Carrie
Description
The first Stephen King adaptation still holds up as one of the best owing to it's close following of the book. Both Sissy Spacek as Carrie White and Piper Laurie as her mother, Margaret, were nominated for Academy Awards for this film.Spacek makes us truly believe she IS Carrietta White, and the powerful imagery makes us feel her incredible torment and the tampon-throwing scene at the start retains almost as much power of the book's (I honestly thought this would have been cut).
The special effects leave a bit to be desired, but considering we are talking about a movie over 20 years old, it is still quite good, and keeps you interested for the whole movie.
Carrie was a low budget film, costing only $1.8 Million, and was filled with unknown talent like Sissy Spacek, John Travolta, William Katt, Amy Irving and Nancy Allen (Ironically, she was married to director Brian DePalma). This led a lot of people to believe it would only cover costs in a quick run in theatres. Instead it grossed $30 Million in the USA alone.
Sissy Spacek wasn't considered for the role of Carrie until her husband, Jack Fisk, convinced director Brian de Palma to allow her to audition. Her audition so pleased De Palma that she got the lead role.
The name of the high school is Bates High, a reference to Norman Bates of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960).
After Carrie (Sissy Spacek) had the "pig's blood" dumped on her, she slept in it for two nights so that it would appear the same in every scene.
Because of it's success on the big screen, Carrie was converted into a musical production on Broadway. Alas horror is not something that successfully survives the transition, and the play failed after only 16 performances, losing over $7 Million, and making it the most expensive flops of the time.