Carrie is a 1976 American supernatural horror-drama film[2] based on the 1974 novel of the same name by Stephen King. The film was directed by Brian De Palma and written by Lawrence D. Cohen. Carrie was the first of King's novels to be adapted for film and television.
The plot revolves around Carrie White (Sissy Spacek), a socially outcast teenage girl who suffers frequent abuse from her religious mother Margaret (Piper Laurie) and classmates, especially Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen). Carrie discovers early in the story that she possesses latent telekinetic powers that seem to manifest when she becomes angry or otherwise distressed. She is invited to prom by classmate Tommy Ross (William Katt) by request of another classmate Sue Snell (Amy Irving). At the prom Carrie falls victim to a prank by Chris and her boyfriend Billy (John Travolta), thereafter she uses her powers to exact revenge against the student body.
The film released in theaters on November 3, 1976 in the United States. Carrie was a critical and box office success, receiving a mostly positive response from critics and grossing $33.8 million on a budget of $1.8 million.[3][4] During a survey taken in October 2008, it was revealed that Carrie was considered one of the most popular movies teens watched on Halloween.[5]Spacek was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, while Laurie was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The film introduced young stars such as Katt and Travolta – who would shoot to worldwide fame – and revamped the career of Laurie, who had already made several films.
The film spawned a 1999 sequel, The Rage: Carrie 2, which did not involve De Palma.
Plot[]
Carrie White is a shy, friendless 17-year old teenage girl abused by her unstable Christian fundamentalist mother Margaret, who is a religious fanatic and is also afraid of Carrie, and so constantly abuses her and forces her into daily prayers. The girls at Bates High School also harass Carrie for her witty appearance and shyness, with Chris Hargensen being especially cruel.
One day at the gym during the showers, Carrie experiences her first period. Having no prior knowledge of menstruation before, Carrie becomes hysterical, thinking she is going to bleed to death. Chris and the other girls, including Sue Snell, notice Carrie's horror and throw tampons and sanitary pads at her. Gym teacher Miss Collins intervenes; as Carrie becomes more frantic, a light bulb bursts in the gym, although it is mistaken as a broken one.
Miss Collins brings Carrie to the principal's office to excuse her from gym class for the next week. After Carrie grows angry from the principal repeatedly mispronouncing her name (Cassie instead of Carrie), an ashtray on his desk flips onto the floor. At home, Margaret receives a call from Miss Collins about the locker room incident. Margaret tells Carrie that the "curse of blood" was divine punishment for lustful thoughts and locks her into a prayer closet. That night, a miserable Carrie stares at her bedroom mirror until it shatters.
The next day, Miss Collins subjects Carrie's tormenters to a week-long boot-camp-style detention, threatening them with suspension from school and the prom if they do not attend. Chris throws a fit and tries to back up, and is banned from the prom. Sue, feeling guilty for teasing Carrie, convinces her boyfriend Tommy Ross to invite Carrie to the prom. Carrie suspects she may have telekinesis. While researching in the library, Tommy invites her to the prom, but she declines, fearing another trick. Tommy later visits Carrie's house and repeats his invitation; she accepts. Carrie tells her mother she is going to the prom, but Margaret declares the prom a sinful occasion. Carrie reveals her telekinesis, which causes Margaret to believe she is a witch. Carrie insists on going to the prom, and Margaret relucantly accepts.
Chris tells her delinquent boyfriend, Billy Nolan, that she wants revenge on Carrie. She goes with Billy and other kids to a local farm, where Billy kills a pig and drains it's blood into a bucket. Billy then sneaks into the school and places the bucket above the school's stage. As Carrie prepares for the evening, her mother tries to discourage her from going to the prom, claiming that everyone will laugh at her. Though Carrie's classmates are surprised to see her at the prom, they treat her as an equal. Sue, who was unable to attend due to lacking a date, sneaks into the prom to ensure everything goes well for Carrie. Chris's friend Norma collects the students' ballots for prom king and queen, but, at Chris's request, replaces the majority with votes nominating Tommy and Carrie.
[1] Carrie after having pig's blood dumped on her by Billy and Chris.
To Carrie's surprise, she and Tommy are named prom king and queen. As the couple approaches the stage, Sue discovers Chris holding a rope attached to the bucket of pig's blood. Before Sue can warn Carrie, Miss Collins forces her out, believing she is there for mischief. After the crown is placed on Carrie's head, Chris pulls the rope and Carrie is drenched in pig's blood. Chris and Billy escape the gym, Tommy is knocked unconscious by the falling bucket, and Carrie sees the whole room laughing and jeering at her, but nobody noticing Tommy as he dies from the wound.
Carrie snaps in a cold rage, and uses her telekinesis to seal the exits and manipulate a fire hose, which blasts the student body with water. The water makes contact with the electrical wiring and ignites a fire that consumes the gym. The students and faculty, including Miss Collins, are killed. Chris and Billy witness the carnage from a high window. Carrie leaves the gym and walks home covered in blood. Chris and Billy attempt to run Carrie over with Billy's car, but Carrie telekinetically flips the car over and causes it to explode, killing both of them.
Carrie returns home and takes a bath to wash off the pig's blood, and puts on her nightgown. She encounters Margaret and breaks down in her arms. Margaret embraces Carrie as the two recite the Lord's Prayer together in peace. In the middle of the prayer, Margaret, being a fanatic and delusional, believing that Carrie is the new Satan, stabs Carrie in the back. Carrie falls down the stairs and is cornered in the kitchen by a crazed Margaret, who believes that killing Carrie will bring peace. Carrie causes kitchen knives to fly across the room and kill Margaret. Carrie's rage explodes, causing the house to collapse upon them and it burns to the ground.
Some time later, Sue, the sole survivor of the prom, has a dream in which she visits the plot where Carrie's house stood. As she places flowers on the ground, Carrie's bloody hand shoots out of the ground and grabs her wrist. Sue wakes up screaming in her mother's arms.
Cast[]
- Sissy Spacek as Carrie White
- Piper Laurie as Margaret White
- Amy Irving as Sue Snell
- William Katt as Tommy Ross
- John Travolta as Billy Nolan
- Nancy Allen as Chris Hargensen
- Betty Buckley as Miss Collins
- P. J. Soles as Norma Watson
- Priscilla Pointer as Mrs. Snell
- Sydney Lassick as Mr. Fromm
- Stefan Gierasch as Mr. Morton
- Michael Talbott as Freddie DeLois
- Rory Stevens as Kenny Garson
- Doug Cox as The Beak
- Harry Gold as George Dawson
- Edie McClurg as Helen Shyres
Production[]
Pre-production[]
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Carrie was the first Stephen King novel to be published and the first to be adapted into a feature film. In an interview in Port Charlotte, Florida at a public appearance near his home on the Gulf coast on March 20, 2010, King said he was 26 years old at the time and was paid just $2,500 for the film rights, but added "I was fortunate to have that happen to my first book."[6] De Palma told Cinefantastique magazine in an interview in 1977:
| “ | I read the book. It was suggested to me by a writer friend of mine. A writer friend of his, Stephen King, had written it. I guess this was almost two years ago [circa 1975]. I liked it a lot and proceeded to call my agent to find out who owned it. I found out that nobody had bought it yet. A lot of studios were considering it, so I called around to some of the people I knew and said it was a terrific book and I'm very interested in doing it. Then nothing happened for, I guess, six months.[7] | ” |
Lawrence D. Cohen was hired as the writer, and produced the first draft, which had closely followed the novel's intentions.[8] However, later versions departed from King's vision rapidly, and certain scripted scenes were omitted from the final version, mainly due to financial limitations.
The final scene, in which Sue reaches toward Carrie's grave, was shot backwards to give it a dreamlike quality. It was also filmed at night, using artificial lighting to create the desired effect. This scene was inspired by the final scene inDeliverance (1972).[8] Spacek had insisted on using her own hand in the given scene, so she was positioned under the rocks and gravel. DePalma stated 'Sissy, come on, I'll get a stunt person. What do you want? To be buried in the ground?!' However Spacek declared 'Brian, I have to do this.' DePalma explains that they "had to bury her. Bury her! We had to put her in a box and stick her underneath the ground. Well, I had her husband bury her because I certainly didn't want to bury her. I used to walk around and set up the shot and every once in a while we'd hear Sissy: 'Are we ready yet?' 'Yeah, Sissy, we're going to be ready real soon."
The White house was filmed in Santa Paula, California and to give the home a Gothic theme, director and producers went to religious shops looking for artifacts to place in the home.
The site of one of the locations where Carrie was filmed, Palisades Charter High School ("Pali High"), was owned by Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher - parents of Carrie Fisher - years before the school was built. Some years after the couple had purchased the lot, the State acquired the land by eminent domain (compulsory purchase) to build the school.
Many young actresses auditioned for the lead role, including Melanie Griffith. Sissy Spacek was persuaded by husband Jack Fisk to audition for the title role. Fisk then convinced De Palma to let her audition, and she read for all of the parts. De Palma's first choice for the role of Carrie was Betsy Slade, who received good notices for her role in the 1974 film Our Time. Determined to land the leading role, Spacek backed out of a television commercial she was scheduled to film,[9] rubbed Vaseline into her hair, didn't bother to wash her face, and arrived for her screen test clad in a sailor dress which her mother had made her in the seventh grade, with the hem cut off,[7] and was given the part.
Amy Irving was cast alongside her mother, Priscilla Pointer, who would play the mother of Irving's character.
Nancy Allen was the last to audition, and her audition came just as she was on the verge of leaving Hollywood.[8] She and De Palma later married.
Filming[]
De Palma began with director of photography Isidore Mankofsky, who was eventually replaced by Mario Tosi after conflict between Mankofsky and De Palma ensued.[10] Gregory M. Auer served as the special effects supervisor forCarrie, with Jack Fisk, Spacek's husband, as art director.
A wraparound segment at beginning and end of the film was scripted and filmed which featured the Whites' home being pummeled by stones that hailed from the sky. The opening scene was filmed as planned, though on celluloid, the tiny pebbles looked like rain water.[8] A mechanical malfunction botched production the night when the model of the Whites' home was set to be destroyed, so they burned it down instead and dropped the scenes with the stones altogether.[8]
Reception[]
Awards and critical reception[]
Carrie received immensely positive reviews and is widely regarded as one of the best films of 1976.[11][12][13] The film currently holds a 91% "Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.[14] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stated the film was an "absolutely spellbinding horror movie", as well as an "observant human portrait".[15] Pauline Kael of The New Yorker stated that Carrie was "the best scary-funny movie since Jaws — a teasing, terrifying, lyrical shocker". Take One Magazine critic Susan Schenker said she was "angry at the way Carrie manipulated me to the point where my heart was thudding, and embarrassed because the film really works."[16] A 1998 edition of The Movie Guide stated Carrie was a "landmark horror film", while Stephen Farber prophetically stated in a 1978 issue of New West Magazine, "it's a horror classic, and years from now it will still be written and argued about, and it will still be scaring the daylights out of new generations of moviegoers."[17] Quentin Tarantino placed Carrie at number 8 in a list of his favorite films ever.[18]
Nevertheless, the film was not without its detractors. Andrew Sarris of The Village Voice commented, "There are so few incidents that two extended sequences are rendered in slow-motion as if to pad out the running time..."[17]
In addition to being a box office success, Carrie is notable for being one of the few horror films to be nominated for multiple Academy Awards. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie received nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards, respectively. The film also won the grand prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival, while Sissy Spacek was given the Best Actress award by the National Society of Film Critics. In 2008, Carrie was ranked number 86 on Empire Magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.[19] This movie also ranked number 15 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies, and #46 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Greatest Cinema Thrills, and was also ranked eighth for its famous ending sequence on Bravo's five-hour miniseries The 100 Scariest Movie Moments (2004).[20]
In a March 20, 2010 interview, King replied that he thought, although dated now, Carrie was a "good movie."[6]
Legacy[]
American Film Institute lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated[21]
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – #46[22]
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
- Carrie White – Nominated Villain[23]
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated[24]
Music[]
The score for Carrie was composed by Pino Donaggio. In addition, Donaggio scored two pop songs ("Born to Have It All" and "I Never Dreamed Someone Like You Could Love Someone Like Me") with lyrics by Merrit Malloy for the early portion of the prom sequence. These songs were performed by Katie Irving, sister of star Amy Irving and daughter of star Priscilla Pointer. Donaggio would work again with De Palma on Home Movies, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, Body Double, Raising Cain, and Passion.
The other songs were uncredited in the film and omitted from all album releases due to different ownership. These songs are "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave" by Martha and the Vandellas, "Education Blues" by Vance or Towers, and a third song called "Lady Lay", which is also presumed to be by Vance or Towers (it was cowritten by that band's Michael Towers[25]). Additionally, two brief musical interludes during the prom ("Pre-Prom Disco" and "Ernest's Announcement") were also written by the same songwriting team who wrote "Lady Lay"[25] and have never been issued.
The soundtrack album was originally released on vinyl in 1976 under the United Artists label. It was also released on cassette tape at some time during the '70s or '80s. A deluxe CD edition containing a few tracks of dialogue from the film was released by MGM/Rykodisc in 1997, and a 2005 CD re-release of the original soundtrack (minus dialogue) was available from Varèse Sarabande. Huge portions of the film's score were omitted from all of these releases, and the two Katie Irving songs were not the same versions which are heard in the film. A bootleg version of the isolated score ripped from the Criterion laserdisc has also been in circulation on the internet.
In 2010, Kritzerland Records released all 35 cues of Donaggio's score for the film on a 2-disc CD set which was boasted as the complete score. Also included in this edition were the versions of "Born to Have It All" and "I Never Dreamed..." which were heard in the film, as well as karaoke instrumentals of both songs, and hidden at the end of the final track, a version of the "Calisthenics" cue with Betty Buckley's studio-recorded voiceover from the detention scene. The second disc was a remastered copy of the original 13-track album. The Kritzerland release was a limited edition of 1200 copies. Kritzerland re-released the first disc as "The Encore Edition" in Feb. 2013; this release was limited to 1000 copies.[26]
Related productions[]
Carrie, along with the novel, has been reproduced and adapted several times.
Sequel[]
Main article: The Rage: Carrie 2
The Rage: Carrie 2 was released in 1999. It featured another teenager with telekinetic powers who is revealed to have shared a father with Carrie White. The film received universally negative reviews and was a box office failure.
2002 TV film[]
Main article: Carrie (2002 film)
In 2002, a television film based on King's novel and starring Angela Bettis in the titular role was released. The film updated the events of the story to modern-day settings and technology while simultaneously attempting to be more faithful to the book's original structure, storyline, and specific events. However, the ending was drastically changed: instead of killing her mother and then herself, the film has Carrie killing her mother, being revived via CPR by Sue Snell and being driven to Florida to hide. This new ending marked a complete divergence from the novel and was a signal that the movie served as a pilot for a Carrie television series, which never materialized. In the new ending, the rescued Carrie vows to help others with similar gifts to her own. Although Angela Bettis' portrayal of Carrie was highly praised, the film was cited by most critics as inferior to the original.[27]
Stage productions[]
Main article: Carrie (musical)
Early in the 21st century, playwright Erik Jackson attempted to secure the rights to stage another production of Carrie the musical, but his request was rejected. Jackson eventually earned the consent of Stephen King[28] to mount a new, officially-sanctioned, non-musical production of Carrie, which debuted Off-Broadway in 2006 with female impersonator Sherry Vine in the lead role.[29] Similarly, many other unofficial spoofs have been staged over the years, usually with a gym teacher named "Miss Collins" (as opposed to the novel's "Miss Desjardin" and the musical's "Miss Gardner"), most notably the "parodage" Scarrie the Musical,[30] which hit the Illinois stage in 1998 and was revived in 2005; Dad's Garage Theatre's 2002 production of Carrie White the Musical;[31] and the 2007 New Orleans production of Carrie's Facts of Life,[32] which was a hybrid of Carrie and the classic American sitcom The Facts of Life.
2013 film[]
Main article: Carrie (2013 film)
In May 2011, it was officially announced that Carrie would be adapted to film once more.[33] MGM and Screen Gems hired Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa to write the script for the new movie with "a more faithful adaptation" of King's novel. Aguirre-Sacasa had previously adapted King's epic novel The Stand into comic-book form in 2008.
Stephen King suggested Lindsay Lohan for the main role, saying that "it would certainly be fun to cast".[34] Actress Sissy Spacek also expressed her opinion about Lohan as Carrie White, stating that she "was like, 'Oh my God, she's really a beautiful girl' and so I was very flattered that they were casting someone to look like me instead of the real Carrie described in the book. It's gonna be real interesting."[35] In March 2012, the role of Carrie was offered to 16-year-old actress Chloë Grace Moretz.[36]
Alongside Moretz, Julianne Moore will guest star as Carrie's mother Margaret White, and Gabriella Wilde as Sue Snell.[37] Alex Russell and Broadway actor Ansel Elgort are also in the main cast, playing Billy Nolan and Tommy Ross respectively.[38] Portia Doubleday will play the role of Chris Hargensen.
On May 25, 2012, Judy Greer was cast as Miss Desjardin.[39]
Kimberly Peirce, known for her work on Boys Don't Cry, is directing this new adaptation.