parents. Its influence can clearly be seen in everything from Michael Lehmann's cult classic Heathers to more mainstream efforts like Mean Girls. The opening sequence in the showers sets up the majority of the girls as school as utterly repulsive. Their rapid-fire, everybody-talks-at-once dialogue is obnoxious for all the right reasons, and their posing, pulchritudinous bodies are in stark contrast to Carrie, who is so gaunt and wiry that you might mistake her for Gollum.

    Within this context, Carrie's telekinesis represents her burgeoning adolescent rage. It begins as something over which she has very little control, but over the course of the film she learns to focus it and use it sparingly. The film uses telekinesis in the same way that Let The Right One In uses vampirism, as a means of expressing a deep emotional reaction to the world by placing it outside of oneself. But as with the final scenes in Let The Right One In, Carrie's abilities are not entirely within her grasp, and at the prom there is still a question of whether she is controlling her powers or the other way around.

    Carrie is also about the suffocating influence of religion, and in particular its role in the repression and persecution of women. Carrie's mother is a Christian fundamentalist who believes that menstrual bleeding is an indication of sin. When punishing Carrie she continually recites the phrase "Eve was weak" and forces her daughter to repeat it, to confess to a crime that she has committed simply by being born a woman.

    The mother, played with abandon by Piper Laurie, is essentially a sadomasochistic character. She derives pleasure in the form of spiritual vindication from both inflicting pain on Carrie and by condemning herself. By believing that all women are cursed and sinful, she is submitting herself and her daughter to a greater will, allowing herself to be punished both alongside her daughter and on her behalf. The deep bond between mother and daughter is paralleled by the bond between sex and spirituality. The mother's gasps as she dies are borderline orgasmic, and she dies in the same pose as the icon of Christ in Carrie's closet.

    The Biblical connotations of Carrie are not confined to the position of women. Carrie's bleeding is interpreted as not just punishment for her own sins, but for the sins of her mother and father. Towards the end of the film, it is revealed that Margaret White slept with Carrie's father outside of wedlock, the implication being that Carrie is illegitimate. The father left the family, perhaps because of the pregnancy, perhaps because he was intimated by Margaret's personality or her faith. For whatever reason, the mother's guilt for that sin is laid upon Carrie; she implicates her daughter because she cannot face and atone for her own sin.

    In this sense Carrie is immediately comparable to A Nightmare on Elm Street, which dealt with the theme of the sins of the father in a more surrealistic way. But there are also strong connections with Suspiria, Dario Argento's giallo masterpiece which was in pre-production when Carrie was released. Both films are very stylish and striking in their manipulation of colour. Mario Tosi's cinematography contains the same shimmering blues and Technicolor reds that Argento's work features in abundance.

    But more than that, both Carrie and Suspiria have huge elements of fairy tales about them. Where Suspiria is modelled on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Carrie is a reworking of Cinderella with the final act subverted. Instead of a handsome prince coming to save the day and everything working out fine, Carrie descends into hell, embracing her extraordinary powers and losing all feelings for anyone else. In this context Carrie's classmates are the ugly sisters (with the handsome prince being in on the act) and Margaret is the wicked stepmother, a further indication that Carrie is illegitimate.

    The film simply wouldn't work without the performance of Sissy Spacek, who is nothing short of phenomenal. Having first come to prominence in Badlands, Spacek was originally cast to play Christine Hargensen, the role which eventually went to Nancy Allen. Determined to change De Palma's mind, she smeared Vaseline into her hair and turned up to the final audition in a dress she wore in seventh grade. She brings a heart-breaking fragility to the role, making us feel so strongly for her character that we almost find ourselves cheering in the midst of her carnage. The image of the blood-stained Carrie walking home, or climbing the stairs into the attic, is simultaneously touching and terrifying.

    The only thing which prevents Carrie from being a full-blooded masterpiece is some of De Palma's visual trickery. Many of his decisions work well, adding to the tone and substance of the film. When Carrie and Tommy are dancing, the camera is at a Dutch angle and twirls around at a faster pace than the couple. This and the final dream sequence, which was filmed in reverse, successfully reinforce the magical, fairy tale quality of the story. And the use of slow-motion up to and include the pig blood falling do add a real sense of tension.

    But once the pig blood hits the fan, De Palma gets carried away and his visual decisions undercut the climactic scene. Using split-screen undermines the sense of unbridled panic we are meant to have: by asking us to focus on two different things at once, we both lose a sense of scale and find it hard to focus on the often-poetic justice being meted out to. The Metropolis-style kaleidoscope view of people laughing doesn't contribute all that much, and the looping of her mother's voice ("they're all gonna laugh at you!") makes the whole thing feel like the final groove of Sgt. Pepper.

    Despite its slightly botched ending and some overly conventional jumps, Carrie is a damn fine film which still has the power to unnerve after 35 years. Spacek's extraordinary performance is supported by some fine work from Nancy Allen and Piper Laurie, along with a brief appearance from John Travolta on the cusp of superstardom. Where De Palma's later works would be memorably shocking, this is shockingly memorable, and remains one of the high points of his often distinguished career.

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Critic Reviews

Joe Morgenstern
June 4, 2011
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

More superpowers from Brian De Palma, this time in high school, in a screen version of a Stephen King novel that's become a horror classic. Full Review

Richard Schickel
October 13, 2008
Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine

An exercise in high style that even the most unredeemably rational among moviegoers should find enormously enjoyable. Full Review

Variety Staff
October 7, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

Carrie is a modest but effective shock-suspense drama about a pubescent girl, her evangelical mother and cruel schoolmates. Full Review

Dave Kehr
September 25, 2007
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

This 1976 thriller, about a high school outcast (Sissy Spacek) who uses her telekinetic powers to massacre the graduating class, contains a number of interesting ideas. But as with most of his films, ... Full Review

Richard Eder
May 9, 2005
Richard Eder, New York Times

It is sometimes funny in a puzzling kind of way, it is generally overwrought in an irritating kind of way, and once in a while it is inappropriately touching.

Barbara Thomas
March 6, 2005
Barbara Thomas, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Young director Brian DePalma is fast making his reputation in the genre of the suspense-horror film. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Brian De Palma's Carrie is an absolutely spellbinding horror movie, with a shock at the end that's the best thing along those lines since the shark leaped aboard in Jaws. Full Review

James Berardinelli
January 1, 2000
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

There is little suspense or dramatic tension; everything plays out like bad melodrama or cheap exploitation. Full Review

Teresa Talerico
January 1, 2011
Teresa Talerico, Common Sense Media

Stephen King's disturbing prom horror classic. Full Review

Blake French
August 2, 2009
Blake French, Filmcritic.com

I might be the only person in the world who thinks Brian De Palma's 1976 classic thriller Carrie (now out on DVD) is one of the most overrated, disappointing horror films of all time, but I stand behi... Full Review

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Facts

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    • Margaret White: Red. I might have known it would be red.
    • Carrie White: It's pink, Mama.
    • Carrie White: Look what Tommy gave me, Mama. Aren't they beautiful?
    • Margaret White: I can see your dirty pillows. Everyone will.
    • Carrie White: Breasts, Mama. They're called breasts, and every woman has them.
    • Chris Hargenson: I hate Carrie White!
    • Billy Nolan: [after a pause] Who?
    • Margaret White: Give me your sweatshirt.
    • Carrie White: No mama.
    • Margaret White: We'll burn it together and pray for forgiveness.
    • Carrie White: They' re all gonna laugh at you.
    • Carrie White: I didn't sin, Mama.
    • Margaret White: First sin was intercourse, first sin was intercourse, first sin was intercourse.
    • Carrie White: And the first sin was intercourse. Mama I was so scared, I thought I was dying. And the girls all laughed at me.
    • Margaret White: Witch! Got Satan's power.
    • Carrie White: It got nothing Satan mama. It's me, Me! If I concentrate hard enough, I can move things.
    • Margaret White: Ain't this clever?
    • Carrie White: Mama, I'm not the only one. Other people can do it, I read about it!
    • Margaret White: I have one child, do you know he doesn't let you know He's working through you?
    • Carrie White: Mama, I know.
    • Margaret White: He ended your father and carried him off.
    • Carrie White: He ran away Mama. He ran away with a woman, Mama. Everybody knows that.
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Carrie Trivia

  • Sissy Spacek played "Carrie" in De Palma's horror feature. What was Carrie's last name?  Answer »
  • Who played Jake Blues' psychopathic love interest in the cult comedy The Blues Brothers?  Answer »
  • Sissy Spacek as Carrie White Amy Irving as Sue Snell William Katt as Tommy Ross Betty Buckley as Miss Collins Piper Laurie as Mrs. White Nancy Allen as Chris Hargensen John Travolta as Billy Nolan P.J. Soles as Norma Watson some of the cast of this 1976 horror flick  Answer »
  • The quote "It has nothing to do with Satan, Mama. It's me. Me. If I concentrate hard enough, I can move things." is from which movie?  Answer »
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