Though Gravity is topping the charts for new releases at the moment it is decidedly the season for a good horror flick. For that reason I took off my space helmet and headed past its theater to the room at the end of the hall to see the newly imagined Carrie.
Carrie, based off the novel by Stephen King, follows the story of young teenage Carrie White who lives with her mother in smalltown USA. Her mother, a rather unstable and abusive religious zealot, has homeschooled Carrie much of her growing up until the state forced her to put Carrie into public school. Here we find Carrie – an outcast and a loner, wandering the halls of her unfriendly educational institution. After a brutal taunting by her fellow gym-mates, she finds herself the center of controversy. One of her bullies, Chris, is to be banned from prom while the others remain on probation. However, because of a growing guilt complex, one attacker, Sue Snell, arranges what she hopes will be an appropriate apology towards Carrie: she has her boyfriend Tommy ask Carrie to the prom. Excited and nervous Carrie eventually agrees (against her mother’s wishes) and her kind date shows her a magical night. This culminates when the two are crowned king and queen of the dance. But just as the crown hits her head, a bucket of pig blood, set in place by the expelled tormentor, pours from the ceiling, drenching her hair and handmade dress. As she stands silently, her anger begins to swell and her previously underdeveloped telekinetic powers wreak havoc on all those present.
Carrie was first adapted to the silver screen in 1976 by director Brian De Palma. Though now somewhat outdated and dramatically overacted, the film has become a cult classic. The famous lines of Carrie’s deranged mother, “They’re all gonna laugh at you,” has echoed in the heads of every viewer since and Sissy Spacek’s crazed wide-eyed stare is iconic. For these reasons it is hard to imagine what a remake would do.
The answer is not a lot, though it was fully enjoyed. Chloe Grace Moretz plays an admittedly dull version of Carrie in comparison to Sissy Spacek’s strange, otherworldly features. Though her acting is solid, she falls victim to the Hollywood bland beauty, and it is just that much harder to imagine her as truly the outcast the role of Carrie requires. The real improvement on the film is instead found in the role of her mother, Margaret White, played by Julianne Moore. Moore’s character is more fully developed which makes her that much more terrifying. Moore also fully embraces the idea that Carrie’s mother is a masochist and plays it with perfect subtly, scratching of her wrists and gouging her thighs with a seam-ripper while talking to those around her.
Overall the film is simply modernized. Gone are the dramatic swells, slow scene builds, and wide-eyed overacting of the 70s, only to be replaced by dry cruelty and lots of texting. This makes for a less exciting and less inventive, but also probably more accessible version.
The final iconic scene in which Carrie destroys the prom and all those with it does not, however, disappoint. With some believable CGI and a broad range of death traps, the whole scene is a masterpiece of horror. Though Moretz lacks the luster of Spacek, she helps make up for some of it simply though her range of destruction. And here is possibly the most interesting difference between the two films–while the original implies that Carrie’s gift is unmanageable, something that will take her over, and destroy everything it’s wake–the new film seems to imply that she can control it enough to only punish the deserved. Surprisingly we see Carrie actually save those she has made connections with and insistently tortures those she sees as her worst enemies. This calls into question one of the major themes of the story- is Carrie in control of her power or is her power fully her? It also speaks to what modernization has done to the story. It seems we don’t mind witnessing the murder of a pig, but unsolicited death is not acceptable. Certainly an interesting twist to the plot and an asset to the new adaptation, at least from a conversation standpoint.
All in all, I do believe this new Carrie will largely be forgotten in a broad sense, though I would deem it a necessary watch for any horror fan. It is well made, but lacks the star power and intrigue of a true cult classic. Watch it, enjoy it, and then go to the library (yes, the Houghton library) and rent the original. Between the two you will get an eyeful of blood, a few jumps, and perhaps even a few laughs. Halloween is right around the corner after all. Boo!