SCarrie: A "Carrie" Review

If you’re as unbelievably clueless as my roomie who hasn’t heard about Carrie EVER, then I’ll tell you right now that this movie has lots of blood, bullying, and flying knives. Still interested?

Based on on the 1974 novel of the same name by Stephen King, and a remake of an earlier 1976 film, this movie is about Carrie White, a young teenage girl who doesn’t get along with the other guys and gals her age, often getting bullied at school for being different. She soon discovers that she has telekinetic powers (okay so she really IS different), and this doesn’t go very well with her delusional, domineering, religion-extremist mother, who thinks that her abilities are the works of the devil. Feeling abused both at home and at school, everyone around Carrie soon realizes that you can only push somebody too far before that person breaks.

Carrie 2013 Trailer

If you’ve seen the original 1976 film by Brian de Palma, then you may agree with me when I say that this remake is a more tamed version, feeling more like a teen-revenge flick than a horror thriller. BUT, this doesn’t mean that this version didn’t do well. In fact, I thought that it’s actually good in its own.

"OMG you said the F word! Pray for forgiveness!"

Although this remake wasn’t as horrifyingly scary as its predecessor, it was still able to successfully deliver what I believe it wanted to give us in the first place - to portray telekinesis as creepy and frightening and of course, that redeeming feeling of getting back at those bullying-b*tches. I’m not a fan of dreamy teen-flicks and even though at some point this movie felt like one, I didn’t mind because I was too busy getting ahead of the movie and imagining the oh so creative ways that those nasty bullies could die. Think of Mean Girls and Final Destination rolled into one. Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

According to the movies: Cheerleaders = Mean b*tches

The challenge with remakes is that the audience pretty much already knows what’s going to happen in the film. And especially with Carrie where everyone is eagerly anticipating the bloody climax (well, apparently not everybody. I’m talking to you, Roomie), it is going to be a daunting task to keep the audience’ interest even if they already knew what exactly is going to happen. The magic of this movie is even though I already had an idea of how everybody is going to end up, it was able to keep me glued to the screen and even hoping that it would turn out different. The film was able to turn things around and instead of getting us bored because we already knew what was going to happen, it made us excited about seeing what we knew will happen.

This is an amazingly accurate depiction of your birthday's after-party last year!

The best part of the movie though, is Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore’s chemistry as Carrie and Margaret White. Their portrayal of the relationship of these peculiar mother and daughter characters we’re immersive enough that I found it hard to decide whether I wanted them to stay together or if I wanted Carrie to go all out promiscuous to freak out her mom.  Chloë Grace Moretz wasn’t as weird as Sissy Spacek was in the 1976 movie, but she did play her part well (plus she made me feel really old with all that puberty). Julianne Moore though, was my favourite in the movie. There are times that she creep me and out but there were also moments when she was being unintentionally funny with her portrayal. And I loved it!

"Don't worry honey, having me around will make you look less weird"

"What kind of sorcery is this?! Pray for forgiveness!"

It’s hard not to compare this remake of Carrie to the 1976 classic. I agree that the earlier movie was more hardcore, but this one wasn’t too bad either. The ending was a bit of a turn-off but hey, you get to see Chloë Grace Moretz drenched in blood. That has to count.

You don't mess with Hit-Girl

Carrie Cast

Chloë Grace Moretz as Carrie White

Julianne Moore as Margaret White

Judy Greer as Miss Desjardin

Portia Doubleday as Chris Hargensen

Alex Russell as Billy Nolan

Gabriella Wilde as Sue Snell

Ansel Elgort as Tommy Ross

Directed by: Kimberly Peirce

Credits to the images and videos used in this post go to "Carrie" and/or to their respective owners. I do not own these materials. No copyright infringement intended.