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 novel Carrie. Brian De Palma and his close friend George Lucas held combined audition sessions for Carrie and Star Wars (1977). As a result, many actors were cross-considered. Amy Irving (Sue Snell) and William Katt (Tommy Ross) originally tested for Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker. Meanwhile, Carrie Fisher was briefly considered by De Palma for the title role of Carrie White.
Sissy Spacek was not originally slated to star. To secure the role, she turned up for her screen test deliberately unwashed, with Vaseline smeared in her hair to look greasy, wearing an unhemmed sailor dress her mother had made for her as a teenager. Her transformation immediately convinced De Palma to cast her as Carrie and shift Amy Irving to the role of Sue Snell.
To convey Carrie’s deep sense of social isolation, Spacek voluntarily distanced herself from the rest of the young cast between takes. She explained her strategy to her co-stars beforehand so they wouldn’t misunderstand her demeanor. Spacek also decorated her dressing room with religious art and studied religious iconography to shape her posture in key scenes.
The iconic scene where Carrie is drenched on stage used a mix of Karo syrup and red food coloring. Because the sticky mixture would dry quickly under studio lights, stagehands had to spray Spacek with water squirt bottles continuously between takes to keep the liquid fluid. To ensure absolute visual continuity across the multi-week prom shooting schedule, Spacek volunteered to sleep in her blood-stained clothes for three consecutive days.
Practical effects on set occasionally led to real injuries. During the prom destruction sequence, a high-pressure fire hose sprayed directly at P.J. Soles (playing Norma) burst one of her eardrums, causing her to faint on camera. De Palma kept the genuine footage in the final edit. During the scene where gym teacher Miss Collins slaps the students, Betty Buckley ended up slapping Nancy Allen dozens of times to capture the exact violent reaction De Palma wanted.
De Palma was inspired by the jump scare ending of John Boorman’s Deliverance (1972) to add a final shocking nightmare sequence. Despite De Palma offering to use a stunt double, Spacek insisted on performing the hand reaching out from the grave herself. A wooden box pit was dug into the ground, covered with pumice stones and dirt, and Spacek was buried inside. Her real-life husband, art director Jack Fisk, was positioned just off-camera to give her the cue to burst her hand out and grab Amy Irving’s arm. To give Sue Snell’s walk toward the grave a surreal, dreamlike quality, De Palma filmed Amy Irving walking backward while a car drove in reverse behind her, then played the shot in reverse and slow motion.
Carrie was a box office success earning $14.5 million in theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada by January 1978 from a gross of $33.8 million. In its first 19 days from 60 markets, the film had grossed $3,882,827. Carrie has significantly influenced popular culture, with several publications regarding it as one of the greatest horror films ever made. In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
