Review of Carrie (2013) by Rafael C — 12 Feb 2014

Carrie is one of the better remakes of a horror movie to come out in recent years. And when that category includes such movies as Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Gus Van Sant's Psycho, and 2011's The Thing, that may seem like faint praise. But I would put this movie along the lines of The Ring and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as a remake done right. It helps that the time period if this Carrie is set in present day rather than the late seventies. Otherwise the movie would have felt more like a remake rather than a reinterpretation of the storyline which this version most definitely is. Also bullying is a much greater issue today than it was close to forty years ago. So the material will have the same effect on audiences today as it did in '76.

As for the acting, the star hear is obviously Chloe Moretz. Her interpretation of Carrie is very convincing and we believe that she has been bullied her whole life. Sissy Spacek did a better job looking the part, but Chloe, being younger than Sissy at the time that she was Carrie, is much more convincing on an emotional level. After all, Carrie White is supposed to look 16, not 27.

Julianne Moore is fantastic as Carrie's bible thumping mother, Margaret. She takes the role to extremes the way the previous Margaret, Piper Laurie, didn't. More self-inflicted violence.

I must point out that of the two Carries, the '76 version was the scariest, but the '13 version was more character driven. And to clear out any misconception about remakes, a remake is a movie that copies after the original film. King Kong is a remake, The Mummy is a remake, and while Godzilla would be considered a remake, there are no definitive remakes of Godzilla because there are no specific characters. Carrie is an adaptation. In the same way that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an adaptation, and Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, and the Coen Bros. True Grit. You can't remake a movie that was adapted from a book. You can go back and examine the movie for ideas but in the end, the credits will always say, "based on the book by, in this case, Stephen King.".

So if you are looking for a good Halloween movie to watch along with your innumerable collection of horror movies, or if you are one of those people who are afraid of remakes/reinterpretations of classic movies and/or books, Carrie is one that I can thankfully recommend.