What’s it about?
A sheltered, bullied girl unleashes telekinetic terror after being pushed too far.
What did we think?
This remake of Stephen King’s classic tale feels almost too faithful to the original and largely unnecessary. Julianne Moore is appropriately creepy as Carrie’s religious zealot mother, while Chloe Grace Moretz gives good crazy eye as Carrie. But were their efforts as believable and memorable as Piper Laurie’s and Sissy Spacek’s Oscar-nominated performances? No. And, frankly, we expected more from the director of Boys Don’t Cry, Kimberly Peirce.
Fans of the original will struggle to come to grips with a Carrie who actively practices her ability rather than is a victim of it. This dilution of empathy robs the film a bit (as does a trailer that gave everything away anyway). Passable but barely.
It was obvious there were similarities and possibly some ‘borrowed’ approaches from the original ‘Carrie’. However, Chloe Grace Moretz has stated in numerous interviews that she intended to stay true to the author and the story, specifically, not the original film with Sissy Spacek. With that, audiences won’t (and shouldn’t) be watching a remake, rather, a re-telling of a classic novel with new filming techniques and styles. And.. I think the older generations need to be excited that younger audiences can now be introduced to the genius work of Stephen King (if they haven’t already), through the recognition of an actress like Chloe.
Not a horror movie fan, but a big fan of Chloë Grace Moretz. I went and watched the original after I saw this, and I hate to say it, but preferred this version. I liked the modernisation (online bullying), and feel both Chloë’s and Julianne Moore’s performances were far superior to the original.
It’s true that if you’ve seen the trailer you’ve pretty much seen the movie. And I was yelling at the screen for Carrie to “kill them all” within the first 10 minutes. But as a popcorn-fuelled time-waster it’s at least a 3 star flick.