Carrie

Cast of Characters:

Carrie White - Chloe Grace Moretz

Miss Desjardin - Judy Greer

Chris Hargensen - Portia Doubleday

Margaret White - Julianne Moore

Director - Kimberly Peirce

Screenplay - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Based on the novel Carrie by Stephen King

Rated R for bloody violence, disturbing images, language and some sexual content

      Chloe Grace Moretz and Academy Award nominee Julianne Moore star in the remake of one of the greatest horror films of all-time, Carrie.

      Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz) is a shy and outcast girl going through the final months of her senior year in high school. One day, after gym class, she goes through her first period - at the surprising age of 17 - while in the gym showers. Knowing absolutely nothing about periods, Carrie believes she is bleeding to death. This event leads to much mocking and eventually a social media prank from Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubleday). However, Carrie is able to find some help and solace in her gym teacher Miss Desjardin (Judy Greer)

      Things start to perk up for Carrie the moment she is asked to the prom by one of the popular kids in the school, but her overly-religious, self-abusive mother Margaret (Julianne Moore) feels the kids there will only laugh at her.

      1976's Carrie is one of the greatest horror films of all-time. What made it so chilling was the fact that three-fourths of the film was more an effectively sympathetic coming-of-age tale for Carrie White that made the moments of horror in the final prom scene act all the more chilling. When I first saw the trailer for this new remake, I kinda went into Walter White mode, "... Tread... lightly.", but as I said earlier this week, I've been surprised by remakes before. It's such a shame that this film, like most horror remakes, falls flat. Somewhere within Chloe Grace Moretz is a talented actress. I thought she was great as Hit-girl in the first Kick-Ass, but after Let Me In, then Dark Shadows, her moody turn in the Kick-Ass 2 and now this, I get it. She can play sullen, moody and creepy well. Whoopty-doo! There are moments when Moretz is effective, particularly when she's with Judy Greer, but overall I didn't feel for her character the way I did with Sissy Spacek's portrayal. Julianne Moore is one of best actresses of the past twenty years; in fact, one of the criticisms I had about Don Jon is that I wanted to see more from her character. Here, though, she's too over-the-top and her self-abusing moments were a bit head scratching. Granted, in the original, Piper Laurie was over-the-top as well, but in a good way that left you feeling unsettled, and that final shot of her with that slight smile on her face still sends a shiver down my spine. Alex Russell is more than miscast as Billy Nolan. John Travolta originally played him and was able to capture the immature stupidity that normally comes with being a high school troublemaker. Russell looks more like he's fresh out of prison than detention. All those are minor criticisms compared to my biggest beef with the film. About halfway through, I started thinking okay, maybe this will land somewhere in my "rent it" range... then the prom scene prank happened and I not only didn't like the direction Kimberly Peirce went with it, I actually hated it. What irked me was how they made Carrie appear morbidly pleasured from wreaking havoc on all the students that were taunting her... No. No, no, no, no, no, no! "Don't hurt me, Carrie.", Sue Snell says to which Carrie replies, "... Why not?" Sissy Spacek's Carrie was never amused by her powers. Curious? Yes, but at times she seemed overwhelmed even frightened of what she was capable of doing. The way director Brian de Palma handled the student slaughterings was brilliant. Not a sound is heard other than the sounds of kids screaming while the eery and piercing soundtrack plays in the background. Carrie says nothing and is expressionless. There are no stupid smirks on her face. It's as if her powers overtook her. Here we have another case of "Child in the Candy Store" syndrome. You have all this updated use of technology, so let's just ramp everything up to the max, and to be honest, I didn't have too much of a problem with that. It's visually impressive at times, but the way they botched the character of Carrie made me care less how impressive it was

      There are a few bright spots here. I enjoyed Ansel Elgort's take on Tommy Ross (originally played by William Katt) and Judy Greer, although not as "tough as nails bitch" as Betty Buckley, had some nice moments with Moretz as the school's gym teacher. The problem is Peirce's direction and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's screenplay distort Carrie into an unsympathetic character. Plus, aside from a couple minor changes (an unnecessary intro and an eye-rolling reveal about Sue Snell at the end that had me groan out loud), this remake actually doesn't do anything that the original already didn't do. What we're left with is a "been there, done that" film containing minor changes that, aside from the present day social media updating, don't work at all. I may sound trite right now, but just watch the original. Trust me. I give Carrie a D+ (★½).