Piper Laurie
Margaret White
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Nov 16, 1976 · Carrie: Directed by Brian De Palma. With Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, William Katt. Carrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.
- (209K)
- Horror, Mystery
- Brian De Palma
- 1976-11-16
Carrie is a 1976 American supernatural horror film directed by Brian De Palma from a screenplay written by Lawrence D. Cohen, adapted from Stephen King 's 1974 epistolary novel of the same name. The film stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy teenage girl who is constantly mocked and bullied at her school.
Based on a Stephen King novel, Carrie is a shy, friendless girl sheltered by her overly religious mother who seeks revenge on her cruel classmates via her telekinetic powers when they humiliate her at the Senior Prom.
- 98 min
Oct 19, 2013 · Today, something that strikes me about Carrie is that the movie has carved out a place in film history without ever really getting full credit for being the pop masterpiece it is.
- Overview
- Plot
- Cast
- Soundtrack
- Production
- Reception And Legacy
- Home Media
- Trivia
- Goofs
Carrie is a 1976 American supernatural horror film based on Stephen King's 1974 epistolary novel of the same name. The film was directed by Brian De Palma and produced by Paul Monash with a screenplay by Lawrence D. Cohen. The film received two Academy Award nominations, one for Sissy Spacek in the title role and one for Piper Laurie as her abusive...
The shy, unpopular and bullied 16-year-old high school student, Carrie White experiences her first period as she showers with her fellow female classmates after gym class. Unaware of what is happening to her, she panics and desperately pleads for help, believing she is bleeding to death.
The other girls, led by the arrogant, popular and beautiful student, Chris Hargensen who frequently bullies Carrie, gleefully respond to this by pelting her with tampons, laughing and chanting "Plug it up! Plug it up!". The gym teacher, Miss Collins breaks up the commotion and slaps Carrie in the face in an attempt to calm her down. A light bulb mysteriously breaks as Carrie reaches the height of her panic. Miss Collins manages to console Carrie and tell her what menstruation is. Later, the school principal seems uncomfortable as Miss Collins expresses bewilderment that Carrie is so uninformed about menstruation. As he dismisses Carrie from school for the afternoon, she becomes frustrated at both cigarette smoke emanating from an ashtray and the principal repeatedly referring to her by the name "Cassie", causing the ashtray to flip from his desk and shatter. On her way home, a young boy teases Carrie and she makes him fall off his bicycle simply by glaring at him. At home, Carrie is abused by her fanatically religious mother, Margaret, who rants about menstruation being the result of sinful thoughts. Carrie is dragged and locked in a small specially decorated “prayer closet” and forced to pray for forgiveness. When she is finally allowed to return to her room, she gazes into her reflection, causing the mirror to shatter. Carrie's classmate, Sue Snell feels guilty for participating in the locker room incident, so she asks her handsome and popular boyfriend, Tommy Ross to invite Carrie to the upcoming Prom in her place to atone for her cruelty. Carrie is reluctant, but Miss Collins convinces her to accept Tommy's invitation. During Miss Collins’s after school detention, Chris furiously throws a tantrum and defiantly skips her detention for tormenting Carrie. Miss Collins responds by violently shaking Chris and slapping her in the face, then informing her she is suspended from school and banned from the Prom. Swearing vengeance, Chris recruits her delinquent boyfriend, Billy Nolan to play a prank on Carrie. they slaughter a pig from a nearby farm and place a bucket of it's blood above the stage at the school’s gymnasium, where Chris plans to dump it on Carrie at the Prom. Margaret discovers Carrie's Prom plans and attempts to abuse her again. Having discovered her telekinetic powers, Carrie asserts her powers and defies her mother, flinging her away simply by yelling at her. Margaret responds by accusing Carrie of being a "Satanic witch". At the Prom, Carrie finds acceptance among her peers and shares a kiss with Tommy. Chris's best friend, Norma Watson rigs the election and Carrie is crowned Prom Queen. Carrie’s joy is cut short when Chris pulls a rope to dump the pig's blood on her. Chris and Billy escape through a back door, while the bucket falls on Tommy's head, knocking him unconscious. The blood soaked Carrie than hallucinates about everyone in the gymnasium, including Miss Collins, is laughing at her and soon unleashes her telekinetic fury upon the crowd, guilty and innocent alike. The doors slam shut, a high pressure fire hose assaults faculty members and students including Norma, who is knocked unconscious, the principal is electrocuted and Miss Collins is crushed to death. As the gym catches on fire, Carrie calmly walks out and locks the remaining students inside with her powers. Chris and Billy attempt to run over Carrie as she walks home, but Carrie causes their car to flip and explode, killing them both by burning them alive. At home, Carrie is comforted by her mother, who strokes her daughter's hair as she tenderly comforts her in her arms. She reveals her guilt about having conceived Carrie through her only act of sexual intercourse with Carrie's drunken father, a marital rape that she had both loathed and enjoyed. As they pray together, Margaret stabs her daughter in the back and pursues her through the house with a delirious smile on her face. Defending herself, Carrie telekinetically causes kitchen utensils to fly through the air and crucify Margaret. Distraught over her mother's death, Carrie loses control of her powers and causes the house to crumble and burn down with Carrie and her mother still inside, leaving them both dead.
•Sissy Spacek as Carrie White
•Piper Laurie as Margaret White
•Amy Irving as Sue Snell
•William Katt as Tommy Ross
•Nancy Allen as Chris Hargensen
•John Travolta as Billy Nolan
Featured Music
1.Heatwave by Martha and the Vandellas 2.Education Blues by Vance or Towers 3.Born To Have It All by Katie Irving 4.I Never Dreamed Someone Like You Could Love Someone Like Me by Katie Irving
Score
•Theme From Carrie •Ashtray •And God Made Eve •The Closet •Cracking The Mirror •Calisthenics •Card Catalogue/Telekinesis •You Can Trust Me •Pig Pen •Supper •Hanging The Bucket •Sewing •Tuxedo Shop •Per-Prom Jitters •At The Prom •Contest Winners •Bucket Of Blood •They're All Gonna Laugh At You •School In Flames •Mother At The Top Of The Stairs •The Bath •For The Last Time, We'll Pray •Collapse Of Carrie's House •Sue's Dream •End Credits
Development
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, Stephen 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." Brian 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. 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" Lawrence D. Cohen was hired as the screenwriter and produced the first draft, which had closely followed the novel's intentions. United Artists accepted the second draft but only allocated Brian a budget of $1.6 million, a small amount considering the popularity of horror films at the time. The budget eventually rose to $1.8 million. Certain scripted scenes were omitted from the final version, mainly due to financial limitations.
Casting
Many young actresses auditioned for the lead role, including Melanie Griffith. Sissy Spacek was persuaded by her husband, Jack Fisk to audition for the title role. Jack then convinced Brian to let her audition and she read for all of the parts. Brian's first choice for the role of Carrie was Betsy Slade, who received good notices for her role in the film, Our Time. Determined to land the leading role, Sissy backed out of a television commercial she was scheduled to film, 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 7th grade, with the hem cut off and was given the part. Nancy Allen was the last to audition and her audition came just as she was on the verge of leaving Hollywood. She and Brain later married.
Filming
Brain began with director of photography Isidore Mankofsky, who was eventually replaced by Mario Tosi after conflict between Isidore and Brain ensued. Gregory M. Auer, assisted by Ken Pepiot, served as the special effects supervisor for Carrie, with Jack Fisk, Sissy's husband, as art director. The White's house was filmed in Santa Paula, California. To give the house a Gothic theme, the director and producers visited religious souvenir shops to find artifacts to decorate the set location. A wraparound segment at the beginning and end of the film was scripted and filmed, which featured the White's 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. A mechanical malfunction botched filming the night when the model of the White's home was set to be destroyed by stones, so the filmmakers burned it down instead and deleted the scenes with the stones altogether. The original opening scene is presumed lost. The final scene, in which Sue Snell reaches toward Carrie's grave, was shot backwards to give it a dreamlike quality. This scene was inspired by the final scene in Deliverance. Rather than let a stunt double perform the scene underground, Sissy insisted on using her own hand in the scene, so she was positioned under the rocks and gravel. Brian explains that crew members "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".
Carrie received largely positive reviews and is widely regarded as one of the best films of 1976. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stated the film was an "absolutely spellbinding horror movie", as well as an "observant human portrait", giving three and a half stars out of four. Pauline Kael of The New Yorker stated that Carrie was "the best sca...
Carrie was originally released on VHS and LaserDisc formats, for which it received numerous editions throughout the world. In the United States and Canada, Carrie has been made available several times on DVD format from MGM Home Entertainment, debuting on September 29, 1998, while a Special Edition set was released on August 28, 2001. On December 4...
•While speaking at a book event in Fort Myers, Florida in 2010, Stephen King recalled that he was paid just $2,500 for the film rights to Carrie, which may seem like a pittance, but he has no regrets. "I was fortunate to have that happen to my first book" Stephen said.
•Nancy Allen claims she never realized her character was going to be so evil until she saw the finished film. She thought she and John Travolta were playing such self-centered, bickering morons that they were there for comic relief. Piper Laurie also thought the character of Margaret White was so over the top that the film had to be a comedy.
•The name of the high school is Bates High, a reference to Norman Bates from Psycho. In addition, the four-note violin theme from Psycho is used over and over in the film.
•The dizzying camera shot during the Prom scene was achieved by placing William Katt and Sissy Spacek on a platform that was spinning in one direction, while the camera was being dollied in the opposite direction.
•This was the first Stephen King novel adapted into a film.
•When Sissy Spacek was preparing for her character, she isolated herself from the rest of the ensemble, decorated her dressing room with heavy religious iconography and studied Gustave Doré's illustrated Bible. She studied "the body language of people being stoned for their sins" starting or ending every scene in one of those positions.
Audio/Visual Unsynchronised
•Chris Hargensen is somehow able to give her boyfriend, Billy Nolan a blow job and talk to him at the same time, without her voice being distorted in the least. •At the Prom the keyboard player slides his hand from right to left on the piano but the audio goes from low to high opposite during the song. •After the bucket of pig's blood falls, you hear the blood spilling long after the bucket has emptied.
Character Error
•When Miss Collins is calling the role in the gym, she walks over to one of the girls and snaps "Katie!" But the character's name is Helen Shyres.
Continuity
•When the blood falls on Carrie White, it really only hits the left side of her hair and her shoulders. In following shots, she is soaked in blood. •There are several signs posted about the time of the Prom, all of which say from 9:00pm to 1:00am. 1 says 9:00pm to 1:00pm, which, of course, is incorrect. Sue Snell asks the time at the family dinner on the night of the Prom and is told that it is 8:00pm. Shots immediately before and after the dinner scene show the Prom going full swing, even though it is not scheduled to start for another hour. Additionally, it would still be light outside on May 25 at 8:00pm. •Norma Watson has her hair styled at a salon in preparation for the Prom. Immediately afterwards, she is back at the gym setting things up, with her hair in braids and wearing her baseball cap. •After Carrie is covered in blood, her crown disappears between shots. •Billy's car is seen briefly from behind, before Carrie rolls it and the taillights are clearly those of a 67 Pontiac Firebird. However, when the car is overturned, it becomes a 67 Chevrolet Chevelle. •When the mirror shatters while Carrie is praying, it shatters into many small pieces but when Margaret White comes into the room and the mirror is fixed, it was only broken into a few large pieces. •When Miss Collins is pacing in Mr. Morton's office after the shower incident, she pauses in front of his desk. Carrie's blood is visible on her shorts, making Mr. Morton uncomfortable. She then continues pacing around the office and the blood disappears. Although she is moving, her sweatshirt would not move that much as to cover all traces of the blood. •When Carrie is pleading for help in the opening shower scene, she grabs Sue's arm twice. Both times, Sue dodges and pushes Carrie away. In both pushes, Carrie grabs the same spot and Sue ends in the same position, revealing that the two pushes are the same push shot from different camera angles. •When Miss Collins begins calling the roll, Helen doesn't appear in the first shot of the girls. In the next shot, Helen is sitting next to Sue. •When Miss Collins begins calling the roll, the first shot reveals a girl dressed in dark blue sitting among several girls higher on the bleachers. In the next shot, she's sitting in the front row next to Helen. But in the shot after that, she's in her original place. •In the gym scene where the girls are told about getting detention or refusal of their Prom tickets, Chris's lip gloss disappears and reappears. When she takes the gum out of her mouth she has lip gloss on. It then disappears and reappears as the scene goes on. •When Carrie tells Margaret about the Prom, she throws her drink in Carrie's face. This snuffs out two of the candles and significantly darkens the room. A few seconds later, Margaret stands up and the kitchen light behind her is suddenly turned on, lighting up the room. •When Miss Collins is questioning Sue and Tommy Ross in her office, Tommy is initially sitting some distance from Sue on the bench. In subsequent shots he is closer to her, although he never moves. •When Miss Collins is calling the roll in the gym, there are 14 girls present. When they are serving detention on the athletic field, there are only 13. It's possible one of them skipped the detention, but this is never specified. •Carrie's face is covered with hair when she talks to Miss Collins on the bench. •When Carrie kills her mother using the kitchen implements, there are numerous stab wounds and blood stains. But when Carrie drags her lifeless mother into the closet, the blood stains are all gone. •At the end of the film, when Carrie pulls her mother into the closet after she has died, you can see the mother's feet moving under her nightgown. •two candles on the left hand side of the stair case were blown out, but all candles were lit as Carrie falls down the stairs from being stabbed.
An awkward, telekinetic teenage girl's lonely life is dominated by relentless bullying at school and an oppressive religious fanatic mother at home. When her tormentors pull a humiliating prank at the senior prom, she unleashes a horrifying chaos on everyone, leaving nothing but destruction in her wake.
In this chilling adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel, withdrawn and sensitive teen Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) faces taunting from classmates at school and abuse from her fanatically pious...
- (76)
- Horror
- R
