Carrie (1976)

All Critics (47) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (4) | DVD (32)

More superpowers from Brian De Palma, this time in high school, in a screen version of a Stephen King novel that's become a horror classic.

June 4, 2011 Full Review

Joe Morgenstern

Wall Street Journal

Top Critic

An exercise in high style that even the most unredeemably rational among moviegoers should find enormously enjoyable.

October 13, 2008 Full Review | Comment (1)

Richard Schickel

TIME Magazine

Top Critic

Carrie is a modest but effective shock-suspense drama about a pubescent girl, her evangelical mother and cruel schoolmates.

October 7, 2008 Full Review | Comment (1)

Variety Staff

Variety

Top Critic

This 1976 thriller, about a high school outcast (Sissy Spacek) who uses her telekinetic powers to massacre the graduating class, contains a number of interesting ideas. But as with most of his films, De Palma can't keep track of them.

September 25, 2007 Full Review | Comments (12)

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

The fierce sympathy it extends to its unfashionable central character puts the film a million miles above the contemporary line in sick exploitation.

February 9, 2006 Full Review

Time Out

Top Critic

It is sometimes funny in a puzzling kind of way, it is generally overwrought in an irritating kind of way, and once in a while it is inappropriately touching.

May 9, 2005 | Comments (4)

Richard Eder

New York Times

Top Critic

Carrie is one of the most heart-breaking and cringe-worthy high school dramas ever made, and that's before she even gets to her apocalyptic revenge.

October 29, 2012 Full Review

Simon Miraudo

Quickflix

Brian De Palma transcends the pulpy horror feel by emphasising the awakening-sexuality metaphor, and using some glorious trickery.

October 9, 2012 Full Review

Total Film

Stephen King's disturbing prom horror classic.

January 1, 2011 Full Review

Teresa Talerico

Common Sense Media

I might be the only person in the world who thinks Brian De Palma's 1976 classic thriller Carrie (now out on DVD) is one of the most overrated, disappointing horror films of all time, but I stand behind my review, and I swear I can knock down just about a

August 2, 2009 Full Review

Blake French

Filmcritic.com

... [O]ne of the best horror films of the 1970s.

June 18, 2008 Full Review

Lucius Gore

ESplatter

The first big hit directed by Brian De Palma.

February 10, 2008 Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

The reason Carrie is still held in such high regard as a horror classic is very simple: it's all in the sheer directorial bravado. De Palma at the top of his game.

September 25, 2007 Full Review

Andrew Collins

Empire Magazine

Carrie rivals The Shining for the title of greatest ever Stephen King adaptation.

September 25, 2007 Full Review | Comment (1)

Film4

The film has a strikingly unsettling mood that enhances its power and gives it an impact that the story would otherwise lack. Much of the credit, though, must go to Spacek, who so convincingly portrays Carrie's pain and her longing for acceptance.

September 25, 2007 Full Review

TV Guide's Movie Guide

The bulk of "Carrie" is not a gore-fest, but a prescient tone poem about the mental torture of social outcasts in high school halls in the pre-Columbine era.

July 15, 2007 Full Review | Comments (2)

Phil Villarreal

Arizona Daily Star

Carrie might be a film about high school, but it was perhaps Brian De Palma's first completely mature film.

August 25, 2006 Full Review | Comments (2)

Eric Henderson

Slant Magazine

De Palma's Gothic thriller is at once trashy and lyrical, a nasty revenge story in which its misfit-Cinederella-like heroine (an exquisite Sissy Spacek) discovers her sexuality under the most terrifying conditions.

May 30, 2006 Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

A total knockout. Piper Laurie gives a bravura performance as Carrie's religious fanatic mother, one of the creepiest movie characters ever.

January 24, 2006

Chuck O'Leary

Fantastica Daily

• 1. Margaret White: They're all gonna laugh at you.
  – Submitted by Fanya R (7 months ago)
• 1. The Beak: I know. I only got ten bucks, though.
  – Submitted by Tony S (9 months ago)
• 1. Carrie White: Why am I here with you?
  – Submitted by Tony S (9 months ago)
• 1. Sue Snell: Shut up, Chris. Just shut up.
  – Submitted by Tony S (9 months ago)
• 1. Carrie White: Everyone isn't bad, Mama! Everything isn't a sin!
  – Submitted by Bria M (11 months ago)
• 1. Margaret White: Red. I might have known it would be red.
  2. Carrie White: It's pink, Mama.
  3. Carrie White: Look what Tommy gave me, Mama. Aren't they beautiful?
  4. Margaret White: I can see your dirty pillows. Everyone will.
  5. Carrie White: Breasts, Mama. They're called breasts, and every woman has them.
  – Submitted by Frédéric E (12 months ago)

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