‘Tis the season for remakes, and this week there is yet another old classic being remade. This week, the remake of the Stephen King novel and the 1976 film “Carrie” by Brian DePalma was released. For those who are unfamiliar with the story, “Carrie” is about an extremely timid girl of the same name (Chloë Grace Moretz, “Kick-Ass”) who lives in what many would consider a high school version of hell. The film begins with her having her first period in the showers at school and not knowing what is happening; she is teased and ridiculed by all the other girls, including the ever-popular Chris (Portia Doubleday, “Youth in Revolt”) until the taunting is eventually broken up by the school gym teacher, Ms. Desjardin (Judy Greer, “The Descendants”).
Chris’ friend Sue feels differently, however, and is actually one of the few at school who is friendly to Carrie. While humiliated in the showers, a light bulb mysteriously shatters. Strange things start to happen to Carrie when she is upset, and it is revealed that she possesses some sort of power. Carrie’s home life is just as bad as school, living with her über-religious, insane, mother (Julianne Moore, “Magnolia”), who is fond of locking Carrie in her closet shrine so that can repent for her sins (though she has not really done anything wrong). Carrie’s powers, combined with her overbearing mother and taunting at school, ultimately culminate in disaster.
“Carrie” was originally made by Brian DePalma in 1976, a film which won many awards, including a Best Actress for Piper Laurie as Carrie’s insane mother. It is a hard movie to re-make.
That being said, this film is mediocre. It is not as good as the original, but it is not as awful as some remakes are. The acting in this film is decent. Moore does a nice job of playing Carrie’s mother, while Moretz’s performance is nothing special. She is competent, but nothing more. The main fault with this film is not the acting, it is the writing. In the original film, Carrie is incredibly shy. She is afraid of almost anything, which makes it all the more unexpected when she does something shocking. The Carrie in this version is not that way—she is more tough and stands up to her mom. In the original, Carrie would not dare say a defiant word to her mother. This seems to make her journey throughout the film less shocking, and not as gratifying as it should be.
A second issue with the writing is the way the dialogue comes across. It is melodramatic for almost all of the film. The worst of it comes from the gym teacher, Ms. Desjardin, played by Greer. All of her well-intentioned lines come off as overdramatic and even creepy at some points. She talks far too much about high school prom though she is well out of high school.
Another piece of the film that differs from the original version is the prom. In the 1976 version, the prom is very important to the plot and what happens, and it drives the movie forward, but it is only a part of it. In the 2013 version, the film seems to heavily focus on the prom. It is the most important thing in the movie by a mile; even more important than the characters. In the original, the characters talk a lot about the prom but in the new version, it is practically the only thing on their minds.
The last odd part of the film was the clothing and set design. It may have just been an homage to the 1976 film, but this version takes place in 2013. The characters have cell phones, and one of the biggest parts of the film involves a video of Carrie put on the internet. But the clothing and the cars make viewers feel like they are stuck in the ‘70s. Half the characters drive cars 30 years old, and wear leather jackets. It just does not make any sense.
Carrie is not a bad movie. It is interesting, and worth viewers’ money. That being said however, the 1976 version is better, and is just as worthy, if not more, of viewers’ time than the 2013 adaptation.
