Review of Carrie (2002) by Mark W — 30 Jan 2014

Outside of the third act, you know the post-prom stuff, this movie did absolutely nothing for me. There's some really cool deaths in the third act, in some they even slow down the film and show you the point of impact in an awesomely satisfying manner.

My favorite one of these was when Chris' head goes flying through the windshield of the car and they just slow it down as you see her head going through the windshield. Perhaps that sounds a little morbid, but it was really cool.

Unfortunately they only do like two of these. And seeing Carrie finally fights back against all the bullying, the mocking and the humiliation is also really satisfying. Other than that, I pretty much found everything else the movie did to be lackluster, unimpressive, and, quite frankly, unnecessary.

Can somebody really give me a reason for why this film had to exist? All it does is prove Hollywood's obsession with remakes, sequels, or "reboots". I'm not saying there's no originality in the industry anymore, but it's less important now than at any point in the past.

Studios just want to take the safe route and do what will, in the long run, make them the most amount of money for the least amount of work. Now, this is not a criticism of this film in particular, it's a criticism of the system that keeps churning out all these unnecessary remakes instead of coming up with new ideas and just hoping that some stick.

Not all of them will, it's unrealistic to expect, but take a fucking chance. There comes a time when you're gonna run out of movies to remake, at which point you'll do a remake of the remake.

The idea of which sounds absurd, even if it's already happened. I hate to get into the rant, because this film wasn't bad at all...but this was the straw that broke the camel's back as it regards to remakes, sequels, and reboots.

The film focuses on how Carrie's upbringing and the bullying she goes through at school sort of build-up until she finally explodes at the prom, but I had a problem with it because I think it focused too much on the "teen" aspect of it rather than on the psychological abuse she's suffered through from birth by her domineering and fanatically religious mother.

That's a more interesting story to me and I just don't think the film touches on that as much as they could. Personally, a prequel seeing everything that happened up to the events of the book would've been a much more interesting story than a remake.

You could even get Stephen King to oversee the script in order for it to fit his vision of the original novel. It seems that, while it lays it on heavily at points, the movie is kinda afraid to go all out with the effect Carrie's religious upbringing has had on her, emotionally and physically.

Almost like they were afraid of backlash from super conservative religious groups. Which is somewhat understandable, but this film needed every edge it could possibly get. Hell, maybe it could even get people talking about whether kids should be brought into religion at an early stage, I don't think they should to be honest, but it would be an interesting debate to get into if this film hadn't been afraid to set off a ticking time bomb.

To be completely honest, before the third act, this film is pretty much every cliche in the book. It gets to the point where it gets ridiculous, because EVERY PERSON IN FUCKING TOWN, all they talk about is Carrie.

There's literally nothing going on in anyone's life, in this town, that isn't about Carrie. It would be super interesting if they did like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and just focus on two unimportant characters to the film's main narrative and just see what they're talking/thinking about.

These people have nothing ELSE in their lives BUT Carrie and it's supremely laughable to me. There's also some unintentional comedy in here. Like Tommy that was MURDERED by a falling bucked. Let me say that again, he was killed by a BUCKET.

Just the visual of him being hit in the head with the bucket and instantly dying was hilarious. I literally thought the guy was knocked out. But no, Sue, in her testimony at the end of the film, confirms that Tommy was, in fact, killed by a falling bucket, that wasn't even that high up in the air.

It's certainly not the only unintentionally comedic scene, but it's the one that I remember the most. I almost hate to pile on this movie so much, because Chloe Moretz and Julianne Moore are great, as always, here and their talents are simply wasted on a mediocre script that simply doesn't match their talents.

The film is more than watchable thanks to them, but it's a movie that doesn't really need to exist and one that is extremely disappointing. You're best served watching the original film or reading the book, this film isn't really a good indication of the quality of either the book or the original film, so don't let this dissuade you from seeking those out.