The classic horror movie based on a Stephen King novel that makes prom night terrifying is Carrie.
Released in 1976, Brian De Palma’s film adapts Stephen King’s 1974 debut novel. Sissy Spacek plays Carrie White, a shy, bullied teenager raised by her intensely religious mother. Carrie discovers she has telekinetic powers, which become increasingly difficult to control when she is humiliated or enraged.
The story’s notorious prom sequence begins when Carrie is crowned prom queen as part of a cruel prank. Her classmates then dump a bucket of pig’s blood over her, triggering a telekinetic rampage through the school gym. The scene transformed an ordinary teenage milestone into one of horror cinema’s most recognizable nightmares.
Carrie is sometimes confused with Prom Night, another horror film centered on a school dance, but Prom Night is not based on a Stephen King novel. Carrie has also been adapted into later films, a television version, and a stage musical; the 1976 film remains the canonical reference for the terrifying prom-night premise.