Carrie (1976 film)

Carrie is a 1976 American supernatural horror film directed by Brian De Palma and adapted by Lawrence D. Cohen from Stephen King’s 1974 debut novel. Sissy Spacek plays Carrie White, an isolated high-school student in Chamberlain, Maine, whose telekinetic power emerges under stress. Piper Laurie portrays her religious mother, Margaret White; Amy Irving plays classmate Sue Snell; William Katt is Sue’s boyfriend Tommy Ross; and Nancy Allen appears as Chris Hargensen, Carrie’s tormentor. De Palma made the film after producer Paul Monash brought him King’s novel. Spacek had auditioned for Chris, while Allen auditioned for Carrie, before their roles changed. The story opens after Carrie is humiliated in a girls’ locker-room shower when she menstruates and students throw tampons at her. Miss Collins, the physical-education teacher, punishes the group, but Chris refuses her detention and is barred from the prom. Sue, troubled by her part in the cruelty, asks Tommy to invite Carrie. Carrie’s mother condemns the invitation as sinful, yet Carrie makes a prom dress and accepts. Meanwhile, Chris and her boyfriend Billy Nolan slaughter a pig, collect its blood, and arrange a prank with a rope, bucket, and the prom-stage lighting. Their scheme turns the invitation into catastrophe. At the prom, Carrie and Tommy are elected king and queen, and Carrie briefly enjoys an evening at the dance. Chris and Billy overturn the bucket above Carrie, killing Tommy when the bucket strikes his head. Believing the crowd is mocking her, Carrie locks the gym doors with her mind and kills people through fire hoses, electrical equipment, and a blaze. She confronts Billy and Chris, causes their car to crash, and returns home. Margaret attacks her with a kitchen knife, asserting that Carrie was conceived through rape. Carrie stops her mother’s heart, then finally dies after their house collapses. United Artists released Carrie in the United States on November 3, 1976. The film became a success, earning more than $33 million in North America against a budget at $1.8 million. At the 49th Academy Awards, Spacek received a Best Actress nomination and Laurie was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, an recognition for a horror film. De Palma’s production is associated with split-screen imagery during the prom destruction, Pino Donaggio’s score, and cinematographer Mario Tosi’s visual design. The film’s final sequence shows Sue dreaming that she visits Carrie’s grave; Carrie’s hand seizes her arm before Sue awakens screaming in terror.