Withdrawn and sensitive teenager Carrie White faces bullying from her classmates and abuse from her fanatically pious mother. When she begins to suspect that she has supernatural powers, things take a dark and violent turn.
Acting
Spacek's full-body trembling—actualMethod acting, she slept in blood.
Direction
De Palma's slow-motion prom sequence: operatic, cruel, unforgettable.
Cinematography
That soft-focus opening locker room—pure voyeuristic dread.
Director
Brian De Palma
Sissy Spacek
Carrie
Piper Laurie
Margaret White
Amy Irving
Sue Snell
William Katt
Tommy Ross
John Travolta
Billy Nolan
Nancy Allen
Chris Hargenson
Betty Buckley
Miss Collins
P. J. Soles
Norma
Priscilla Pointer
Mrs. Snell
Sydney Lassick
Mr. Fromm
Stefan Gierasch
Mr. Morton
Michael Talbott
Freddy
Doug Cox
The Beak
Noelle North
Frieda
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The pig's blood was real syrup and food coloring that dried sticky; Spacek insisted on doing the prom scene in one take.
Stephen King threw the first draft in the trash; his wife Tabitha fished it out and told him to finish. Teen girls with telekinesis literally built his career.
US
