Carrie (2013) (1 Viewer)

[Tino]

I haven't read the novel Travis so to me it seemed like a pretty close remake of the DePalma film. If you say it's closer to the novel, I'll take your word for it. Regardless I think that's what most people will think if they see this film and it will undoubtedly be compared unfavorably to DePalmas film. And to me they are much more alike than different.

 

[Brett_M]

SPOILERS.





Here was my #1 problem with this remake: Kimberly Peirce's misunderstanding of Carrie as a character. Here's what she wrote recently, in describing Carrie as a 'superhero origin story':

"You have to believe that Carrie is in the right and have to root for her to do that," said Peirce. "You don't want to feel that she's in any way going overboard or that she's doing anything to innocents if possible, it has to feel motivated. Because that's the kind of movie that we can go to and feel good about enjoying — I don't think we would've enjoyed it if it were organized any other way."


No. I'm sorry. "Carrie" is not a 'superhero origin story' nor is it something to 'enjoy'. "Carrie" is a tragedy. It's about a girl who goes from being a victim to an uncontrollable monster. The problem with the remake is that it treats the infamous Prom sequence as a simple calculated revenge situation, with Carrie being fully cognizant of what she's doing by only attacking those who bullied her. Most of the students survive and are standing outside of the gym as Carrie leaves.

In the novel (as well as in the 1976 film and the musical), Carrie simply snaps and decides to get 'every last one of them', guilty AND innocent. After incinerating the entire school (along with most of the senior class), Carrie wanders through the town causing massive destruction and killing more innocent people. "She would get all of them, every last one of them", as King wrote.

In a recent interview, Peirce said: "The trigger point, when Tommy goes down, that’s her king. When he falls she bends down. She’s the queen weeping over her king. Her powers first come out out of her control, as a manifestation of grief. It’s only after that that she gets to get angry and track down people who did this. So yes, she is reaching out to them because physically she’s going after the people who did this.(edit) You just have to be very careful that you're serving the audience and that the audience is inside story, and that when coming out of it they love Carrie"


So the trigger point is NOT supposed to be the blood dump? The trigger is Tommy's death? This all seems calculated to make Carrie simply a victim that you can feel good about rooting for while she's doing these terrible things-- instead of the uncontrollable monster that King transforms her into.

I don't know if it was studio pressure to make the subject more palatable (in light of school violence) or what, but this updated take on the material seems too 'politically correct' and is missing the edge and all-out tragedy that the novel and 1976 version depicted.

This is what I was trying to say in my rambling review -- thanks for making it so clear. Pierce does not understand the story or the character.

 

[Citizen87645]

Yes, the punch in the gut with the original characterization was seeing those who were trying to help Carrie get killed as well. With that you knew she was lashing out like a wounded animal, and it created this undeniably conflicted set of emotions about the character.

I can understand Pierce wanting to take it in another direction, especially given the school violence issue, but it certainly sounds like an easier, less complicated route.

 

[TravisR]

Yes, the punch in the gut with the original characterization was seeing those who were trying to help Carrie get killed as well. With that you knew she was lashing out like a wounded animal, and it created this undeniably conflicted set of emotions about the character.

I agree that they were just avoiding showing a school massacre (and looking at the reaction to a recent Sons Of Anarchy episode, it was probably a good idea) but I would argue that since the original changes the book to make her lashing out mindlessly, she's less somewhat less culpable in the original. In the book and the remake, Carrie knows exactly what's she's doing and is deliberately out to kill people.

 

[Michael Elliott]

I think Pierce is giving her vision of the character and it's not so much that she doesn't understand her. Again, I find this to be a lot better than her trying to copy the original film, the other remake or even just copying the book. I guess with remakes you can't win no matter what you do.

 

[Citizen87645]

I watched the film as part of an upcoming review and I think Peirce didn't execute things quite the way she described, so that things actually played out somewhere in between for me. While Carrie definitely targeted her bullies, there seemed to be a fair number of innocents killed as well. And she was definitely in a rage spiral during the attacks, since she clearly changes her demeanor once she has a chance to calm down. So ultimately, things worked better for me than they seemed to on paper or even filtered through the directors own words.