CARRIE
*SPOILERS FOLLOW
Let me start off by saying this film's quality came across as a complete surprise for me. I was expecting a "meh" film when I sat down, but what I got was a faithful to the novel story, great acting, and a good purpose for why Carrie needed another film to be made.
I'm a big fan of Stephen King's work, Carrie being one of my favorites. The 1970's Brian De Palma film is considered by many to be a classic horror movie (keep that HORROR part in mind later). I do like the movie but a lot of what makes this remake great covers what I felt the 70's version failed to get across from King's original work.
First off, I feel that Chloe Grace Moretz gave a fantastic performance as the title character of Carrie. She displayed a range of emotions in the film that I feel was missing from De Palma's version. She was portrayed as a more tragic character because of this. Spacek's performance in the original was fine but she had two facial emotions, looking scared/pathetic and looking like an idiot (I'm sorry but I find her blank expression hilarious). The defining moment that separates the two is that Moretz gives a more thematic performance at the prom scene while Spacek is trying to be scary in a horror film. Julianne Moore gave a solid performance as Margaret White, sure she had a moment or two of overacting (which is needed for the character) but most of the time she was terrifying in the role and left me unnerved. Piper Lauri in the original was a performance I never found scary but more funny, while she was entertaining she was WAY over-the-top and goofy (go watch that knife scene at the end, ha-freaking-ha).
Also, Portia Doubleday was perfect in the role of Chris Hargensen. She was so evil, uncaring, and manipulative as this character that I was shaking in my seat waiting for this bitch to get hers by the end. Judy Greer gave a fine performance as Ms. Desjardin (thank you for using her name from the book this time) and Ansel Elgort as Tommy Ross was charming in the role.
Now when taking the original film into consideration while reviewing this I think there's a major separating factor between these two. Both are thematically different. The original horror classic is just that, a HORROR classic. This remake is more told as a tragedy, putting more focus on the tragic story of Carrie White than the horror aspects. Now while it has the same story I feel the remake got across King's point and social commentary a lot better than the original, providing for what I find to be a better film. This is no more highlighted then the bullying that Carrie takes in both films. Before the prom scene, Carrie was bullied by her classmates once in the entire original film. The "plug it up" shower scene was the only scene in the original film where we saw the other classmates physically and emotionally bully Carrie. The bullying aspect was there but I don't feel it was at all used and expanded upon in the 70's film as it should have been. Kimberly Pierce's version was more trying to expand on the social commentary of the novel than making just a horror movie. The bullying in this film does not pull any punches. We not only have the shower scene, but Chris Hargensen records it and puts it onto YouTube for the world to see.
In the poem scene not only did her classmates mock it but in this version the teacher mocks the poem and laughs at her. There are several scenes of abuse occurring in just the hallways by other students to Carrie including a row of lockers with the line: Carrie White Eats Shit. The bullying in this film left a heavy mark and was all to realistic with today's modern times. This helps to enforce why I feel the movie needed to be remade. Not that bullying wasn't an issue back then but now bullying is a much larger issue than it has ever been. A good example was not even a week ago there was a news story of two teenage girls going to prison over cyberbullying another young girl to the point that she committed suicide. Now there is not a single year that goes by that we don't see a news story about someone taking their own life because of some little bastards who wanted to make their high (and in some cases jr. high) school careers making someones life hell. It took a lot of balls to have a film that tells a story like this and correctly portrays how bullies are at this moment in time.
While De Palma's film is held as a classic by most, it's VERY dated (even Stephen King admits it's dated). While the story and character are timeless, De Palma's film is not. This shows that this remake was not a pointless cash grab like most remakes are. This remake updated the material in a way that did and should resonate with audiences of today, and standing strong on it's own while still being faithful not just to the original film, but to Stephen King's novel.
In the end, many critics found this remake pointless and personally I don't. The story and characters are still memorable, the social commentary is shown to an amazing degree (more so than ever portrayed in the original film), and Carrie (and her rampage) are as tragic as ever. I adore how Pierce approached remaking this film, not only is it a great remake but the character of Carrie is made more relatable than ever. That's how this character is made to be timeless, how much people can relate to her. I'm sure that here on a comic book site that some of us can identify with Carrie in some way. Hell, it's damn near impossible for someone not to relate to one character in this story. Because of this, I find this version of Carrie to be an above average remake that stands above the original in almost every way.
CARRIE: 4.5/5