October 'Nick's Pix:' CARRIE

Sep 30
5 min read

Join me for Carrie, a very Special Nick's Pix Screening on Wednesday, October 8th, at 7 p.m. in Oak Park! Tickets are only $9 ($7 for seniors!) Get your tix HERE!

Okay... I am unbelievably excited about this.

My next 'Nick’s Pix' screening at the beautiful Classic Cinemas Lake Theater in Oak Park is one of the all-time greats: Brian De Palma’s Carrie, the 1976 horror masterpiece that still hits like a telekinetic sledgehammer nearly 50 years later.

And this screening? It’s personal. Really personal. Because I saw Carrie, for the first time ever, at the very same theater back in 1976. I was 11 years old. I was way too young. It scared the living hell out of me. I kept the lights on for days.

And now, all these years later, I get to host a big screen presentation of the very movie that lit up (and warped) my imagination as a kid. In the same building. Possibly even in the same seat. I mean… come on. That’s full-circle movie magic.

A Quick Plot Recap: As If You Didn’t Already Know

Sissy Spacek stars as Carrie White, a painfully shy, awkward high school girl who gets bullied relentlessly by the mean girls at school, and even worse, emotionally and physically abused by her fanatical religious mother, played by the operatic and terrifying Piper Laurie.

Then one day, Carrie discovers she has telekinetic powers, meaning she can move things with her mind. And once her bullies pull one prank too far (oh yes, the pig's blood scene), Carrie finally snaps. And what follows is one of the most iconic, gorgeously directed, heart-wrenching, and blood-soaked finales in horror history.

De Palma Directs the Hell Out of This Thing

Brian De Palma’s direction here is next-level genius. The guy is an artist, part Hitchcock, part Argento, part mad scientist, and in Carrie, he just lets it rip.

The camera glides, spins, dances, stalks. His use of split screen during the prom massacre? Legendary. The rack focus shots? Brilliant. The slow burns, the visual tension, the explosive chaos… it’s breathtaking.

This isn’t just a horror movie: it’s cinema.

And this screening of Carrie? It’s going to be an incredible 4K restoration, which means every frame, from the candlelit nightmare of Margaret White’s house to the crimson-soaked climax at prom, is going to look unreal on that big Lake Theater screen. You have to see it this way.

The Cast Is STACKED

Let’s talk about this cast for a second. Sissy Spacek gives one of the greatest horror performances of all time. Period. The vulnerability, the slow build, the rage, the heartbreak, she earned that Oscar nomination and then some. You root for her, you fear for her, and in the end, you’re both horrified and heartbroken.

And Piper Laurie? Holy crap. She’s like a deranged opera singer crossed with a Southern Baptist preacher and a slasher villain rolled into one. Absolutely unforgettable. Another Oscar nomination, completely deserved.

You’ve also got:

John Travolta, pre-Saturday Night Fever, as a greasy, abusive punk.
Nancy Allen, De Palma’s future wife and a perfectly mean high school queen.
William Katt with that glorious fluffed-out hair, looking like a shampoo commercial come to life.
Amy Irving, lovely and human and real.
Betty Buckley, PJ Soles, Edie McClurg... it’s a who's who of ‘70s genre legends.

It’s one of the best ensembles in horror history, and most of them were just getting started.

That Prom Scene… Still One of the Best Ever

Let’s just talk about it.

The prom scene in Carrie is one of the greatest sequences in horror, or really, any genre, ever filmed. The buildup with the bucket. The slow, spinning dance with Tommy and Carrie. The blood. The laughter. The snap. The telekinesis. The fire. The death. The scream. The split-screen. The silence.

It is horrifying and beautiful and tragic. And it still shocks, even if you’ve seen it 10 times. It’s a masterclass in suspense, visual storytelling, and emotional devastation. And to experience it in a packed theater? That’s the way it should be done.

A Stephen King Milestone

This was the first Stephen King novel ever adapted for the big screen, and in my opinion, it’s still the best. Yeah, I said it. Better than The Shining. Better than Misery. Better than It.

It captures all the key King themes: teenage trauma, small-town horror, parental abuse, religion-as-terror, and the sudden explosion of supernatural violence. And it does it with style, intelligence, and emotional depth. Carrie set the standard for King adaptations, and most of them have never caught up.

A Fun Little Star Wars Connection…

There’s a whole behind-the-scenes Carrie/Star Wars crossover that I’ll get into the night of the screening. Let’s just say there’s a reason why so many Carrie cast members also auditioned for a little space movie that came out the next year. It’s a great story, and I’ll share it after the screening.

What You’ll Get on October 8th

WHEN: Wednesday, October 8th at 7:00 PM

WHERE: Classic Cinemas Lake Theater, Oak Park

TICKETS: 'Nick's Pix's' Carrie Screening – Reserve now!

WHAT: Screening of Carrie in stunning 4K

BONUS:

Introduced by yours truly
Behind-the-scenes stories
Trivia
Prizes!
Lots of love for Brian De Palma

And this is just the start, because in November, I’ll be back at the Lake Theater for another Brian De Palma classic: the insane, sleazy, over-the-top, Hitchcockian thriller Body Double. It’s a double-dose of De Palma, and Carrie is the perfect kickoff.

Final Thoughts

This movie is a masterpiece. It’s one of the scariest, saddest, most gorgeously directed horror films ever made. It’s De Palma at his absolute best. It’s Stephen King’s most powerful early story. And it’s Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie going toe-to-toe in one of the most emotionally charged mother-daughter relationships in cinematic history.

It’s got blood. It’s got beauty. It’s got heart. It’s got horror. And it's playing right where I first saw it, almost five decades ago, with you. It is the best kind of full-circle horror celebration I could ask for.

Also...that final jump-scare is a doozy, one of the very best scares ever! Classic.

So please... come out on Wednesday, October 8th at 7:00 p.m.. Join me, get scared, get nostalgic, and let’s watch one of the greatest films of the 1970s the way it was meant to be seen, on the big screen, with an audience, and with lots of love for the genre.

Trust me… you won’t forget prom night.