Carrie (2013)

Just got back from an early showing of Kimberly(Boys Don't Cry)Pierce's Carrie. I thought it was a perfectly fine but ultimately unnecessary remake of Brian DePalma's 1976 classic starring Sissy Spacek in an Oscar nominated performance. It follows that film pretty closely and only deviates a bit here and there. Chloe Grace Moretz give a fine performance as the title character with special powers as does Julianne Moore as her unstable mother. While watching it I felt anxious for it to get to the prom finale and the climax of the film is impressive. Not a bad way to spend a matinee. **1/2 out of ****

I'm torn on this one.

Positives:
JM and CGM.

Negative:
Why?

Why? Because the three previous films left out a lot of stuff from the book. I'll post more later when I'm home but I thought it was great. Conflicted on finale but great on so many levels.

I'll copy and paste my thoughts from the Horror Challenge thread:

(I'm not using spoilers since the movie is basically the same as the 1976 one)

It's not a remake as much as that they took the script to the first movie, did another draft and that's the new movie. Chloe Grace Moretz is good as a modern day Carrie. Nothing against Sissy Spacek but her Carrie is so sheltered that it's out of the realm of possibility for a kid today. Not to mention that Spacek looks old enough to be a high school teacher rather than a student and Moretz at least looks the age of the person she's playing. I love Julianne Moore but Piper Laurie has it all over her in the role partly because I think she has less screen time in the remake than Laurie did in the original. I really liked Judy Greer as Miss Desjardin (the gym teacher) but I'm guessing that her likability resulted in test screening audiences wanting her to live & so they shot a new scene with her surviving.


As for the prom scenes, I like that Carrie appears to be fully aware of what she's doing in the remake (whereas in the original, it's more like she just snapped and is acting on instinct). It's grim to say but I'd have much rather seen the bulk of the kids at the prom die but it looks most of them lived. The ending where Sue comes into the White house is unnecessary and a bad idea because the scene should be concentrating on the relationship between Carrie and her mother. I guess she's in there to re-establish Sue since she appears in the brief coda.

All in all, this is very similar to the first movie just with some modernizing but I give them credit for not trying to recreate the final scare from the original.

The comment of "left a lot from the book" is odd, as everyone else (including Travis) has said "mirrors the '76 movie".

Granted the issue of Sissy is noted(which I noted that back in '76 when my brothers snuck me into see it). No exaggeration but I've probably seen it 100 times. The "other version"? Not once. (and the only de Ravin movie I've not seen...and yes, sat through Remember Me. I was graciously rewarded for that one..)

Really no reason for this remake. I hope the audiences enjoy it, as I'm sure everyone worked very hard on it. But really, why? Spacek (age notwithstanding) and Laurie may be matched one day, but probably can't be bettered. Pretty remarkable performances.

Michael Elliott said:

Why? Because the three previous films left out a lot of stuff from the book.I'll post more later when I'm home but I thought it was great. Conflicted on finale but great on so many levels.

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What "three" previous(I was stumped till I looked)?

Are you counting The Rage: Carrie 2 as one of your three? (Bergl should never have done this movie)

SPOILERS throughout


Yeah, the 1976, its sequel and then the other TV remake. I guess we could also include that musical version if we wanted.

OK, I'm sorry but I think you guys really missed the entire point of this movie. There was a lot left out of all three movies (and sequel) because there's quite a bit in the book that didn't make any of them. The new parts here include the stuff with the lawyer (a great scene that pays off more later) and the more destruction at the end. They didn't take these full steam like in the book but.....

I really thought this was an excellent movie all around. To me the entire point of this movie comes from the line that goes something like: "What did Carrie White ever do to you?" To me this film was excellent because it really took on bullying in today's world and the impact teen actions can have on everyone all around them. I think you could argue that this film had much more in common with the director's BOYS DON'T CRY than the original 1976 film, although they obviously the two films have a lot in common. Most Dracula films have vampires in it but the point is to add a fresh spin on something and I thought a woman's touch on this material was so fresh that I'm proudly going to call this one of the best movies of the year.

The abuse towards Carrie in this film is a lot more personal to the viewer because the character was so perfectly written here and played. I thought these scenes were incredibly sad and I thought the changes to the Sue character were very effective and touching. With so much "anti-bullying" stuff going around, to me it seemed like that was the main point of the film. You had the added touch of the teens posting the video online. You had the scene where Tommy dies from this "harmless" prank, which I think was another message going on. People might be rolling their eyes reading this saying horror films don't need a message but the 1976 film, one that I LOVE, is just so out-of-date with today's times. I thought everything they "updated" here worked perfectly well and I'm sorry but I thought the film was pretty damn perfect for the first 85-minutes.

I was a little lukewarm once the revenge kicked in but I must say I liked some of the changes included not having everyone die. I also liked that Carrie got to have a direct revenge on the main villain. The ending in the house was something we knew was coming but I again found it to be quite fresh and especially with the changes with Sue showing up.

As far as the performances go, I thought they were all flawless. The original film had a cast so wonderful that I thought it would be impossible not to watch these new actors and compare them to the original but that never happened for me. Again, a fresh spin on the material. When the film was announced and I saw the trailer, I thought Moretz was simply too pretty to be carry but I thought they used this to her favor. I think a lot of girls out there who are abused at home simply can't come out of that shell and I thought the film used Moretz' looks for an advantage. I thought Julianne Moore was also very good in her part. Gabriella Wilde, Ansel Elgort and especially Judy Greer were all effective.

There were some issues with the film. I thought Carrie became too much like a wizard at the end and I thought the CGI effects of her moving things were downright awful.

Still, to me the 1976 film is a masterpiece but this here was a wonderful new take on the material that was very much needed. I really do think the film could have an impact on some of the younger people who will be seeing it this weekend.

Oh yeah, MAJOR SPOILER ON THIS ONE:







I'm not sure if anyone else picked up on this or perhaps I just saw it differently. But at the end when Carrie "stops" her mom from stabbing her with the knife, I thought it was a flashback to the start of the film when the mother didn't kill the baby. To me this was saying that Carrie had these powers from birth and I thought this scene made the first all the more effective.

Boys Don't Cry has things in common with Carrie...

I'm pretty sure both deal with people being picked on (in one case killed) because they are different.

Michael Elliott said:

When the film was announced and I saw the trailer, I thought Moretz was simply too pretty to be carry but I thought they used this to her favor. I think a lot of girls out there who are abused at home simply can't come out of that shell and I thought the film used Moretz' looks for an advantage.

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Yeah, I thought that they did a fairly decent job with downplaying Moretz's looks. With the costumes and hair, she looks fine in the part. Once again, I think the movie gets a big boost from having a kid in the role. Maybe I just have a thing for Julianne Moore but I thought her beauty still managed to shine through at points. Even though I prefer Laurie as Margaret, Moore is still very good in the role. The performances are the main reason to see the movie.

And I definitely took the opening as Carrie using telekinesis to stop Margaret from stabbing her. I'd even say that it was fate or the hand of god that stopped her before her own conscience or decency stopping her from killing her.

My memory of the book is that Carrie decimates the town (rather than just the school and a gas station) so I was wanted to see that but in all fairness, I don't think they were making a movie where a girl goes on a telekinetic rampage as much as someone special lashing out at those that were cruel to her. I didn't get a chance to re-read the book before seeing the movie but I'll probably do that this weekend though.

schan1269 said:

Boys Don't Cry has things in common with Carrie...

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Broadly speaking, they're both about outsiders being brutalized.

More spoilers of course:

You knew with the girls being so young and in today's PC times that the opening shower scene wasn't going to have the sexuality to it and the nudity. I thought how the somewhat replaced this with the camera underwater as the girl's played volleyball was rather effective in its own way.

The gym teacher slapping Chris being updated for today's times was a pretty effective scene as well.

I guess everyone will be laughing at me but I really loved this movie.

So, Boys Don't Cry and Carrie are shoehorned into "tortured people movies"...

So Rush and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby belong in the same conversation...(and yes, those two movies have a connection....and it has nothing to do with cars. And that connection goes back to Carrie)

I don't know this for certain but there's no reason on Earth for someone like Peirce to be directing a movie like this. I think the connection in the characters, their abuse and everything else certainly played a factor in it. I didn't follow the production and I guess the Blu-ray will have producers talking but I can't help think she was hired because of this.

A change between the two movies that I liked a lot was seeing Carrie doing a lot more experimenting with her powers. In the original, she can pop light bulbs & knock down a kid on a bike and then she's able to do all kinds of damage. In this one, she has to build up to being able to cause the destruction at the prom.

schan1269 said:

So, Boys Don't Cry and Carrie are shoehorned into "tortured people movies"...

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I don't see it as much of a stretch. Like I said, I think the theme of outsiders being picked on in both movies is quite obvious. And like Michael said, I'm sure that played a part in Peirce getting the gig.

I saw this last night and enjoyed it. I do think with the amount of bullying going on these days, including cyber-bullying, that this remake was a good idea at this point in time.

Great acting by Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore.

MichaelPlease enlighten us as to how you think we all missed the entire point of the movie. The bullying aspect is hard to miss. It was there in the 76 film too. I'm pretty sure I got every point the film was trying to make...I just don't think It succeeded with all of them.Still, I liked the film...but it is sort of redundant compared to the 76 film. I liked the additions mentioned above but it still felt like been there done that.

Tino said:

The bullying aspect is hard to miss. It was there in the 76 film too.

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I wasn't alive when the original movie came out but when I first saw it (probably in the mid-1980's), I don't think I looked at it the way that people and especially kids today would. I knew they were being needlessly cruel to Carrie but it wasn't the same as today. With school shootings, suicides and anti-bullying programs, I think audiences see this and the original movie through entirely different eyes now.

Sorta like the ending of Rock N Roll High School where they blow up the school and it's supposed to be a fun and cool ending. When I first saw that, I was like "Yeah, school sucks! Whooo!" but after the last 10 or 15 years, I can't help but see blowing up a school in a much darker light today.

It's certainly more topical in this film than in the 76 version and it should be. I think the filmmakers were smart to make and release this film now.