HORROR • SUPERNATURAL • DRAMA
Shy and isolated teenager Carrie White has spent her life enduring relentless bullying at school and strict control at home. When a cruel prank turns prom night into a nightmare, Carrie discovers the devastating power within herself in Brian De Palma's unforgettable adaptation of Stephen King's bestselling novel.
October 16-18, 2026
Festival dates
Capitol Theatre
Port Hope, Ontario
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Release Year
1976
Runtime
98 minutes (1 hour 38 minutes)
Rating
R
Genre
Horror, Mystery
Director
Brian De Palma
Country
United States
Language
English
Studio
Red Bank Films
Saturday October 17, 2016
9:30 PM
Capitol Theatre
Port Hope, Ontario
Brian De Palma’s Carrie was the first screen adaptation of a Stephen King book—of his first published novel, in fact—and it is still considered one of the very best. The film (marking its 50th anniversary this year) established its American director as a filmmaker of prominence. Both Sissy Spacek (in her breakout role as Carrie) and Piper Laurie (as her religious fanatic mother) earned Oscar nominations (a rare thing for a horror movie). Carrie also introduced Amy Irving and P.J. Soles to the screen and gave Nancy Allen and John Travolta their first significant movie roles. The film’s climactic prom scene (featuring Carrie in a now iconic pink prom gown) is a De Palma tour de force.
Content warning: Carrie is an R-rated film.
Carrie's pink prom dress has become one of horror cinema's most recognizable costumes. The dramatic contrast between its elegant appearance and the film's shocking climax has made it an enduring pop culture icon.
- To film the iconic prom sequence, Sissy Spacek refused to take off her blood-soaked dress or wash for three straight days! She even slept in the sticky, foul-smelling outfit, made of corn syrup and food colouring, to make sure the dried, crusty blood matched perfectly from shot to shot.
In the final haunting dream sequence, Amy Irving's visceral screaming was so intense and genuinely terrifying to her real-life mother, actress Priscilla Pointer, that she blurted out her daughter's real name ("Amy!") instead of "Sue".
- For the final shock scene where Carrie’s hand reaches out of the gravel, Spacek insisted on being physically buried in a box underground herself rather than using a stunt double.