A typical American teen horror!
On April 5th 1974, Stephen King published his first ever novel, Carrie. The novel went on to become one of the greatest sellers of all time. They even made a film adaption of it. The film itself proved such a big hit with the audience, Carrie is officially one of the greatest horror films of all time. However, there was bound to be a remake sooner which could lead to a big debate whether or not it was such a great idea. Julianne Moore play’s the paranoid religious mother of Carrie White, which is played by Chloe Grace Moretz, a young troubled lonely girl.
As Carrie she struggles with school life, she is also dealing with her scary religious paranoid sick Mother, Margaret White. Whilst also having to cope with being bullied and name-calling. She ends up making a friend in Miss Desjardin (Judy Greer), who is deeply worried by Carrie’s welfare in and out of school.
Through her struggles of being the victim of bullying and loneliness, she ends up discovering that she has telekinesis (the ability to move things with your mind), and that is when the trouble starts. With her body changing into a mature woman, her Mother believes that they should always pray and beg God for forgiveness. Becoming even angrier when Carrie reveals that she’s been asked to the school prom by a boy. Her Mother is disgusted and thinks that she is going to commit a sin of sexual acts. Meanwhile, the school bullies, Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubleday) and Billy Nolan (Alex Russell) plan to ruin Carrie’s prom night in revenge because Chris has been kicked out of school because of her continuing bullying of Carrie.
Before the prom, Margaret discovers the truth about Carrie’s ability and accuses her of being witch and pray’s that God will help her in her time of need. As the night arrives Margaret begs Carrie not to go and instead asks her to stay at home and pray together. Carrie having none of it and ends up locking her mother in the closet. She then pray’s that her mother can’t escape to stop her from going.
Meanwhile, as Tommy Ross and Carrie enter the prom, her dreams come true; she’s shy but excited at the same time. However, as Chris and Billy’s friend has planted a bucket of pig’s blood on top of the stage and fixed the results of prom King and Queen. When Carrie and Tommy are announced as prom King and Queen, the bullies pour the bucket of pig’s blood over the teenager and all hell breaks loose!
Carrie begins her revenge by setting fire on everything and killing those who have bullied her in the past. Leaving her with the famous blood prom dress. As Carrie goes home to find her Mum, she discovers that her Mum isn’t in the house. Although that’s what she thinks. With fights and killing, Carrie’s anger gets out of control. And they both suffer in the most horrid way possible!
I’m going to say what I always say. The original will always be a classic! It takes a lot of courage and guts to create a remake of such a popular and massive film worldwide. Kimberly Peirce, the director of the 2013 version of Carrie has taken a massive step to work on this film. The one thing I do praise the film for is the brilliant casting of Julianne Moore and Chloe Grace Moretz who made the film with their performances!
However, there were some downfalls to the film. They made it too typical American teen horror! Bully bullies girl, the bully victim gets to go to the prom with high school hunk and bully wants revenge. I wouldn’t go far from saying that this wasn’t a horror as it goes! Yes, it was watchable, enjoyable, but it will be one of those films that I would only watch once.
Remakes are the new thing for movie makers. The audience wants something new. Something that wasn’t made back in the day where films were classics. Carrie was good, but it isn’t amazing….
