Brian De Palma strikes exactly the right note between empathy and horror in this yarn of Carrie (Sissy Spacek), a teen misfit who becomes so unglued after being repeatedly victimized by sadistic classmates and religious-zealot mom Piper Laurie that her latent telekinetic powers kick in, resulting in a blitz of gory, vengeful carnage. Enormously popular on its original release, CARRIE remains one of the best adaptations from a Stephen King novel. With John Travolta, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen and P.J. Soles.

Paul Newman is unforgettable as pool shark Eddie Felson, who shakes his loser persona when heartless gambler George C. Scott teaches him the psychology of winning. Eddie realizes too late that obsessive victory over the unbeatable Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason) is empty, since the cost is the destruction of his crippled alcoholic lover (Piper Laurie), in this intense, back-alley poem by director Robert Rossen.