Critical Reception and Legacy (Carrie) Carrie
The film earned eighteen times its budget
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Budget | ~$1.8 million |
| Domestic gross | ~$33.8 million |
Carrie was one of 1976's most profitable films, returning over eighteen times its investment. The commercial success gave De Palma (De Palma) leverage he had never had before and established Stephen King as a bankable source for Hollywood adaptations. (wikipedia)
Kael called it the first De Palma film with heart
"This is the first time a De Palma picture has had heart." — Pauline Kael, The New Yorker (1976)
Kael's review placed the film alongside Hitchcock and Polanski while noting something new in De Palma's work -- an emotional investment in his characters that his earlier formal exercises had lacked:
"De Palma's humor isn't innocent — it's a perverse mixture of comedy and horror and tension, like that of Hitchcock or Polanski, but with a lulling sensuousness. He builds our apprehensions languorously, softening us for the kill." — Pauline Kael, The New Yorker (1976)
She identified the film's central trick -- sustaining a tone that is both funny and terrifying for the entire running time:
"No one else has ever caught the thrill that teenagers get from a dirty joke and sustained it for a whole picture." — Pauline Kael, The New Yorker (1976)
Ebert called it the best shock since Jaws
Roger Ebert gave the film a strong review and placed its final scare in the company of the decade's greatest:
"An absolutely spellbinding horror movie, with a shock at the end that's the best thing along those lines since the shark leaped aboard in Jaws." — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (1976) (paywalled, not verified)
The film holds a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and has been consistently included on lists of the greatest horror films ever made. (rottentomatoes)
Both lead performances were nominated for Academy Awards
Carrie received two nominations at the 49th Academy Awards -- one of the few horror films in Oscar history to earn multiple acting nominations:
| Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Best Actress | Sissy Spacek | Nominated |
| Best Supporting Actress | Piper Laurie | Nominated |
Spacek lost to Faye Dunaway for Network. Laurie lost to Beatrice Straight, also for Network. The nominations were remarkable for a horror film from a low-budget production -- the genre had rarely been taken seriously by the Academy. Spacek would win the Best Actress Oscar four years later for Coal Miner's Daughter (1980). Laurie's nomination relaunched a career that had been dormant since The Hustler (1961). (imdb, wikipedia)
The film launched the Stephen King adaptation industry
Carrie was the first Stephen King novel adapted to film. Its commercial success demonstrated that King's work -- with its combination of relatable characters, small-town settings, and supernatural horror -- was bankable material for Hollywood. The adaptation pipeline that followed produced The Shining (1980), The Dead Zone (1983), Stand by Me (1986), Misery (1990), and dozens more. King himself has stated that De Palma's adaptation surpasses his original novel. (deepfocusreview, wikipedia)
The sequels and remakes confirmed the original's dominance
The franchise produced three subsequent adaptations, none of which matched the original:
| Title | Year | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Rage: Carrie 2 | 1999 | Katt Shea | Sequel featuring a half-sister with telekinetic powers; Amy Irving returned as Sue Snell |
| Carrie (TV film) | 2002 | David Carson | Television remake with Angela Bettis; altered the ending to let Carrie survive |
| Carrie | 2013 | Kimberly Peirce | Theatrical remake with Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore; aimed for closer fidelity to King's novel |
Critics and audiences have consistently regarded De Palma's 1976 film as the definitive version. The remakes confirmed what the original demonstrated: the material's power depends less on the story itself than on De Palma's formal control and the performances of Spacek and Laurie.
The film established De Palma's commercial career
Before Carrie, De Palma was an art-house provocateur with a cult following. After it, he was a commercially viable director with leverage to make bigger films. The trajectory from Carrie runs through The Fury (1978), Dressed to Kill (1980), Blow Out (1981), Scarface (1983), and Body Double (1984). Carrie gave De Palma the commercial foundation that underwrote his most personal work.
"He's found his own route to a mass audience: his new trash heart is the ultimate De Palma joke." — Pauline Kael, The New Yorker (1976)