Brian DePalma set out to adapt Steven King's short but undeniably brilliant first novel, which tells the story of Carrie White, a bullied schoolgirl who realises she has psychic powers, into a motion picture, and the results - fiery, tense, and bordering on the dream-like - proved inspired. Sissy Spacek stars as the troubled character of the title, who finds herself asked to the prom by the coolest kid in school to famously disastrous results, and offers up a truly immersive and tortured portrait of loneliness, with John Travolta and Nancy Allen rounding out the cast nicely. There are many great moments inherent to this classic, which only seems to get better with age, but the centre piece of the film - and indeed, King's book - occurs towards the end, as Carrie is humiliated in front of the entire student body, most of whom subsequently come to feel the full force of her powers in one of horror cinema's most gut-wrenching finales. Style-wise, DePalma takes his cues from his long time inspiration Alfred Hitchcock; the camera is never placed anywhere else but perfectly, and every shot a lesson in composition. Tragic and very chilling.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
