Carrie (2013)

Genre: Horror

Directed by: Kimberly Peirce

Starring: Chloë Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore, Judy Greer

Running time: 99 minutes

This film is a remake of the 1976 original, still based on the Stephen King book of the same name. It is still the story of Carrie, a 17-year old girl with telekinetic powers who has to contend with an abusive overly religious mom at home and other kids who bully her at school. Feeling bad for Carrie, another girl asks her boyfriend to take the lonely girl to the senior prom instead of her. He does so, but some other students are waiting to sabotage what could have been such a beautiful moment for Carrie.

Coming in, I was expecting to be disappointed by this remake of Carrie. The original, while not perfect by any means, has this special aura about it. The compelling story and the great acting have made it a classic. Well, I was pleasantly surprised by the 2013 version.

Chloë Grace Moretz really shines as Carrie. The girl most known for her badass role in the Kick-Ass franchise shows some great vulnerability here as the main character. I would say kudos also to Julianne Moore, who did some great work taking over the role originally played by Piper Laurie.

As for the movie itself, some things needed to be changed. The main character was actually played by a teenager this time, so the exploitation aspect of the locker room scene at the beginning of the movie is no more. The filmmakers also did some solid work bringing this material up to this era. The use of Smart Phones and the Internet in bullying is a plague of these times and it was well used here.

While I expected this to be a pale copy, I found the remake of Carrie to be a very effective retelling. Some details were fleshed out a bit, and it made the whole thing so enjoyable to me as a cinephile. The acting was great, the special effects were improved and the original story was fine tuned. Overall, there is nothing to complain about on my part.

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