Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a peculiar girl. Her over-protective, fanatically-religious mother Margaret (Piper Laurie) has always shielded her from the realities of life. So when she experiences her first period while in the high school girls’ locker room, Carrie thinks there’s something wrong with her and runs out of the shower screaming. The other girls start to laugh at her, make fun of her, and chant “plug it up” while throwing tampons at her. As punishment, gym teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley) puts the girls through rigorous detention exercises, but when Chris (Nancy Allen) refuses to participate, she is banned from prom. Sue Snell (Amy Irving) feels guilty for her part in the taunting and asks her boyfriend Tommy (William Katt) to ask Carrie to the prom, but she is unaware that Chris is plotting an elaborate revenge plan to embarrass Carrie at the prom. None of the girls know that Carrie’s womanhood has also unlocked telekinetic powers that manifest when she feels rage—and they’re going to seriously regret making her angry at the prom…if they survive!

I had never seen the original 1976 version of Carrie before. The film has deeply rooted itself in pop culture over the decades, but I had only seen the more recent remake. I was surprised by the tone of this film—while it often gets classified as a horror film, I would say it’s more of a coming-of-age thriller. Carrie starts off as this shy, sheltered, weak girl, but as she discovers her powers and learns to control them, she finds the courage to speak up for herself, and break away from her mother’s abusive control. She learns to let her guard go and experience love—something her mother had tried to “protect” her from all her life. However, once she is betrayed by the girls, her emotions start flooding out and all hell breaks loose.

Director Brian De Palma makes creative use of music and camera shots to give the film a very unique look and feel. In one moment there will be a slow, flowing scene set to a beautiful score as Carrie washes herself in the shower, falls in love, makes her prom outfit, or is simply experiencing joy, but the next moment there will be these quick-cut scenes with harsh, staccato, Psycho-like sound effects. In other scenes, the director utilizes split screen, split-diopter, and in one case inexplicably speeding up the picture to add a variety of visuals to the film.

Overall, I found the film to have some interesting characters and a solid story. At its core, the film is a beautiful drama about a girl discovering herself and just trying open up and fit in after being oppressed all her life. While I wouldn’t call this as a horror film, it does have some gruesome moments and jump-out-of-your seat surprises. The prom scene in the final act is a wonderful culmination to the film, and the filmmakers do an excellent job at building the tension towards Carrie’s big explosive moment.

Shout! Factory has put together an excellent package for this Collector’s Edition release of the film, starting with a brand new 4K scan of the original negative, which looks quite remarkable. For the most part the picture looks clean and clear, with just the right amount of grain that would be expected of a movie shot on film. There are a few short excessively-grainy scenes, but these are certainly the exception. Overall the film looks amazing for its age. The Blu-ray offers both a mono 2.0 and an upgraded 5.1 audio track. The upgraded audio track provides clear dialogue and music, but there was nothing really remarkable about the track overall—it never really makes great use of the stereo, surround or subwoofer tracks. However, this is to be expected as the film was made before all of that technology was prevalent in the theater.

The place where Shout!’s 2-disc Blu-ray release really excels is the bonus material. All of the original extras from the 2001 Special Edition DVD release are included—two 40-minute cast/creator retrospectives, a 6-minute featurette on Carrie: The Musical, the original trailer, photo galleries, and the text notes from DVD producer Laurent Bouzereau. In addition, Shout! has added over 2 hours of brand new retrospective interviews with the screenwriter, director of photography, editor, composer and cast members, plus a featurette revisiting some of the original filming locations, the original TV and radio spots, and more. There is a lot of great new material here that will provide hours of enjoyment for fans of the film.

The discs comes packed in a standard two-disc Blu-ray keepcase with a slipcover. The insert inside the cover is reversible, giving the viewer a choice in how to display this title in his or her collection. The alternate view for this title features the original poster art for the film. (Note: The white dot in the artwork below is due to a hole punch in our screener copy—the released version will not have this.)

What’s Included:
Film: (1:38:09)

• 1080p / Widescreen 1.85:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English 2.0 Mono DTS-HD Master Audio
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

• Theatrical Trailer (2:06)
• Carrie Franchise Trailer Gallery (6:08)
  Trailers for Carrie (2002) TV Movie, The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) and Carrie (2013).
• Interviews
  • Writing Carrie NEW (29:07)
    Screenwriter Lawrence Cohen talks about reading King’s original manuscript, his struggles to get the film green-lighted, some aspects from his original adaptation that didn’t make it into the final script, signing Brian De Palma to direct and some of the notes he gave on the script, writing a new ending, getting the right budget, the premiere reactions, creating Carrie: The Musical, and more.
  • Shooting Carrie NEW (15:22)
    Director of photography Mario Tosi talks about how he got involved with the project, working with Brian De Palma, using soft lighting to emphasize the drama, the most difficult scene to shoot, and more.
  • Cutting Carrie NEW (25:09)
    Editor Paul Hirsch talks about working with Brian De Palma, meeting George Lucas, his initial disappointment with Carrie, using split screen, rewatching his old films, the prologue that was shot but never used, filming the slap sequence, screening the film for filmmakers, the surprise ending, and more.
  • Casting Carrie NEW (16:03)
    Casting director Harriet B. Helberg talks about director Brian De Palma, the open call process, the auditions/screen tests/casting of Sissy Spacek, Nancy Allen, Amy Irving, Piper Laurie, William Katt, John Travolta and P.J. Soles, the reactions to the initial screenings, and more.
  • Acting Carrie (42:42)
    This retrospective feature was originally produced for the 2001 Special Edition DVD release. The cast talks about the casting process, the combined casting call for Carrie and Star Wars, working with director Brian De Palma, the cast-bonding exercises, filming the locker room scene, the shower scene, Piper dragging Sissy, Betty yelling at the girls and slapping Nancy, working with John Travolta, improvisation, filming the prom, the various death sequences, the surprise ending, and more. It features interviews with director Brian De Palma, art director Jack Fisk, and actors William Katt (“Tommy Ross”), Amy Irving (“Sue Snell”), P.J. Soles (“Norma”), Nancy Allen (“Chris Hargensen”), Betty Buckley (“Miss Collins”), Sissy Spacek (“Carrie”), Piper Laurie (“Margaret White”) and Priscilla Pointer (“Mrs. Snell”). This feature is presented in full frame format.
  • More Acting Carrie NEW (20:19)
    In this brand new retrospective, the cast talk about working with director Brian De Palma, the casting process, their death scenes, the slapping, and more. Those interviewed include Nancy Allen, Betty Buckley, William Katt, Piper Laurie, Edie McClurg (“Helen”) and P.J. Soles.
  • Visualizing Carrie (41:33)
    The filmmakers talk about the evolution of the story, the prologue they filmed but ultimately didn’t use, using nudity in the second shot of the film, finding the locations, building and dressing the sets, the visual design of the film including using split screen, split-diopter, slow motion and time compression, filming the prom, creating the effects, editing the film, and more. Includes interviews with director Brian De Palma, screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen, editor Paul Hirsch and art director Jack Fisk. This retrospective feature was originally produced for the 2001 Special Edition DVD release and is presented in full frame format.
  • Bucket of Blood NEW (23:53)
    Composer Pino Donaggio talks about working with the director, and how he went about composing the music and sound effects used in the film. He speaks in Italian with English subtitles.
• Horror’s Hallowed Grounds NEW (11:25)
  Host Sean Clark revisits some of the original filming locations including the Pacific Palisades High School “volleyball” court & field, the empty lot where the White house once stood, the tree where Carrie makes the boy fall off his bike, Sue Snell’s house, the Main St. locations of the pharmacy and tux shop, the pig farm, and the gymnasium where the prom took place.
• Carrie: The Musical (6:23)
  Screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen and actress Betty Buckley (“Margaret White”) talk about how the Carrie musical came about and the poor reception it received. This feature was originally produced for the 2001 Special Edition DVD release and is presented in full frame format.
• More Carrie
  • TV Spots (3:11)
    Collection of 5 TV ads used to promote the film.
  • Radio Spots (1:29)
    Pair of radio ads used to promote the film.
  • Still Gallery – Rare Behind-The-Scenes (4:54)
    Allow this slideshow of 58 production photos to auto-advance every 5 minutes, or use the remote to manually step through the photos.
  • Still Gallery – Posters and Lobby Cards (3:56)
    Allow this slideshow of 46 promotional photos, posters and lobby cards to auto-advance every 5 minutes, or use the remote to manually step through the photos.
  • Stephen King And The Evolution Of Carrie Text Gallery
    Text notes written by DVD producer Laurent Bouxereau for the 2001 Special Edition DVD. Use the remote to step through the pages of text. Select from “Stephen King and the Writing of ‘Carrie'”, “From Novel to Script” and “Book & Film Comparison”.

Final Thoughts:

Carrie is a classic thriller that is now deeply rooted in pop culture. Shout! Factory has done an excellent job restoring this 1976 film with an excellent-looking new 4K scan. They have ported over all of the bonus material from the previous 2001 Special Edition DVD and added over two hours of brand new interviews. This release is sure to be a hit with longtime fans of the film, and an excellent way for new viewers to experience the film for the first time. This release certainly worth the upgrade for those who already own a copy of the film, and definitely the version to pick up for first-time owners.