Tags:
Film: Carrie
Year: 2013
Director: Kimberly Peirce
Writer: Lawrence D. Cohen & Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Starring: Chloë Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore and Gabriella Wilde
Review:
This film begins with Julianne Moore. She is writhing in pain in her bed. Blood is coming out of her and we find out she is having her baby. Just when the pain seems unbearable, there is the baby on the bed. She grabs scissors to kill it, but has a change of heart when they make eye contact. Moore picks up the baby and holds it tight.
We then shift to present time. The baby is all grown up and is played by Chloë Grace Moretz. She is in gym class and they are in the pool playing volleyball. We get to meet a few of the major characters here. The gym teacher is played by Judy Greer. There is Gabriella Wilde, who is a popular, good looking girl who is pretty nice. The bully is played by Portia Doubleday. Greer forces Moretz to get involved and when she serves, it hits Wilde in the back of the head.
In the locker room, Moretz goes to take a shower and her period starts. She has never had one and doesn’t know what is happening. She goes to the other girls and they look at her like she’s stupid. They chant for her to ‘plug it up’ and throw feminine products at her. Doubleday leading them and Wilde is going along with it. While this is happening, the lights flicker. Wilde does stops though and realizes what she is doing. Greer comes in and breaks it up. She feels bad for Moretz.
Greer helps her and they both go to the principal’s office, he is played by Barry Shabaka Henley. He leaves it up to Greer how to punish the girls and he informs Moretz that he called her mother. We see she is scared of that being done and she screams, breaking the water cooler. Moore comes and picks up her. We do learn that Moore homeschooled her and that Moretz longs to be like the popular girls.
At home, Moore is highly religious. She believes that the ‘curse of blood’ began, because Moretz sinned. There is something in Moore’s past that bothers her and she doesn’t want her daughter to fall the same way that she did. She puts her in a closet and wants her to pray.
We learn that night that Wilde is dating a sports star played by Ansel Elgort. Doubleday is dating a bad boy who drives a muscle car; he is played by Alex Russell.
The next day at school Greer hands down her punishment, they have to run killers and if they stop, they won’t be going to prom. Everyone goes along with it until Doubleday has had enough. She tries to get everyone to follow her, but no one does, not wanting to test Greer.
Moretz begins to do research into the power that she has come into. She practices it and begins to harness it.
Doubleday tries to fight the punishment with her father, who is a lawyer. She almost has it won, when Greer brings up that the incident in question was recorded on Doubleday’s phone. She loses when she is told to give her phone to Henley. To make herself feel better, she calls out Wilde, saying she should have stuck with her, because they were friends and that Wilde was partaking in it too. Doubleday also calls her for going to prom still.
Wilde has a change of heart and tells Elgort to take Moretz to the prom. He doesn’t want to and doesn’t think she will come with him even he tries. She tells him that he needs to do it. He asks Moretz and she runs away. Greer finds her crying in the locker room and asks why. She then confronts Wilde and Elgort. They convince her that they are not playing a joke on her.
Elgort goes to Moretz house to ask her again. This time he convinces her and Moretz is happy beyond belief. She goes to buy material and when she gets home, Moore gives her a sermon. Moretz has been getting better and better with her telekinetic power. She uses them to keep Moore away from her. Moretz makes her dress.
Doubleday has her own surprise for Moretz that Russell has come up with. It involves killing a pig and draining its blood.
Moore tries to convince Moretz that they are going to laugh at her and humiliate her. Moretz locks her in the closet when she leaves, believing that Elgort will not let that happen. They go to prom, but Doubleday’s plan is being put in motion. It involves the pig’s blood and the unlikely couple winning prom king and queen.
Will anyone survive Moretz’s rage? Is anyone safe? Can anyone stop her? What will happen with her mother and Wilde?
I have to say that I liked this film, but not as much as the original. The acting for this is really good. Moretz is a solid actress and does well as Carrie White. She does play it much different than ones in the past. Moretz is a little too good looking for the role, but the difference I noticed for this film is that Moretz longs to be popular. She does play the role shy, which I think makes for a solid Carrie. Moore does a good job as her mother. What I like about how she played this was she comes off as crazy by hurting herself. The rest of the cast does well in their roles. I thought both Doubleday and Wilde were perfect for their roles, especially making Doubleday such a villain. I think this film benefits a lot more from the upgrades in technology for the story and for making the telekinesis aspect as well. The story itself is hindered by the novel it is based off, but it does what it can to be different since the time it was wrote. It is important to note that bullying is still a major issue so that aspect of the novel and the film work with updating it.
The biggest thing that I didn’t like about this film was that it was almost a shot-for-shot remake of the original, with just updated technology. I know remakes have boundaries they need to stay within, but I like them to be different where they can. I do think that they some of the effects were really good, where some the CGI was clear. I think the more practical effects work much better. I also think that actors from the original fit better in the roles they were playing than in this one. Not that the acting was bad in this one, because that is not the case.
I would recommend this one if you liked the original, even though it is very close to being the same movie. If you like the concept I would watch this one. It really is a great story of getting revenge for being bullied. Not the best though and I still stand by the original being better. Definitely worth a viewing if you like horror movies. It still has some solid updates to make the story modern, which is impressive that the concept still stands up. The acting is pretty good. Some of the effects have issues where some were good. I would say the this film is slightly above average overall.
My Rating: 6 out of 10