We don’t miss every good opportunity at CineSavant — when reviewer Terry Morgan expressed interest in this picture it was a blessing. Carrie White’s story has seen several do-overs — this is the Brian De Palma original with Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Nancy Allen, Amy Irving, John Travolta, P.J. Soles and William Katt. It’s not a new disc, just an important horror film we think ought to be covered here.  We’ll let the pig’s blood fall on Terr – —  We’ll let Terry tell us what was what in horror in the Bicentennial Year of 1976.

Carrie
Blu-ray
Scream Factory
1976 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 98 minutes / Street Date Oct. 11, 2016 / 2-Disc Set
Starring: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Nancy Allen, Amy Irving, John Travolta, P.J. Soles, William Katt, Betty Buckley.
Cinematography: Mario Tosi
Art Directors: Jack Fisk, William Kenney
Film Editor: Paul Hirsch
Composer: Pino Donaggio
Screenplay by Lawrence D. Cohen
Produced by Paul Monash
Directed by Brian De Palma

Brian De Palma’s first (and significantly better) film about telekinesis was also his first commercial success, and the first movie adapted from a Stephen King novel (King was quoted as saying he thought it was better than his book). It was unusual for its time in that two of its lead performances were nominated for Oscars. It’s lasted the test of time as a horror classic, and Scream Factory’s 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition, a 4K scan from the original negative, is packed with supplementary material. The film hasn’t been reviewed on CineSavant before, and in the interest of not being the subject of “They’re all gonna laugh at you” concerns at this omission, here’s a look at the sad, scary story of Carrie White.

Famously, when Stephen King was writing Carrie, he lost faith in his ability to do the story justice, and he tossed his manuscript in the trash. It was saved from oblivion by his wife, Tabitha, fishing the pages out of the bin. As a result, King’s extraordinary career was started, many many films and tv adaptations were made from his work, and eventually Kathy Bates got an Academy award. But it all began with this tale about teen bullying, religious mania and startling vengeance.

16-year-old Carrie (Sissy Spacek) has had a very hard life. Her mother, Margaret (Piper Laurie), is a religious zealot who thinks that all women are inherently sinful and regularly locks Carrie in a closet with a creepy and arrow-impaled St. Sebastian statue to pray forgiveness for her nonexistent sins. Above and beyond that, she is a frequent target for abuse at her high school, where mean girls such as Chris (Nancy Allen) torment her daily.

Things get worse when, one day in the locker room shower after a volleyball game, Carrie gets her first period, and, not knowing what is happening to her, publicly panics. Chris and the other girls, including Sue (Amy Irving), mock and throw tampons at the terrified teen, traumatizing her. Gym coach Miss Collins (Betty Buckley) punishes the team for its behavior, which enrages Chris, who vows to get back at the blameless Carrie.
Sue, feeling guilty for her part in the taunting, requests her jock boyfriend Tommy (William Katt) to ask Carrie out to the high school prom. Not without reservations, he does so. Carrie initially thinks this is another mean prank, but eventually he convinces her to say yes. When she informs her mother that she intends to go to the event, Margaret fulminates about the evils of sex and says no, but Carrie uses her burgeoning telekinetic power to win the argument.

As Carrie prepares to finally do something like a normal teenage girl and is excited about going to the prom with Tommy, Chris plots with her easily manipulated boyfriend Billy (John Travolta) to make the event into the ultimate humiliation of her long-time bullying target. But as her plans come to fruition, the results are something unexpected that will horrify them all.

One of the reasons for the film’s critical success is the fact that neither Spacek nor Laurie condescend to the story’s material — they play it flat out for all the drama and emotion it can sustain. What in lesser hands could be silly supernatural stuff becomes vivid and emotionally powerful. Spacek completely commits to her role and disappears within it. Her naked terror in the shower scene is so raw that it’s genuinely uncomfortable, and Carrie’s reactions to Margaret’s abuse of her are those of a frequently whipped animal. Conversely, when Carrie’s power finally kicks in at the conclusion, all humanity is absent from her eyes, and Spacek instead gives us the dreadful vision of a vengeful goddess without any mercy.

Laurie, who left a fifteen-year retirement to do this role, is a revelation as Margaret. Her performance is big, but it’s operatic in its achievement. She’s scary and tragic and funny all at once, the lighting often highlighting the edges of her frizzy hair like an unholy halo. Whether it’s her disturbing orgasmic moans of martyrdom at the film’s conclusion or her descending down the stairs making the sign of the cross with an upraised butcher knife, it’s a tour de force, a brave performance that pays off. Spacek and Laurie deserved their Oscar nominations.
There are abundant cast interviews on the second disc, from multiple time periods, and here are some of the more intriguing tidbits. De Palma told Buckley to actually slap Allen in one scene to get a surprised response, but both actor’s memory of how many takes De Palma asked for vary — Buckley says twelve and Allen says thirty. Ouch. Buckley also looped in the voice for the little boy on a bicycle who yells “Creepy Carrie!” The boy was De Palma’s nephew, Cameron.

P.J. Soles says the full stream from a firehose pointed at her head in the prom sequence burst one of her eardrums. Carrie and Star Wars were cast at the same time, leading to many actors auditioning for both films. Katt remembers doing a scene for Star Wars with Kurt Russell — imagine that combo of Luke and Han. Katt as Tommy also sports what is essentially the hairstyle featured on the ’70s album cover “Frampton Comes Alive!” Also, De Palma and Steven Spielberg both met their future wives from their involvement with Carrie.

Lawrence D. Cohen, who went on to adapt other Stephen King novels such as It and The Tommyknockers, produced a very tight script. He eliminated the epistolary nature of the novel and streamlined the story, keeping the plot relentlessly moving forward but retaining vibrant character detail. He points out in an interview that De Palma’s inspirations for Margaret’s memorable death scene (matching the St. Sebastian statue in Carrie’s closet) was Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, and the final jump scare was the end of Deliverance. Cohen also talks about creating the musical of Carrie, which was an infamous Broadway flop but later found success in many high school and college productions.

De Palma proved to be an ingenious choice for directing Carrie, and his mastery of cinematic tools were put to superb use. His split diopter shots feel seamless, his camera moves are elegant, and his use of high and low angles support the emotional states of the characters. Editor Paul Hirsch comments that he found the split screen sequences difficult to edit, and even De Palma admits that the technique is too intellectual. To me, his shot of Carrie covered in blood on the prom stage as fire flows upwards to create a wall of flame behind her is the most stunning visual image in the movie, but as a piece of filmmaking, another scene is even more impressive.

The long one-shot sequence during the prom that begins with PJ Soles’ character collecting ballots and ends with an overhead shot of the bucket of blood poised above Carrie is not just worthy of admiration due to its difficulty. Its accomplishment is that it reveals the motivations of multiple characters entirely through visual language and no dialogue — the setup to the biggest moment in the movie is brilliantly done using the tools of silent film. It’s pure cinema.

Terry Morgan’s full series of Trailers From Hell articles are peruse-able at his  TFH ‘Watching the Dark’ Archive.

The 4K scan of the original negative on Scream Factory’s release has produced a Blu-ray of Carrie that looks visually crisp and cleaned up and is likely the best way to see the film since it screened in theaters in 1976. One disc features the movie, and the second disc is full of additional features, including interviews with the cast, De Palma, Cohen, Hirsch and other creatives on the project. One unusual addition is a mini doc about revisiting the locations Carrie was filmed at, in which we discover that that the White home was in Santa Paula, CA, and the prom was shot partly in the Hermosa Beach Community Center. The cover art for this release is stylish and striking, likely the best I’ve seen for any version of this title, and it was created by Nat Marsh.

Some factoids of interest culled from the extras — Composer Pino Donaggio (who does a great job with the score) admits that he borrowed Bernard Herrmann’s stabbing violin sounds from Psycho in a couple of scenes. Also, the name of Carrie’s campus is Bates High School, a reference to someone else with mother issues. Two different included trailers for remakes or sequels to this franchise misspell Stephen King’s first name! Finally, Spacek points out that she assisted with set decoration for De Palma’s earlier film, Phantom of the Paradise.

Carrie White truly refuses to die, however, her hand reaching out from the grave as in the classic final scene jump scare — director Mike Flanagan is releasing a miniseries version of the oft-told tale this fall.

Reviewed by Terry Morgan

Carrie
Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements:
Interview featurette Acting Carrie with Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, Betty Buckley, Nancy Allen, William Katt, Piper Laurie, Priscilla Pointer and P.J. Soles
Interview featurette Visualizing Carrie with Brian De Palma, Jask Fisk, Lawrence D. Cohen and Paul Hirsch
Interviews with Pino Donaggio, Mario Tosi and Harriet B. Helberg
A look at the Carrie the musical
TV and radio spots
Still gallery
Stephen King and the Evolution of Carrie text gallery.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: Two HD Blu-ray in Keep case
Reviewed: August 5, 2026
(7563morgcarr)

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Text © Copyright 2026 Terry Morgan

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