'I'll Never Forgive That Person'

Mark Hamill recounted his first time watching Carrie with a pang of regret. He never felt the full impact of the ending’s jump scare because he was briefly distracted.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the Star Wars actor said he won’t forget that unfortunate incident. “I saw [Carrie] in Westwood [in Los Angeles, California],” he recalled. “Just moments before that happened, an usher put the flashlight on and said, ‘There’s no smoking in the theater.’ I wasn’t smoking. Maybe somebody down the row was. But I turned to say, ‘I’m not smoking,’ and I heard the whole theater go, ‘Ah!'” The actor was not referring to a scuffle, but the audience’s response to Carrie’s iconic jump scare.

Brian De Palma’s 1976 classic is widely regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever made. Adapted from Stephen King’s namesake novel, its social commentary tackled themes like peer pressure, adolescence, and religious fanaticism. Its straightforward narrative was also deliberately paced, its tension building toward the prom sequence. That’s why the final scene’s jump scare was so effective. Audiences thought the movie went all-out with the climax, so no one expected to see Carrie “resurrected” in the end.

An ‘Overactive’ Theater Usher Ruined Mark Hamill’s Favorite Jump Scare

Carrie White uses her special abilities on the school when prom goes awry.

Carrie White uses her special abilities on the school when prom goes awry.
Image via United Artists

Hamill said he didn’t see that split-second moment. “I’ll never forgive that person because you don’t get a second time to be surprised like that,” he asserted. “I still love the movie, but, oh, I’m so angry ’cause, like I say, that’s one of my favorite jump scares of all time and I missed it, thanks to an overactive usher.” All moviegoers can relate to Hamill’s complaint, and that’s just one of many ways rude audiences ruin the theatrical experience.

The actor fared much better watching King’s other movie adaptations. “I’ve always been a Stephen King fan, and The Shining [is] one of the first things I ever saw,” he said in a separate interview with the outlet. “I remember I saw it in Westwood the very first week it opened. I walked directly from the theater to a bookstore and went home to read,’What the hell did I just see?”

Hamill received unexpected affirmation from King during The Long Walk’s development. “I got to sit next to him at the Toronto Film Festival,” he told GamesRadar about meeting him before the film came out. “And when I went in to sit down, he looked up at me, he says, ‘The Major.’ And I thought, ‘How does he know? How does he know that I’m playing the Major?’ And later, they told me. They said, [it was] because he had casting approval, and he approved. That was motivation and validation for me, that he knew that I was going to play it, and it was okay with him. That was a thrill.”

Hamill might get a second chance at being scared by the same IP. His frequent collaborator, Mike Flanagan, with whom he has worked twice so far on The Fall of the House of Usher and 2025’s The Life of Chuck, is rebooting Carrie. While the original jump scare is ruined, Flanagan has a flair for jump scares, and Hamill could get to enjoy a new experience when the series comes out on Prime Video in 2026.

The Long Walk is playing in theaters.