A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), The Wicker Man (2006) and Friday the 13th (2009) are just a few examples of terribly made horror reboots. It seems that every year, a movie studio will dig out an old scary classic and say, “Right, how can we ruin this?”
When I found out that Carrie (Stephen King’s bestseller) was getting a modern makeover, I was worried. However, upon discovering that director Kimberly Peirce was involved, I thought maybe there was hope in getting a fairly decent movie. So, has this award winning filmmaker (director of Boys Don’t Cry) produced the goods or given us another reimagined disaster to add to the pile?
The story focuses on Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz) – a shy and awkward teenage girl. Her religious mother (Julianne Moore) has sheltered her from all the harsh realities of life. Therefore, when Carrie gets her first period in the school showers, she freaks out and has no idea what’s going on.
Carrie’s classmates (played by Gabriella Wilde and Portia Doubleday) record the frightened girl’s bathroom incident on their smartphones, and one of them becomes banned from Prom because of it. She blames Carrie for this decision and begins to plot her revenge.
If only the bully had known that Carrie had recently developed telekinetic skills, maybe then she’d have thought twice about putting together an evil prank.
Unfortunately the 70 minutes leading up to the famous final scene are very slow and forgettable. And when we finally get the goods, we realise that we’ve already seen the best bits in the trailer.
Apart from the improved special effects and better hairstyles, almost every aspect of Carrie is inferior to its predecessor.
Mikey Clarke
Genre: Horror.
Director: Kimberly Peirce
Cast: Chloe Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore, Ansel Elgort, Gabriella Wilde, Portia Doubleday, Judy Greer, Alex Russell & Barry Henley.
See it if you liked: The Wicker Man (2006) & The Amityville Horror (2005).
[youtube id=”pqRe7wDY8WA” width=”600″ height=”350″]