After 50 Years, 94%-Rated Horror Stephen King Deems Superior to His Own Book Drops on Max

It took just 20 months for Stephen King 's first published novel to go from bookstore release to screen adaptation. King's debut novel, Carrie, was almost immediately adapted for the screen by Brian De Palma.

The release of the movie about an oppressed high school girl was an event: Carrie's box office was comparable to that of Martin Scorsese 's Taxi Driver, and critics were generous in their praise. The film earned back twice its cost and made King a recognizable author, practically a brand.

What Is Carrie About?

The main character of Carrie is a teenager (Sissy Spacek) with telekinetic powers who has suffered for many years from being bullied by her classmates and abused by her own mother, a religious fanatic.

After being the victim of a cruel prank at the prom, Carrie finally goes mad, cruelly taking revenge on all her tormentors, and along with them, completely innocent people.

Carrie Is Still One of the Most Influential Horrors about Teenagers

It's not for nothing that Carrie has become a guiding light and main reference point for any movie about outcast children.

The central attributes of many of King's stories – child cruelty, religious fanaticism, superpowers as a metaphor for otherness – are combined in a simple and extremely effective story about how evil can pervert even an initially innocent creature.

Stephen King Thinks Brian De Palma's Movie Is Better Than His Book

Brian De Palma doesn't ignore King's penchant for melodrama, but embraces it, finding his own footing in the process of creating the perfect horror movie. As a literary debut, Carrie is structurally awkward, but it has a special emotionality that would later define the writer's entire oeuvre.

And King himself agrees with that. In a 1983 Playboy interview, he calls Brian De Palma's adaptation "terrific" and even admits that the movie is better than the book:

“He [Brian De Palma] handled the material deftly and artistically and got a fine performance out of Sissy Spacek. In many ways, the film is far more stylish than my book, which I still think is a gripping read but is impeded by a certain heaviness.”

De Palma's story was more serious and less ambitious than the original novel, but it was the director who made Carrie one of the most terrifying and memorable adaptations of King's work.

Even 50 Years Later, Carrie Is One of the Best King Adaptations

It is a film about family abuse, the blindness of resentment, suffering and revenge, the norm and deviation from it, the transformation of an angel into a demon, and much more. Carrie has become one of the most cited and authoritative horror films in the history of cinema, and for good reason.

Sissy Spacek is a brilliant actress, the graduation scene is a canonical nightmare, the taunts of the classmates will never sound innocent again. All thanks to Carrie.

When & Where to Watch Carrie?

Carrie is coming to Max on March 1.