Carrie rivals The Shining for the title of greatest ever Stephen King adaptation.
Carrie (1976)
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Reviews Counted:42
Fresh:38
Rotten:4
Average Rating:8.1/10
Consensus: Carrie is a horrifying look at supernatural powers, high school cruelty, and teen angst -- and it brings us one of the most memorable and disturbing prom scenes in history.
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: Brian De Palma's commercial breakout, based on a novel by Stephen King, helped launch a whole slew of teen-based horror films, and Carrie the blood-spattered prom queen has taken her throne in the... Brian De Palma's commercial breakout, based on a novel by Stephen King, helped launch a whole slew of teen-based horror films, and Carrie the blood-spattered prom queen has taken her throne in the pantheon of modern American myth. High school girls played by Amy Irving (in her film debut), P.J. Soles, and Nancy Allen plot to avenge themselves on ostracized fellow student and budding telekinetic Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) after they get in trouble for pelting her with tampons. When they get popular boy Tommy Ross (William Katz) to be her date for the prom, the stage is set for some heart-rending cruelty and fiery retribution. De Palma expertly uses split screens, slow motion, color filters, and tracking shots to imbue the proceedings with a haunting, allegorical elegance. Piper Laurie plays Carrie's mentally ill, devoutly Christian mom; she's brilliant, as is Spacek. John Travolta has a memorable pre-SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER role as one of the girls' beer-guzzling boyfriends. There was finally a sequel in 1999, as well as a short-lived Broadway musical. [More]
Starring: Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, John Travolta, William Katt
Starring: Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, John Travolta, William Katt, Nancy Allen, Piper Laurie, Betty Buckley, P.J. Soles, Sydney Lassick, Stefan Gierasch
Director: Brian De Palma
Director: Brian De Palma
Screenwriter: Lawrence D. Cohen
Producer: Paul Monash
Composer: Pino Donaggio
Reviews for Carrie
The fierce sympathy it extends to its unfashionable central character puts the film a million miles above the contemporary line in sick exploitation.
Unlike other examples of the horror genre, there are classic elements of tragedy that lend this gruesome tale a compelling edge.
The reason Carrie is still held in such high regard as a horror classic is very simple: it's all in the sheer directorial bravado. De Palma at the top of his game.
The film has a strikingly unsettling mood that enhances its power and gives it an impact that the story would otherwise lack. Much of the credit, though, must go to Spacek, who so convincingly portrays Carrie's pain and her longing for acceptance.
Young director Brian DePalma is fast making his reputation in the genre of the suspense-horror film.
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 behind my review, and I swear I can knock down just about a
A nearly perfect film. The combination of pathos, shocks, and grand guignol excess is orchestrated with jaw-dropping precision by young Depalma, whose later films would pale by comparison.
Horror in the classic sense, horror that builds rather than constantly shocking, horror that works so well we don’t need a guts and gore booster-shot every two minutes.
A total knockout. Piper Laurie gives a bravura performance as Carrie's religious fanatic mother, one of the creepiest movie characters ever.
It’s a gripping and rousing perusal of our human souls -- an opportunity to become aware of our dark sides and meet them head on.
It's a simple tale, told briskly and effectively by director Brian DePalma.
De Palma's Gothic thriller is at once trashy and lyrical, a nasty revenge story in which its misfit-Cinederella-like heroine (an exquisite Sissy Spacek) discovers her sexuality under the most terrifying conditions.
Carrie might be a film about high school, but it was perhaps Brian De Palma's first completely mature film.
King's pulp-gothic imagination was perfectly realized on-screen in De Palma's Hitchcock-influenced manipulative camerawork
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