The brutal reality of making Carrie: Stars suffered severe on-set injuries and were caught up in terrible accidents while filming 1976 horror

It was one of the biggest horror hits of the Seventies, earned its stars Oscar nominations and turned a teenage prom into one of cinema's bloodiest nightmares. 

But behind the screams and the bucket of fake pig's blood, making Carrie was a horror story in itself.

Released in 1976, it was based on Stephen King's best-selling debut novel and follows painfully shy teenager Carrie White, a bullied outsider who possesses telekinetic powers.

When her classmates pull a cruel prank on her at prom night, Carrie finally decides to take revenge.

Made on a modest $1.8million budget, the film raked in a whopping $33.8million at the box office.

Even more shocking, stars Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie both landed Academy Award nominations, which was practically unheard of for a horror movie back then.

The film went on to spawn a sequel, two TV remakes, a 2013 reboot and even two musical adaptations.

But while Carrie was terrifying audiences on screen and stage, the real-life drama behind the camera for its stars was just as shocking.

From painful injuries and frightening accidents to filming mishaps, the cast quickly discovered that making this movie was just as frightful. 

Here, the Daily Mail takes a look at the brutal reality of making the classic 1976 film.

Sissy Spacek sleeping in blood

The iconic prom scene in Carrie took two weeks to film.

The fake blood was made from sticky corn syrup and food colouring.

Instead of washing it off after each shoot, Sissy returned to her trailer and would sleep in her gore-sodden wardrobe for three nights in a row.

She also did this to maintain visual continuity in the film, as the fake blood would often dry under the hot filming lights and stick to Spacek's body. 

Sissy later recalled that the prop blood was notoriously sticky and described the experience as 'terrible, terrible, terrible'.

P J Soles' ruptured eardrum

P.J. Soles, who played bully Norma Watson, suffered a ruptured eardrum during filming.

She was knocked 'loopy' when she was accidentally hit in the head by a high-pressure fire hose during a stunt sequence.

For her death in the movie, the director thought it'd be fun to have the fire hose bat her head around.

However, it went full force into her ear and broke her eardrum. 

Recalling the incident, she told Yahoo Entertainment: 'I slid down the bannister, and I think I blacked out and the grips carried me to my dressing room. 

'I did go to the ER and they said, 'Yeah, you broke your eardrum.' I got workman's comp because that was my last day of shooting. 

'I guess Betty was right, because they kept it in! You can see me wince and that's real pain.'

Real soundstage fire 

During Carrie's famous prom night, the gymnasium set caught fire as planned, but the flames quickly spread out of control and ignited the actual soundstage. 

While the assistant director screamed for everyone to evacuate, director Brian De Palma yelled at the camera crew to keep rolling.

Local firefighters rushed onto the soundstage to put out the blaze. 

They extinguished it quickly, without causing severe injuries or disaster for the cast.

Buried alive

Sissy refused to have a stunt double, so she performed her own stunts, including being buried alive for the graveyard finale.

In the chilling dream scene, Sue Snell (played by Amy Irving) approaches the ruined remains of Carrie's home to lay flowers.  

As Sue reaches out, Carrie's blood-covered arm shoots up from the earth to grab her.

Sissy was placed inside a wooden box in a hole in the ground, where the crew layered it with mud and gravel.

The decision came as a shock to the director, who kept insisting on the use of a body double.

The director felt uncomfortable burying Sissy, so he assigned the task to her real-life husband, Jack Fisk (who was the film's art director). 

Brian later joked: 'I had her husband bury her because I certainly didn't want to bury her.' 

Dizzy dancefloor scene

The dizzying prom dancefloor scene is one of the most famous examples of an arc shot in cinema history.

It captures Carrie's overwhelming joy and disorientation during her first real romantic moment.

The shot was achieved by setting the two actors, Sissy and William Katt, on a platform that rotated.

 Meanwhile, the camera moved in the opposite direction. 

Camera operator Joel King said his equilibrium was completely shattered during filming.

He explained: 'When the dolly stopped, I just rolled off the dolly on the floor. I was so dizzy, I couldn't even stand up.' 

Thirty real slaps 

Brian made Betty Buckley (Miss Collins) slap Nancy Allen (Chris Hargensen) for real after he was not satisfied with the look of a fake slap during the outdoor detention scene.

The shoot quickly turned into a painful test of endurance for the two actresses.

Betty had to strike Nancy between 12 and 30 times before they finally nailed the perfect shot.

As a humorous trade-off, Nancy allegedly got to playfully slap Betty back off-camera once the cameras stopped rolling.