MOVIE REVIEW - Carrie

The classic tale of Carrie is not the greatest horror movie ever written, but it is an important cog in our pop-culture machine.  And it has been remade again, and is open this weekend.

Carrie was the first novel that put the great Stephen King on the map, and became a huge stepping stone for Sissy Spacek starring as Carrie in the 1976 original.  This version stars the lovely Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie in a movie that is maybe more relevant today than 40 years ago.

If you don't know, Carrie is the story of Carrie White.  She is an amazingly awkward teenage girl who is being raised alone by a complete lunatic mother in small town Maine.   Carrie is bullied horribly at school and at home, and is a young girl on the verge of a meltdown.  Carrie has the worst things imaginable happen to her from virtually all of her classmates at school.   Carrie though discovers that she possesses certain "powers."   Harmless at first, moving things with her mind, and being able to control small things.  But as time goes on she finds her powers are linked to the quiet rage within her that she masks and keeps pressed down

As the bullying escalates, she is invited to prom with a very popular boy. And in a fixed vote, is voted prom queen so she can suffer the ultimate humiliation the class can think of in front of everyone.  They soon come to know that they picked the wrong girl to mess with as Carrie unleashed her powers for evil and has her revenge on them all.  Carrie unleashes her supernatural, or demonic wrath on her classmates, and settles the score.

This has been updated nicely to fit today's world.  I contend that with all the emphasis on bullying today, this fits well into the conversation.  The way Carrie is bullied in the 2013 version, is not far off, if at all from what we hear on the news seemingly daily.  That is the strength of the original story.  Teens can, and have always had the potential to be horrible to each other.   But in 1976, the behavior King wrote about here was unheard of.  That's why it worked then.  Today, sadly nothing is really out of reach for some teens.  That's why this works better today.  As where in 1976 the bullying was so over the top, today it is all too real.  Kids today seemingly at times know no bounds.
 
This version is fresh, topical and relevant.  It is also very disturbing to watch at times, but it's Stephen King.   There is plenty of social commentary, and symbolism as is normal for King stories.   The original story is in tact, with well thought out and necessary updates within.  The premise is timeless and still will be in 20 years when this is remade again with some young actress not yet born.

I loved Moretz as the new Carrie.  She was very comfortable here, and reinvented this role well.  I was concerned at first she may be a bit too pretty to be so awkward and real, but she pulls it off and you believe her.  And she can also be hideous as well, when Carrie goes wrong and off at the prom. This also star Julianne Moore as her crazy mother and she was good as well.  The supporting cast is fine, but make no mistake, this is Moretz's movie.  

Carrie 2013.  Relevant, and for what it is, and for what is has been - well done.