Carrie review

CARRIE:

WHILE NOT AS CHILLING AS THE 1976 ORIGINAL, IT’S STILL A DECENT REMAKE…BLOODY TOO!

By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** out of 4

MGM/SCREEN GEMS

Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie

            In the years of modern remakes to classic horror films, some can be considered decent like the recent Evil Dead or The Fly, but most of the others seem unnecessary like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13^th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. But as far as remakes go, the new film adaption of Stephen King’s best-selling novel, Carrie, directed by Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry, Stop-Loss), was pretty decent; it had a lot of the elements from the novel and the 1976 Sissy Spacek classic movie, and added a new twist to the story.

            Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz-Kick-Ass, Hugo, Dark Shadows) is an average teenage girl with an overprotective, overly religious mother (Julianne Moore-The Forgotten, Crazy Stupid Love, The Fugitive) and an extraordinary gift; she has telekinetic powers and can move things with her mind. Sounds cool right? Well, not so much, Carrie is an outcast in high school and all the kids like to pull mean pranks and make fun of her, completely unaware of her secret.

            One of the girls in her school named Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde) realizes that what they’re doing to Carrie is wrong and she distances herself from the rest of the kids, and helps Carrie get a date for the senior prom, so she can be happy. Sue hooks Carrie up with her boyfriend, Tommy Ross, the most popular guy in school, for prom night.

            At prom night, Carrie and Tommy are having the time of their lives…until two jealous classmates decide to pull a prank on Carrie, by having a bucket of blood dangle above the stage and drop on her, when she and Tommy are pronounced king and queen of the prom.

            Everyone’s dream suddenly turns into a nightmare when the blood is dumped all over Carrie, she then goes crazy and starts killing everyone and destroying everything in sight with her powers. And, you already know what happens next.

            Overall Carrie was a good re-telling of the classic Stephen King story. The cast was very good and they really captured the characters they were portraying, Chloe is great as Carrie and Julianne Moore is perfect as the mother, and the direction wasn’t bad, Kimberly Peirce really knew how to capture King and Brian De Palma’s visions of the story, even though Brian’s film was a little more suspenseful.

            I did get a kick out of Chloe’s performance as Carrie, but I would have to say Sissy Spacek is still the definitive Carrie White. I just thought Spacek was a little more intimidating; still both versions of the character are portrayed well.

            Carrie is one of those horror stories that prove not all title horror characters are monsters or evil psychos, she’s one of those characters that you actually feel pretty bad for, being bullied and having a crazy mother, it’s more sad than it is scary. The kids who made fun of her are the true monsters when you really look at it.

            If you’ve been disappointed with horror remakes recently, hopefully you’ll find Carrie tolerable; just don’t forget to bring an umbrella.