Rapid Review: Carrie (2013)

Posted on by Zoë

carrie poster

“Carrie had some sort of power. But she was just like me… like any of you. She had hopes, she had fears, but we pushed her. And you can only push someone so far before they break.”
– Sue Snell

SYNOPSIS: A reimagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White, a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother, who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom. – via IMDB

carrie angry

GRADE 6It is common knowledge that I am not the biggest fan of the original. I really think it is overhyped. It let me down, and most of the acting was embarrassing. I remember I was rather indifferent to seeing that Carrie was being remade, but I sort of had a corner in me hoping for something better. Maybe one day we will luck out and get a version of Carrie that has the documentary style woven in between the story itself, sticking more to the book than anything. Hey, we can all dream! Anyway, I started this movie knowing that it got slammed by a whole bunch of die hard fans of the original and some other people, and I must admit that I thought this was highly uncalled for. The 2013 Carrie remake turned out to be a pretty decent watch. However, whoever the hell did the makeup for this movie was awful – everyone looked much older than they were and orange and silly. The performances were all satisfactory, and Julianne Moore was fantastic as Margaret White. Chloë Grace Moretz was a little pretty in my opinion to play Carrie, but she did a great job regardless. I loved Ansel Elgort as Tommy Ross, he was much better in this movie, and he is cute as hell. Chris was a real mean bitch, and Alex Russell as Billy was also very well done, considering how much I liked him in Chronicle. I must say that this movie was decent, it was entertaining and it was shot well, and I liked it more than I expected to. I think the film did a really good job when it got to showing how things happened at the prom and thereafter, they got that down. It is not amazing, and it is still not the perfect version of Carrie, but worth checking out whether you are a fan of the original or not.

19 thoughts on “Rapid Review: Carrie (2013)”

  2. I had some issues with this one… I love Moretz but she is completely miscast. Carrie is supposed to be a fragile, timid, wide-eyed little rabbit in the headlights but Moretz is just way too strong to portray this. No matter how much she stoops and mumbles you can’t look at her without expecting Hit-Girl to break out at any minute and just kick everyone in the tits. It’s also hard to imagine the whole period scene happening in 2013. I know they attempt to explain it away by claiming Carrie was home schooled but she didn’t live in a cave. Added to this Carrie is supposed to be slowly finding her burgeoning powers not going full Jean Grey halfway through the film. I also never felt that there was a chance that Tommy actually fancied Carrie, which was one of the joys of the original.

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    1. See, those are all valid pitfalls of this movie. Moretz is good but way too pretty, way too strong, and the telepathy thing kicked in so quickly, nobody had time to get on board with that or even understand it.

      I wish someone would just do that Carrie that we got in the book… apparently that is not high up on anyone’s list :/

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  3. I didn’t mind this version, but there were some heavy cuts from what I heard. There is an uncut version that is supposed to be far superior that people are clamouring for with a petition even going around for it. Hopefully that version sees the light of day.

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    1. I believe so. Initially people were saying it would be more like the book, but that was certainly not the version we ultimately got.

      I’ll cross my fingers, would love to see what it was initially going to be!

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      2. Yep yep, and I loved the book. I found this movie better than the original (I know that statement could get me shot), but it is still a far cry from King’s novel. I would love something shot documentary style like that, with the story of Carrie woven through it.

        Did you read the book, and if so, did you enjoy it?

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      4. 😀 I am so glad to hear that! Yeah, Spacek was a great Carrie, but the movie had SO MANY other issues :/

        I adore King, he is amazing and I love his work. Have you read Joe Hill’s work? He is also phenomenal – very talented, and not just a knock off of his dad!

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  5. I agree. “Julianne Moore was fantastic.” The one thing I didn’t like about the remake is that Carrie was like an X-Men super-villain. What makes Carrie an interesting film for me is it addresses school bullying. I wrote a short essay on it called “A Warning to School Bullies.” I am open to any constructive feedback. If you would like to read it, here is the link: https://christopherjohnlindsay.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/carrie-2013/

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