Carrie (2013)

[akiratubo]

A 17ish girl named Carrie White has the unfortunate experience of having her first period in her high school shower.  Worse, she's been brought up by her religious nutjob of a mother, who never explained what her period was.  Consequently, Carrie thinks she's bleeding to death and runs screaming to some other girls for help.  Being teenage girls in a s**tty horror movie, they don't help her.  No ... they pelt her with tampons, video it on their phones, and post it all to Youtube.

The upshot of all this is that Carrie begins to manifest telekinetic powers.  Being a shy, awkward teenager, she puts these powers to the best imaginable use:  killing all those a***oles who ever made fun of her!

Carrie is a pretty literal remake of the 1976 movie.  Aside from the remake tossing in smart phones and Youtube, there's almost no difference.  I was hoping the remake would be more faithful to the Stephen King book, especially in the extent of Carrie's psycho-kinetic freakout at the end.  (In the book, she pretty much wipes out the whole town, not just her school.)  Alas, it was not to be.

Chloe Moretz does a pretty good job as Carrie White, probably equal to Sissy Spacek, with the caveat that Moretz is a bit too good looking to be as believable as Spacek in the role of the most awkward of awkward teenagers.  One undeniable improvement over the original is Julianne Moore as Carrie's mom.  Piper Laurie was awful in the 1976 movie, as though she simply refused to take her role and the movie seriously.  Moore has no such problem, turning in a performance that renders Carrie's mom as both victimizer and victim: a sympathetic monster.  She also has great screen chemistry with Moretz.  Their interactions are easily the best parts of the movie.

Otherwise, everything is the same as the old movie, except that remake director Kimberley Pierce wasn't out to make sleaze.  Brian de Palma had no qualms about making his Carrie (and most of his other movies) a high-gloss exercise in stylistic suck and as much sleaze as he could get away with in a major release, and he was damn proud of it.  Instead, Pierce seems to have tried to make an honestly good horror movie.  I suppose she did pretty well.  Unfortunately, all that effort was wasted on a movie about as pointless as Gus Van Sant's Psycho remake.

[Archivist]

Thanks for the review.  This version looked like it had a lot of potential.  I wasn't really a fan of the original, though.  It looks like it benefits from modern cinematography and editing, as well as a change in tone from sleazy to straight horror.  It's funny how Josh Trank's Chronicle is essentially Carrie with friends, incidentally.

[rebel_1812]

I think Chloe Moretz did a better job.  Since she didn't look ugly she had to use her acting to show how much of an outcast she is.  I think it worked.

[indianasmith]

I enjoyed all the performances in this one, personally.  A better movie than the original.

[claws]

I think the remake didn't translate well into the 2010s. They should have given it a complete new overhaul. It didn't entirely suck but come on, Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie were both nominated for the Oscar for their performances. Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore were not. Just shows you how powerful the original was and still is.

[rebel_1812]

I think the remake didn't translate well into the 2010s. They should have given it a complete new overhaul. It didn't entirely suck but come on, Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie were both nominated for the Oscar for their performances. Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore were not. Just shows you how powerful the original was and still is.

or about the politics behind oscar nominations.  I'd take chloe over sissy anyday of the week in all meanings of the phrase.