Carrie [MA]

Thrown into the social turmoil of high school after her homeschooling was forced to a close, Carrie White lives day to day in loneliness and misery: treated as an outsider at school and emotionally blackmailed and abused at home by her maniacally pious mother. Already in the dark about the genetic steps into womanhood, the arrival of Carrie’s first period sends her into a panic and her classmates into hysterics as they tease and pelt tampons at her and then post the video of it on the Internet. As a means of making amends Sue Snell, a classmate of Carrie’s, asks her boyfriend to take Carrie to the Prom unaware that another classmate is planning a hideous revenge prank on poor Carrie. Prom night comes and for Carrie it’s beautiful, but then the prank is sprung and she unleashes her pent up anger and frustration in the form of telekinetic powers, ensuring that Prom will be a night that none of her classmates will ever forget. 

I know the main two questions that people will want to know with this review is 1) how was it compared to the original? and 2) how was it compared to the book? I will be covering both of these questions so be sure to keep reading. I first want to say that this is a good movie! I really enjoyed it and I thought that the performances and the scale of destruction were brilliant. If you’re a fan of the story, then I would definitely recommend this. It works both as an adaptation of a book and as a remake and from the first scene I was intrigued. 

Thrown into the social turmoil of high school after her homeschooling was forced to a close, Carrie White lives day to day in loneliness and misery: treated as an outsider at school and emotionally blackmailed and abused at home by her maniacally pious mother. Already in the dark about the genetic steps into womanhood, the arrival of Carrie’s first period sends her into a panic and her classmates into hysterics as they tease and pelt tampons at her and then post the video of it on the Internet. As a means of making amends Sue Snell, a classmate of Carrie’s, asks her boyfriend to take Carrie to the Prom unaware that another classmate is planning a hideous revenge prank on poor Carrie. Prom night comes and for Carrie it’s beautiful, but then the prank is sprung and she unleashes her pent up anger and frustration in the form of telekinetic powers, ensuring that Prom will be a night that none of her classmates will ever forget. 

Ok, as far as comparing the two films goes there are some obvious parts that were better favouring both. The strongest example of this is that Chloe really had her work cut out for her in trying to recreate/better Carrie’s climactic snap at the Prom. Sissy Spacek with her frighteningly wide eyes and jerky head and body movements was like a living computer effect in the original and for me that’s what really hammered home the horror. Chloe’s snap was a little more theatrical and although there were some quick head jerks and you could practically see the hazy ripples of anger radiating off her like asphalt in the sun, she employed the use of her hands quite a bit and made the climactic Prom scene very grandiose and theatrical. So that iconic scene that everyone waits for, not as memorable as the original was. 

We then have the comparisons between Julianne Moore and Piper Laurie as Carrie’s Mother from Hell, Margaret. Julianne delivers a brilliant performance, one that really explores the darker side of piousness, a bit like the Albino in The Da Vinci Code. Where Piper Laurie was all unearthly beauty, floating gestures, and a syrupy preacher’s voice, Julianne was dishevelled, looking like a real mad woman, and was all about punishment. She delves into a lot of self-harm in this movie, constantly punishing herself for the sin of Carrie’s birth. So between the two of them I feel Piper takes the prize because her appearance and performance dissuaded you from believing that she could be evil, which brought that other level of horror into the original film. So that’s two to the original. 

So what’s the remake got? For a start, I thought that the remake was a closer adaptation of Stephen King’s novel than Brian De Palma’s film was. Director Kimberly Pierce cleverly employs the use of technology, file sharing, and cyber bullying to really push the character of Carrie and I think that was a clever comment on the social hardships of being a teenager in modern society. Yes the revenge prank would be enough to send anyone over the edge, but the fact that the period video was posted online, maximising the scale of laughter directed at poor Carrie who’s emotionally fragile enough as it is, really hammered home not so much the horror of the movie, but of the world we live in. The scale of destruction is something too that was truer to the book because it rippled all across town and wasn’t just confined to the school. The book is set in a small town and as such, everyone in it would avoid Carrie and her mother because they were both seen as outcasts. As such when Carrie finally snaps in the book, she shows no mercy and it was the same in this film. 

I also really liked that there was an injection of humanity in the relationship between Carrie and Margaret. Although the religious mania is there and the abuse and everything, there is often a quick scene or two thrown in that shows how Margaret really does love Carrie and just wants to protect her. To be fair there was a bit of this in the original, but it wasn’t really as clear to me and because Julianne Moore looks so unbecoming as a mother, there’s a real loveliness that comes into those scenes where she holds Carrie tenderly and says those words. 

Chloe Grace Moretz’s performance as Carrie was wonderful. She went that one step further than Sissy Spacek and really managed to hammer home the social awkwardness that Carrie had that caused her to be perceived as weird. Sissy was just a shy wallflower, but Chloe employs these wonderful stares, quick head movements, and mild attempts to interact with people that just makes her more of a ‘creepy Carrie’ than Sissy. 

Starring Julianne Moore, Judy Greer, Gabriella Wilde, Portia Doubleday, Alex Russell, and Ansel Elgort, Carrie is a great adaptation and a clever remake filled with horror, romance, drama, abuse, explosions, action, and plenty of bloodshed. If you’re a fan of the story, I recommend you see it. If you don’t know the story but are curious, I recommend you see it. It’s sad, it’s chilling, and there’s a nice level of gore that’ll make the stomach churn a bit. I really enjoyed it.