Shot in just 50 days on a shoestring budget, De Palma's sanguine shocker pulled horror out of the grave, one hand a time. It tells the story of Carrie White (Sissy Spacek), an outsider at Bates High School, where her plain looks and late development make her an easy target for bullies, led by the sadistic Chris (Nancy Allen). Carrie's lack of worldliness is due to her mother Margaret (Piper Laurie), a zealot whose enforced prayer routines will, she believes, help her daughter atone for her unidentified sins.
Carrie's isolation leads her to discover a gift - produced at moments of great anguish - for telekinesis, the ability to move objects at will. When former bully Sue Snell (Amy Irving) regrets her own behaviour, she befriends Carrie and sets her up with a date for the forthcoming prom. As Carrie's nightmare life finally begins to improve, a final shocking surprise awaits her and her enemies...
De Palma's skill with schlock horror is unquestionable, but in questioning the American Dream during his country's bicentenary he was also laudably subversive. His film is genuinely shocking, but the director was not content just to deliver a conventional bloodbath. The use of slow-motion (in one six-minute scene) and split-screen technology was a step forward for film-makers, and Carrie should be considered a technical and visual triumph.
Carrie is a Film programme that first aired in 1976 and has been classified a 18 certificate.
