In 1976, two years after publication, Brian de Palma’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel Carrie was released. The novel was groundbreaking, a novel set in a fully realised contemporary American high school with all the inherent horror therein, the vicous pecking order of the popular kids and the unfortunates, among them Carrie White, a girl with a fearsome secret. That film made a star out of Sissy Spacek, and this Hallowe’en, Chloë Grace Moretz will take the role in a new version directed by Kimberly Peirce, who made a star out of Hilary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry.
Michael Flett – I’m really not impressed. Much as I like Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore, and have no doubt they will be brilliant, but they appear to be swimming in a vacuum here. The key to Carrie is that it’s a story about ordinary people living ordinary lives with something extraordinary in the midst of them, and look at the guys on the swim team – that is not your average high school kid.
Same with Chloë – she should be plain, and for all the amazing talent she has, she’s not a plain girl, nor have they made an attempt to make her plain. I also think that moving it to a modern era will make Carrie’s naiveté even more unbelievable.
Also interesting that they’ve changed it from an all girl gym class to mixed swimming, to get the whole cast in their underoos. Gotta keep that body obsessed teen demographic happy…
Narratively, it does look fairly faithful, though with the addition of computer generated crumpling cars and flying high school students, and furniture rearrangement in the style of Looper‘s Rainmaker from last summer, all of which takes it out of the realm of the believable that Stephen King worked so hard to create in the original novel – that’s why the book was such a success, because it read as though it could be real.
It does bother me that Peirce, who is an established indie director, has made something as generic as this – why not just hand it to a hired studio hand, for all she’s done with it? There doesn’t seem to be a strong directorial voice here, it just looks like it’s been handed to a bunch of film students with the instruction to remake the original frame by frame using modern equipment.
Also – releasing a trailer six months ahead of release that looks exactly the same as every other teen horror movie of the last decade for a remake of a book adaptation that gives away the entire plot, beginning to end? Do they just want this film to die at the box office?
Les Anderson – Oh dear. The unique selling point for the original adaptation has to be the one and only Sissy Spacek who brought a unique otherworldly quality to the character which is totally lacking here. Spacek’s otherworldliness also contrasted markedly with Piper Laurie’s sheer ordinariness as her mother. In this trailer Chloë Moretz, a sophisticated and worldly performer and Julianne Moore, similarly so, seem to be playing the same character at different ages which, in itself, is a valid interpretation but compared with the now-classic original film just isn’t enough. Particularly when the trailer suggests that the two women are adrift in a sea of slasher movie cliches which would require quirky performances to make the characters stand out. I would stick to the original which WAS original, unlike this.
Kevin Gilmartin – I wasn’t a fan of the original, and I have no intention of seeing this one. Sorry.
Glenn Jones – This is a remake of one of my first and favourite horror movie experiences. I love the original Carrie so much that it’s weird to think it’s been remade now. Having seen the trailer, I think it looks like it’ll be pretty good, but I know the story, I’ve seen the original umpteen times and therefore I’m not sure that I’d be going to watch it to enjoy it, or to judge it against its predecessor. I do like the cast though and for that alone I’d probably make more of an effort to see it.
Owen Williams – Can Carrie be relevant to today’s audience? Is it realistic that a person like Ms White would exist in the modern world? For me the answer is “yes.” Perhaps even more so than when the novel was published and the original film was made. It’s scary to think how many Americans believe the Bible to be the literal truth and raise their children according to it, without rationality, logic, reason or basic science.
The problem that I have with this trailer is that it is retreading the ground of the original. Other than the special effects, which look pretty good from this, it doesn’t look any different from the original. The novel was published in 1974, the film released in ’76 and this looks like a step for step remake of the story, with no attempt to bring it up to date.
Moretz will be amazing. Moore will be as addictive as she always is and it is good to see female actors in such roles, but what more does this bring us than the version from the 1970’s? A ‘sharper image’ is no reason to remake a movie, if it has nothing to say. This could have been a critique on religious America or the “outsider” that exists in every schoolroom (regardless of location). Moretz is not an outsider, and is not suitable for the role.
You can imagine, if this film was made a decade or so ago, that they’d have stuck Natalie Portman in there because she’s the ‘hot young actress’ of the generation. This is not to denigrate Moretz, who is a phenomenal actress, but she is simply not the choice that they should have made. Unfortunately if they had gone for an unknown “plain” actress the film would never have been filmed.
Adam Dworak – It looks really good. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the original, so I don’t remember it clearly, but I really like this. I usually don’t like remakes, I like to keep the originals pristine, as it were, a set of movies that should be looked after by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, and Carrie is one of them.
With this, it looks like they did a really good job, it looks amazing. Julianne Moore will make a great crazy mother, she will be really convincing, and I can’t wait to see what she does with the part. I’m not sure about Chloë. I don’t know her as an actress very well, the last thing I saw her in was Kick-Ass, and I can’t translate that into Carrie. I think there are younger actresses, more fragile actresses, who would be better. If she was ten years younger, Brit Marling would be perfect, but then again, it’s not unl
ike Hollywood to cast teenagers who are actually approaching thirty.
They are serving a little too much of the flying objects, books and levitating beds. Carrie should be more about the story and the emotions than lots of effects, but it’s still a must-see for me. Considering how much Hollywood loves them, and the obvious teen market, I’m astonished they didn’t do this as a found footage movie.
Carrie trailer – reaction
Michael Flett – I’m really not impressed. Much as I like Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore, and have no doubt they will be brilliant, but they appear to be swimming in a vacuum here. The key to Carrie is that it’s a story about ordinary people living ordinary lives with something extraordinary in the midst of them, and look at the guys on the swim team – that is not your average high school kid.
Also interesting that they’ve changed it from an all girl gym class to mixed swimming, to get the whole cast in their underoos. Gotta keep that body obsessed teen demographic happy…
Narratively, it does look fairly faithful, though with the addition of computer generated crumpling cars and flying high school students, and furniture rearrangement in the style of Looper‘s Rainmaker from last summer, all of which takes it out of the realm of the believable that Stephen King worked so hard to create in the original novel – that’s why the book was such a success, because it read as though it could be real.
Also – releasing a trailer six months ahead of release that looks exactly the same as every other teen horror movie of the last decade for a remake of a book adaptation that gives away the entire plot, beginning to end? Do they just want this film to die at the box office?
Kevin Gilmartin – I wasn’t a fan of the original, and I have no intention of seeing this one. Sorry.
Owen Williams – Can Carrie be relevant to today’s audience? Is it realistic that a person like Ms White would exist in the modern world? For me the answer is “yes.” Perhaps even more so than when the novel was published and the original film was made. It’s scary to think how many Americans believe the Bible to be the literal truth and raise their children according to it, without rationality, logic, reason or basic science.
Moretz will be amazing. Moore will be as addictive as she always is and it is good to see female actors in such roles, but what more does this bring us than the version from the 1970’s? A ‘sharper image’ is no reason to remake a movie, if it has nothing to say. This could have been a critique on religious America or the “outsider” that exists in every schoolroom (regardless of location). Moretz is not an outsider, and is not suitable for the role.
Adam Dworak – It looks really good. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the original, so I don’t remember it clearly, but I really like this. I usually don’t like remakes, I like to keep the originals pristine, as it were, a set of movies that should be looked after by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, and Carrie is one of them.
ike Hollywood to cast teenagers who are actually approaching thirty.
They are serving a little too much of the flying objects, books and levitating beds. Carrie should be more about the story and the emotions than lots of effects, but it’s still a must-see for me. Considering how much Hollywood loves them, and the obvious teen market, I’m astonished they didn’t do this as a found footage movie.
Carrie is released 29th November
Follow the link for our full review of Carrie
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