Carrie

There is something just so unnecessary about this remake of Carrie.  It's not just the fact that Stephen King's classic story of teen isolation and revenge has been told so many times before.  There was the original 1976 film adaptation, obviously, a 1999 sequel to that film that was more or less a retread, a made-for-TV adaption that was supposed to launch a TV series, and even a failed attempt at a Broadway musical.  No, what makes this film feel so unnecessary is that it's just so lifeless and bland.  There's no tension of any kind, no dramatic stakes, and an overall sense that the movie knows its audience already knows the story, and is just going through the motions.

This actually surprised me, considering the director of this remake is the usually reliable Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry).  You would think that she would be able to find a fresh spin on the material, but she never does.  Her directing style is bizarre, with tight close ups and off-kilter camera angles.  Maybe this is supposed to add to the weirdness of the tale, or make us feel uncomfortable, but all it did was take me out of the film, and make me wonder why she was making these choices.  When we get the infamous pig's blood scene in the film's climax, for some reason, Peirce feels the need to show Carrie getting doused with the stuff three or four times in a row from different camera angles.  Maybe she was trying to recreate the split-screen effect Brian De Palma used in the original sequence?  Whatever the reason, it felt like unneeded style over substance.

The movie pretty much follows the story you already know, beat-for-beat, guaranteeing no surprises are in store for us.  Mousey and pale-skinned Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz) is constantly being verbally and physically abused by her religious fanatic mother, Margaret (Julianne Moore), and being teased and bullied at school by the more popular girls who surround her every day.  There's the main mean girl Chris (Portia Doubleday), who plots a cruel prank on the poor girl, there's the prom, there's the pig's blood, and there's the ensuing bloody vengeance where Carrie unleashes her rage on an unsuspecting public.  The only new spin the movie does attempt with this material is to add a modern day element of cyberbullying to the story, but it doesn't exploit this angle enough for it to be interesting, or really worth mentioning.

Carrie still could have succeeded as a remake if the cast were able to make these characters their own, or stand out in some way.  And yet, even with great talents like Moretz and Moore in the lead roles, they fail to fill the shoes of their predecessors.  Moretz is fine enough as the put-upon Carrie, but she never comes across as sympathetic as she should.  Actually, the movie doesn't seem to be all that interested in her, making her transformation from a scared and timid girl to a more confident young woman (until she loses control) not as emotional or as powerful as it should be.  There is an air of indifference about her, and that's certainly not what I was expecting.  As for Moore, her portrayal as the cruel Margaret White is all bug-eyes, self-mutilation, and religious ranting.  She never gets to create a real character, or become truly terrifying.  Of the cast that surrounds them, only Judy Greer as a gym teacher who sympathizes with Carrie stands out.  All of the fellow high school students are played by bland, faceless model-types who seem to have wandered into the movie from a prime time teen soap opera, and make little to no impression at all.

Thinking back over the movie, I don't think my problem is so much that I have heard the story of Carrie one too many times.  It's easy to see why it resonates and keeps on being remade, since it's probably the most sympathetic and relatable of King's horror stories.  It's easier to identify with a lonely and bullied girl, than say a guy who brings his pets back from the dead (and they try to kill him), or a car that comes to life (and tries to kill people).  My problem here lies with how flat and uninspired the whole thing feels.  There's no drama, no tension, no scares, no sense of tragedy, and no real emotional involvement.  The movie plays out, then sends us on our way feeling empty.  We have to admit that it has been made with a certain degree of skill, but we're left wondering why it was even made at all.

Just in case we need any more evidence that this is an inferior telling of the story, let's compare the final scene of the original film to this remake.  Remember the highly effective shock that closed out the original movie?  Here, it's replaced with a clumsy and confusing sequence that almost seems to be trying to set up a sequel.  Sure, we've already had Carrie II, but seeing as though nobody really remembers that movie, I wouldn't put it past the filmmakers to give us another just in case this movie winds up being a surprise hit at the box office.

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