Carrie (2013)
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Critics Consensus: It boasts a talented cast, but Kimberly Peirce's "reimagining" of Brian De Palma's horror classic finds little new in the Stephen King novel -- and feels woefully unnecessary.
Critics Consensus: It boasts a talented cast, but Kimberly Peirce's "reimagining" of Brian De Palma's horror classic finds little new in the Stephen King novel -- and feels woefully unnecessary.
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Movie Info
A reimagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White (Chloë Grace Moretz), a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother (Julianne Moore), who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom. Based on the best-selling novel by Stephen King, Carrie is directed by Kimberly Peirce with a screenplay by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. (c) Sony- Rating:
- R (for bloody violence, disturbing images, language and some sexual content)
- Genre:
- Horror
- Directed By:
- Kimberly Peirce
- In Theaters:
- Oct 18, 2013 Wide
- On DVD:
- Jan 14, 2014
- US Box Office:
- $35.3M
Cast
-
Chloe Grace Moretz
as Carrie White -
Julianne Moore
as Margaret White -
Gabriella Wilde
as Sue Snell -
Alex Russell
as Billy Nolan -
Ansel Elgort
as Tommy Ross -
Portia Doubleday
as Chris Hargensen
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Critic Reviews for Carrie
All Critics (157) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (77) | Rotten (80) | DVD (1)
Peirce wants to make a hit, and, even with source material this strange, it feels as though she has. But if so, that's all she has made.
Chloe Moretz is unnervingly talented, but Carrie is not a role she was born to play. She hasn't a victim's bone in her body and fluffs the early scenes.
It is a timeless thing for all of us, the ritual of high-school expectation and heartache. Once again, as it did nearly 40 years ago, Carrie turns it into an experience of biblical proportions.
The movie is very good, both as a first-order viewing experience and as a contemporary gloss on Brian De Palma's classic 1976 adaptation of Stephen King's novel.
Rather than fixing some of the problems with De Palma's approach and trying something fresh, Peirce compounds them.
Peirce is gifted, but she lacks the ability of directors like DePalma to transform schlock into something deeply personal.
Perhaps the biggest flaw in this remake has to do with the ethereal beauty of its leading lady.
A wan retelling which pales in practically every department when compared to the '76 model.
Peirce's imagery is pungent: the mark of Carrie's bloody palm print on the eggshell blue of her gym teacher's skirt; a slow-motion whirling sateen dervish of a student and her gown in flames.
Not only doesn't Carrie add anything particularly new to the mix, it fails to stand on its own feet and cohere its somewhat disparate components.
For all its positives, unfortunately, when the inevitable comparisons to both King, and Brian De Palma's 1976 version arise, Carrie does fall short.
Repeats the past with less thrilling but more profound results.
It's all just a series of scenes taking from DePalma's playbook, and going through the motions.
Feels like someone copied a schoolmate's work and added a lot of their own occasionally enlightening but largely unnecessary scribbles.
This classic worm-turns tale rights a few of the original's wrongs and offers a sad and scary performance by Moretz, although she's almost upstaged by Moore, whose misogynist Bible-bashing is more extreme than Piper Laurie's in the original.
This is a sturdy tale that deserves to find a new audience. It's just a shame they won't find anything new in the process.
The new Carrie is cowardly and artistically empty. If you avoid one movie this year, make it this one.
It might be remade almost shot-for-shot, but times have changed since the `70s, and I personally think Peirce's clear agenda for updating its dominant themes is a welcome one.
This cyber-age version didn't raise a single hair on the back of my neck.
Begs that age-old remake-of-a-classic question of why even bother, even if the very capable actors do the best that they possibly can.
You would have trouble arguing for any significant shift in perspective.
It looks uncannily at home in 2013.
This remake of the classic 1976 horror film can't match the original, but this is still a great Stephen King story about hormonal confusion and religious fervour.
It's perfectly watchable, but I've been more scared at a vicarage tea party.
The special effects may have moved on over the past 40 years but virtually every other aspect of the film is inferior to its predecessor.
Audience Reviews for Carrie
The second time I have seen this 70's classic remade, and the second time I wish they had left it alone.
Like Angela Bettis before her, Chloe Grace Moretz is a good actress, but she's not Carrie.
For a start, she is too pretty. Even at the beginning, with her hair scraped back, she is not an outsider. Sissy Spacek, while attractive in a strange way, also had an eerie quality to her which made it apparent why kids would pick on her. I believe in the original, the taunting kid on the bike calls her "creepy Carrie", where in this, it's "crazy Carrie". It is an important difference for this character.
Ditto to the prom scene -Chloe is beautiful. The popular kids would have been all over her as one of them.
This is so - so until the end.
I didn't love it, and it felt unnecessary, but I could appreciate the effort of the cast to make this work.
Until the end, where this makes the same mistake the previous remake made.
Evil, vengeful Carrie stomping round with lots of violence and fire.
I never got that the original Carrie was doing it on purpose. Or not to the point this one was.
And don't even start me on Carrie's final words to Sue. Why the hell was that twist even in it?
I also could have done without the modernising - Carrie has no place on You Tube.
Honestly this story worked better in the 70's and if people are too dumb to want to watch an older movie, their loss.
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Not really a "reimagining" because there's only a handful of new scenes. This is almost too slick of a remake. The special effects are sometimes too obvious and in your face. The acting is only so so, but Chloe was a solid Carrie. Julianne Moore was decent too, but everyone else is instantly forgettable. Everyone knows the plot to this so I'll just say the infamous prom scene is not as awesome as I had hoped it would be with new technology. I expected more, but this was entertaining for what it is. It's just unnecessary. Go watch the original.
MoreSuper Reviewer
Carrie Quotes
- Carrie White:
- It's a girl.
- Sue Snell:
- Oh my God!
- Margaret White:
- You are gonna go to your closet and pray-
- Carrie White:
- No!
- Sue Snell:
- Don't hurt me, Carrie.
- Carrie White:
- Why not?
- Margaret White:
- When you know a devil never dies, it keeps coming back. You gotta keep killing it.
- Carrie White:
- There are other people like me who can do what I can do.
- Tommy Ross:
- Prom is next week. If you don't have a date already, maybe you'd want to go with me.
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