Review of Carrie (2013) by Lucas Lima B — 19 Mar 2015

It is not that the movie is bad. The acting is good, the effects are good, and the story holds up. The problem is, this new version of "Carrie" just seems so unnecessary. There are a few changes from the original movie (and I don't remember the book well enough to know how close it is,) but that is not enough to suggest a reason for why it was remade. Missing from the new version are the Brian De Palma moments that make the first movie so memorable, like the split screen.

Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie and Julianne Moore as her crazy mother are fine in their roles, but they don't offer anything new. Judy Greer as the gym teacher Miss Desjardin is perhaps the best in her role, offering a sense of humor and sarcasm. The other teenagers in the film don't really stand out like they did in De Palma's version. Except for a half-hearted attempt at diversity, they meet the same horrible end without much sympathy from the audience.

Remakes as a rule tend to be inferior to the original, but most of them try to do something different with their opportunity. This movie, like the shot-by-shot remake of "Psycho", beg the question: what is all this effort for?