Carrie was the movie that put Stephen King on the map, and it did it in the most unforgettable way possible. A bullied teenage girl, a bucket of pig's blood, and a prom night that nobody who watched it ever forgot. Directed by Brian De Palma and led by a career defining performance from Sissy Spacek, it became an instant classic and one of the scariest films ever made.
But the story of how it all came together behind the camera is just as wild as what ends up on screen. Here are 10 verified facts about the making of Carrie that might surprise you.
1. Sissy Spacek almost didn't get the role at all
Director Brian De Palma originally wanted a different actress for Carrie White, and thought Spacek was simply too pretty for the part. To convince him otherwise, she read the entire novel in one night, skipped sleep, smeared Vaseline in her hair, and showed up to audition in a torn sailor dress her own mother had made her years earlier.
2. Stephen King barely made anything from the film rights
For a movie based on his very first published novel, King was paid just $2,500 for the rights. Considering how massive the film became, that is a strikingly small number in hindsight.
3. The actress who almost played Carrie ended up playing someone else
Amy Irving was De Palma's original pick for the title role. Once Spacek's audition won him over, Irving was moved into the role of Sue Snell instead.
4. That iconic blood was just kitchen ingredients
The unforgettable pig's blood dumped on Carrie during the prom scene was not anything exotic. It was simply a mix of corn syrup and red food coloring, the same trick used in plenty of other classic horror films.
5. Piper Laurie thought she was filming a comedy
Piper Laurie, who played Carrie's terrifying religious mother, genuinely believed she was acting in a black comedy rather than a horror movie. She reportedly kept breaking into laughter between takes until De Palma had to pull her aside and remind her it was meant to be taken seriously.
6. One actress got slapped for real, over and over
In the scene where Miss Collins slaps Chris Hargensen, De Palma wasn't satisfied with a fake hit. He asked Betty Buckley to slap Nancy Allen for real, and different accounts say it happened somewhere between 12 and 30 times to get the reaction he wanted.
7. Carrie was a teenager in the book, but not on screen
In King's novel, Carrie White is only 17 years old. Sissy Spacek, however, was 25 at the time of filming, nearly a decade older than the character she was playing.
8. One actress's entire performance was improvised
Edie McClurg, who played Helen in the film, originally had no scripted lines at all. With De Palma's approval, she ended up improvising all of her dialogue on the spot.
9. Spacek isolated herself to prepare for the role
To get into character, Sissy Spacek deliberately kept her distance from the rest of the cast during filming. She decorated her dressing room with heavy religious imagery and studied the body language of people who had been stoned for their sins, using it to shape her performance.
10. The score carries a hidden tribute
Composer Bernard Herrmann, famous for his work on Psycho, was originally set to score Carrie but passed away before filming wrapped. As a tribute, De Palma repeatedly used Herrmann's iconic four note violin theme from Psycho throughout the film.
Almost fifty years later, Carrie still holds up as one of the most effective horror films ever made, and knowing what went on behind the scenes only makes it more impressive. A cast giving everything they had, a director chasing authenticity at almost any cost, and a tiny budget stretched into something unforgettable.
Got any awesome Carrie facts that I missed?
