Film

Carrie

Name: Carrie
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Released: 1976
Cast: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, William Katt, John Travolta

Other titles called Carrie: the series coming in 2026 (Prime Video).

Brian De Palma's fever-dream about the last girl anyone expects to snap. Sissy Spacek's stare alone earns the film's reputation—shy, devout, drenched in her mother's religious terror, and slowly discovering she can move things with her mind. It's teen-movie humiliation pitched as full-blown horror, with a prom-night finale so iconic it's been imitated for fifty years. For anyone who wants dread with a wounded, beating heart underneath it.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love slow-burn dread built from awkward school corridors and a suffocating home, where the horror grows out of loneliness and cruelty rather than jump scares.

Skip it if you want a brisk, polished scare machine; its early stretches linger on teenage humiliation and a mother's grim devotion, and the tone stays bleak even before anything supernatural happens.

What it asks of you: Under ninety-939 minutes of runtime...

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Heathers1989

Same high-school cruelty and yearning for revenge, but curdled into pitch-black comedy instead of supernatural horror—Winona Ryder's deadpan disgust at her own world is a masterclass in teen-movie sarcasm.

But It laughs where Carrie mourns—if you want dread, not one-liners about croquet mallets, the tonal whiplash may grate.

The Craft1996

Four outcast teenage girls discover real power and use it to settle scores with the people who tormented them—the same fantasy of righteous supernatural revenge, played with genuine 90s witchy style.

But Broader, campier, and far less interested in tragedy—this is wish-fulfillment first, cautionary tale a distant second.

It2017

Another Stephen King story about outcast kids facing something monstrous that feeds on their fear—if you want more of that suffocating small-town dread with a group instead of one girl alone, start here.

But Bigger budget, jumpier scares, and none of the intimate mother-daughter horror that makes the original film so uncomfortable.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Carrie

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Bad Seed1956

Same mother-daughter horror at its core, decades earlier—a devoted mother forced to confront that her child might be monstrous, made in the buttoned-up Production-Code era instead of the grindhouse 70s.

A classic Hollywood melodrama about a seemingly perfect little girl and the quiet horror of a mother realizing what she may have raised—cool, controlled dread from an era before splatter.

But Stagey, dated by 1950s conventions, and its shocking ending was famously softened for the era's censors.

The Witch2016

Swap telekinesis for possible witchcraft and Carrie's mother for a whole Puritan family, and you get the same suffocating religious paranoia curdling into disaster, shot with unbearable slow-burn dread.

But Glacially paced, thick with archaic dialogue, and almost no traditional scares—this is atmosphere over shock, patience required.

Ginger Snaps2000

Puberty itself becomes the horror here, as a teenage girl's changing body turns lethal—body horror as coming-of-age metaphor, just as visceral and blackly funny as any transformation Carrie goes through.

But Cheaper, gorier, and more werewolf movie than tragedy—less interested in pathos than in teeth and claws.

Jennifer's Body2009

A popular girl turned demonic predator flips the outcast-versus-golden-girl dynamic, wrapping teen horror in sharp, quotable Diablo Cody dialogue and a real vein of female rage underneath the jokes.

But Tonally slippery—equal parts horror, comedy, and melodrama—and its reputation took years to catch up with its ambition.

The Exorcist1973

Same era, same dread of a teenage girl's body becoming something her family can no longer recognize or control, filtered through possession instead of telekinesis—still one of horror's most unbearable slow builds.

But No bullying, no revenge fantasy—just relentless, clinical horror that some find more punishing than cathartic.

Misery1990

Another King adaptation built around a towering, terrifying female performance—Kathy Bates instead of Piper Laurie—trapping someone in a house with obsession instead of religion.

But No supernatural element at all, and it's a two-hander thriller rather than an ensemble high-school horror.

Mean Girls2004

The same high-school hierarchy and public humiliation, minus the telekinesis and blood—if you want the social horror without the horror-horror, this is the funnier, gentler mirror image.

But Played entirely for laughs, with a happy ending—if you came for dread, this will feel weightless.

Chronicle2012

Same core idea—an unpopular, abused teenager discovers telekinetic power and it goes very wrong—reworked as a found-footage superhero origin instead of a horror film.

Watch a bullied, unloved kid discover he can move things with his mind and slowly tip toward catastrophe—it's basically the same engine wearing a found-footage superhero costume, and it's terrific.

But Shaky-cam found-footage style won't suit everyone, and its tone leans toward spectacle rather than tragedy.

Battle Royale2000

Takes the same raw material—teenage cruelty, humiliation, and a quiet kid finally given power over the people who tormented them—and cranks it into ultraviolent satire instead of supernatural horror.

Japanese teens are forced to fight to the death on a deserted island, and the film uses that grotesque premise to skewer the exact same schoolyard hierarchies and cruelties as any high-school horror.

But Extremely violent, satirical rather than sorrowful, and its cult subtitled status may be a barrier for some viewers.