Carrie

Brian De Palma's Carrie is the first great Stephen King adaptation and the film that established the template for supernatural revenge horror. Sissy Spacek's performance as the bullied, telekinetic teenager is heartbreaking and terrifying in equal measure — you root for her, you pity her, and then you watch in horror as her prom night vengeance consumes everyone, guilty and innocent alike. Piper Laurie's Margaret White is one of the most terrifying mothers in cinema history, and the religious hysteria she embodies feels more relevant now than in 1976. De Palma's split-screen technique during the prom massacre is operatic and innovative. The final jump scare — Carrie's hand reaching from the grave — invented the fake-out ending that every horror film would copy for the next fifty years.