Shy teenager Carrie White is an outcast at school and is bullied by her peers simply because she doesn't fit in. Things are made worse for Carrie when she has her period at school and rather than helping her many of the girls choose to make fun of her (one girl Chris takes things a step further by posting the video she took of this incident online). Chris gets punished for doing this and when she learns that Carrie is going to the school prom she, along with her friends plot their revenge against Carrie in the worst way possible. It is Carrie, however, who has the biggest surprise in store for everyone...
Remaking any film that either has cult or classic status is always a risk as inevitably comparisons are going to be drawn. Whilst I think that this Carrie offering is weaker than the 76 versions they both suffered from similar problems (though they are a bit more prominent in this version).
To start with the good I thought that Chloe Grace Moretz was very good as the title character - probably not quite as good as Spacek was in the original, but Moretz was only 15 at the time the film was made so some context is required here. There are 1 or 2 likeable characters whom at first don't seem this way (such as Tommy and Sue) - though in Sue's case her motivation to help Carrie is partly out of guilt, but at least she recognised that what the girls did was wrong. The mother/daughter relationship was fairly well-explored here - it seemed to be better developed here than in the original. This fraught relationship provided many a tense encounter and an interesting dynamic power/struggle continually develops as the narrative unfolds.
The downside that I found with this film is that it never quite feels like a horror film in the same sense that the original film did. The original film really got under my skin and I could feel Carrie's pain at almost every corner - Piper Laurie was terrifying in the original film and was really domineering over Carrie. In this film, Carrie's telekinesis is revealed very early and it leaves Margaret with little opportunity to properly frighten poor Carrie like she did in the original. The religious ramblings are there which are creepy and well-executed, but for the most part the real terror isn't.
So what we're left with is the final act and like the original film it is also the piece de resistance of this remake. It's what we've all come for and what we've all waited for and like the original film it doesn't disappoint. Having said that, in this film there is more of a sense of hanging around and waiting for the final act as I didn't really have the same emotional investment that I had when watching the original.
To sum up then it's not as terrible as some may say and is watchable, but there is this nagging feeling that this 2013 version of Carrie is one of several unnecessary remakes that have surfaced over the years.
Remaking any film that either has cult or classic status is always a risk as inevitably comparisons are going to be drawn. Whilst I think that this Carrie offering is weaker than the 76 versions they both suffered from similar problems (though they are a bit more prominent in this version).
To start with the good I thought that Chloe Grace Moretz was very good as the title character - probably not quite as good as Spacek was in the original, but Moretz was only 15 at the time the film was made so some context is required here. There are 1 or 2 likeable characters whom at first don't seem this way (such as Tommy and Sue) - though in Sue's case her motivation to help Carrie is partly out of guilt, but at least she recognised that what the girls did was wrong. The mother/daughter relationship was fairly well-explored here - it seemed to be better developed here than in the original. This fraught relationship provided many a tense encounter and an interesting dynamic power/struggle continually develops as the narrative unfolds.
The downside that I found with this film is that it never quite feels like a horror film in the same sense that the original film did. The original film really got under my skin and I could feel Carrie's pain at almost every corner - Piper Laurie was terrifying in the original film and was really domineering over Carrie. In this film, Carrie's telekinesis is revealed very early and it leaves Margaret with little opportunity to properly frighten poor Carrie like she did in the original. The religious ramblings are there which are creepy and well-executed, but for the most part the real terror isn't.
So what we're left with is the final act and like the original film it is also the piece de resistance of this remake. It's what we've all come for and what we've all waited for and like the original film it doesn't disappoint. Having said that, in this film there is more of a sense of hanging around and waiting for the final act as I didn't really have the same emotional investment that I had when watching the original.
To sum up then it's not as terrible as some may say and is watchable, but there is this nagging feeling that this 2013 version of Carrie is one of several unnecessary remakes that have surfaced over the years.