Netflix Picks! Carrie (2013)

Carrie (2013)

Starring: Chloë Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore and Portia Doubleday.

Watch it, Save to My List or Skip It? Watch it.

Carrie is so very.... Entertaining. Then again with a sequel a made to tv remake not to mention the 1976 classic already floating around Carrie is also very unnecessary.

I think it’s impossible to review this 2013 remake without comparing it to the 1976 original. For anyone really. But for someone like me who is a huge fan of the Stephen King Novel (it was the first King novel I read) not to mention a huge fan of Depalma’s original film I found myself comparing the movies almost shot by shot.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised (for the most part) with director Kimberly pierce’s 21st century retelling of the tale. All of the players are in place acting as they should. The religious zealot mother (played this time with one bite away from scenery chewing by the amazing Julianne Moore.) Piper Laurie is a hard act to follow and considering she and Spacek both got Oscar noms for the original, (a rarity for the horror genre rarer still for an actress to get a notice) she handles her interpretation supremely. Moore’s reliance on manipulation when dealing with her daughter (she cuts and injures herself here a lot more than in the original) replaces Piper Laurie’s flamboyant religious gestures. But it works.

( I was tearing up the prom long before you were a fetus dear) Another thing that works are the characters of Sue Snell and Chris Hargenston who are Carrie's “savior” and arch nemesis respectively. This Sue Snell is less pure and more human (despite now having mean girl blonde hair) than previous Sue’s. At one point she is even called out as a hypocrite by Kris who tells her she (Sue) doesn’t really give a crap about Carrie White..she just wants to go to the prom she has dreamed about since she was in first grade. It’s this challenge to Sue’s integrity that motivates her to ask her boyfriend to take Carrie and not her to the prom which makes Sue a lot more human and realistic and a lot less self righteous than the original Amy Irving version.

And speaking of Kris, Portia Doubleday’s Potrayal of Kris is a revelation. She manages to make a historically unlikeable character a little bit sympathetic as opposed to the crule uber bitch seen in past films. I’m not sure how much this has to do with the fact that a woman is at the helm of this film or just a fantastic turn by Doubleday but it breathes new life into Chris and makes her a much more interesting character.

While Chloë Grace Moretz’s Carrie can not compare to the fantastic Sissy Spacek performance of the title character it’s not really her fault. The original is a classic and with so many lines from the original book and film being repeated here any reading of those lines not by Sisssy Spacek seems a little off. They have become iconic. Its hard tio follow an icon.

(The 1976 Carrie didn't need her hands to direct her fury. She killed her classmates by looking at them.) While the women in the film live up to their predecessors one of the movies weaknesses comes from the guys. Both actors who play good guy Tommy and bad boy Billy don’t possess the charm or star quality of William Katt or John Travolta from the original. This film belongs to the ladies.

(Sorry fella you are not gonna out Mean Girl John Travolta) What keeps the 2013 version from being a classic are two mistakes. The first is in the depiction of what Carrie is. At one point when sent to her closet by her mother Carrie lashes out with her powers and a cross of Jesus starts to bleed. I’m sorry what? Why? The entire point of Kings novel and the original film is that Carrie is a telekinetic. She learns how to use her power by reading books on psychic phenomena in the library. Kings novel even explains that the men in Carries family are the carriers and the women manifest the ability usually around puberty. Carries mother’s religious extremism blinds her to the fact that what is happening to her daughter is in fact hereditary and normal (for a girl with TK) not a curse or a demonic possession. So what’s with the bleeding cross? Carrie is not demonic or supernatural in any way. She is a girl with telekinesis. By adding that scene the filmmakers kind of make her crazy ass mom right. It seemed shoe horned in to throw a bone to the Conjuring/Paranormal activity crowd who always need some devil in their horror.

Other changes include standard updating for the 21st century. The Gym teacher doesn’t smack Chris as in the orinal she simply yells at her and Sue gets a text message warning her about the prom plot but beyond that the spirit and character dynamics of the original are still here. Another small quibble is right after Carrie gets the pig blood dumped on her she becomes incredibly demonic. Even cruel. The way she kills Billy and Chris is drawn out and almost torture pornish. For a minute the film causes out sympathies to lie with the cruel bullies and not the put upon Carrie a situation the original and remake avoided.

Despite the carnage we should always be on Carries side. She lashed out in confusion and hurt not demonic malice as this version displayed.

All and all Kimberly Pierces Carrie was a faithful (in some ways more faithful to Kings novel than the first film) remake of a movie that was in no need of being remake again. Watch it. GRADE: B-