CARRIE (2013)

Not too long ago, I did a review on the classic 1976 film version of "Carrie" and it was awesome, sad, scary, had great characters, excellent casting, and spectacular directing. A sequel and TV film was made years after the film, but from what I read and checked out, they didn't do well. So then a 2013 remake came along and everyone I knew was hyped, telling me that it's going to be more like the book and that it's going to be better than the original. My response was "B.S. there is no way that the remake was going to top the original". When the film hit the theaters, people began telling me that it's amazing and great. I still held by my opinion, however, since the remake was getting praise from my friends, I decided to see it for myself. Was it as good as everyone says, or was it awful? ON WITH THE REVIEW...



This film version of Carrie is really just a modernized version of the Stephen King classic and that's it. If you don't know the story, well, here's your plot. A teenage misfit named Carrie (Chloë Grace Moretz) gets picked on, bullied, and teased at school; and at home she is abused by her religious Mother (Julianne Moore). Feeling bad for Carrie, a student named Sue (Gabriella Wilde) has her boyfriend take Carrie to the prom so she can open up and socialize. However, a bully named Chris (Portia Doubleday) has a prank for her at the prom. However, Carrie finds out that she has telekinesis powers and she can use them against her abusive Mother and the bullies. I know that's the exact same writing, I wrote on the plot for the 1976 film, but it really follows the story and the 76 film so accurately, it's just modernized that's it. So they decided to remake a classic after two disappointments because they wanted to modernize it? Tisk-tisk-tisk, that's not a good excuse to remake a film unless you're doing something new with it. The only huge new modern take that the film did was the bullies video tape Carrie while being bullied in the shower and then show it on the Internet and then at the Prom. Now that doesn't necessarily make it much of an excuse to remake a classic. If you want to see a good modern remake that has the classic story but changes it around to make it original, check out films like "Scarface" or "Cape Fear". You do understand that this is just the first part of my review because I have a lot to talk about.


Let's start with our lead and focus of the film. Chloë Grace Moretz as our title character Carrie is no match for Sissy Spacek, hands down. Let me expand on that, since she is the character and star, while I see Moretz trying to pull off this character, she still deliverers it in a very uninteresting way. When she was being bullied, I felt bad at first, but as the film went on, her emotions are played out as over exaggerated as the film is. It just feels like she's trying too hard to capture the sadness. When I see her without her dramatic scenes and just as the timid and shy girl, I never really felt for her either, nor did I feel like knowing her because her performance feels very bland and wooden. With Spacek on the other hand, I felt sad for her in a heartbeat, in fact, I still cry when I see her in that movie. The reason why is because Spacek felt realistic. Whenever you see her as this sad, shy, and timid girl in the school you feel for her! When you see her cry, she doesn't over do it, she makes that aspect to the character believable, in fact, whenever I look into her sad eyes, I don't see her acting, I honestly feel like she's actually scared and sad, it's almost as if she was born to play the character. What I'm basically saying is Moretz was just playing Carrie, while Spacek just naturally is Carrie. As for the Prom scene, will get to that later.



The supporting  cast well lets just say I don't find any one of them as memorable as the cast in the original. Gabriella Wilde as Sue, we do spend more time with Sue then we did in the classic, but with that said, her acting and performances wasn't interesting and I just didn't feel her guilt or kindness, I just feel like she was just there. Amy Irving in the original, despite not showing up a lot or having much dialogue, you can still at least feel her emotions. Ansel Elgort as Tommy Ross, not only does he look and act unappealing, but his chemistry with Carrie is really corny. Speaking of corny, so is the relationship between her and the Gym Teacher played by Judy Greer, it's just there. By the way, a teacher slapping a student, maybe in the 70's that was ok, but in the present...NO WAY! As for the bully Chris and her boyfriend Billy Nolan played by Alex Russell. I like that they try to make Chris more realistic by giving her second thoughts on her plan, however, that all ends fast when she quickly changes her mind at those moments. Oh, and comparing those two bullies to Travolta and Nancy Allen, they're not as fun or memorable as them. Finally, we go to Julianne Moore as Carrie's Mother. To my surprise and to the film's credit, the relationship between her and Carrie is actually a lot more clearer than the original. You can actually see the love and struggle between them, but with that said, Julianne Moore while trying is sadly just playing the character then being the character and comparing her to Piper Laurie, well Laurie naturally looks and acts crazy, while Moore felt forced and a bit over exaggerated at points, especially when she hits herself.



The original had a great atmosphere with its music, directing and cinematography, sound effects and special effects. Here, unfortunately, the atmosphere is dull, the music is forgettable, and the scares and dramatic moments are once again over exaggerated as well as not being scary most of the time. The Prom scene before the chaos in the original felt very enchanting, while here it just feels boring and bland as we the audience are thinking get to the prank already. The chaos at the prom in the original used a lot of creative effects, editing, cinematography, grim music and a frightening look at our main character. Here, we get mostly boring CGI; we get weak scary faces and movement from Moretz; the deaths are boring as well as feeling tamed; and not once did I enjoy or felt scared by this sequence. I should also mention that I like that we explore her telekinesis powers a bit more due to the use of CGI, but with that said, those scenes feel like it's just showing its effects, as well as leading up to something silly. In fact, these scenes play out as those magical and whimsical scenes that you'd see in "Matilda", instead of Stephen King horror flick for adults.

Now the film itself, pretty much has the same scenes, dialogue (For a decent amount) and pacing in the order as the original, so if you've seen the original, you're pretty much just going to just get the same film, only modernized with plenty of bland acting; the same key scenes only done poorly or are trying to make them "better" than the classic (Which of course fails); no atmosphere what so ever and moments that they could have used from the book to make it much like the book (like the stones flying out of the sky when Carrie was little, or having two buckets instead of one), but sadly chose to ignore. It's an incredibly bad remake and don't worry, I'll review the other Carrie train wrecks in the future. Overall, screw the movie and see the original.

RATING 1/5