Carrie (original):
Carrie White is a shy, incredibly awkward, and lonely teenage girl who is isolated by her cruel classmates and teachers and tormented by her absolutely insane Christian mother. Carrie begins to discover she has telekinetic abilities. Meanwhile, a girl named Sue Snell, who used to bully Carrie, makes her popular boyfriend Tommy take Carrie to the prom, as Sue regrets being so mean to her. Unfortunately, an even more cruel girl, Chris Hargensen, decides to play an incredibly horrible prank on Carrie on prom night, a prank so cruel that it breaks Carrie's mind, causing her to unleash all her inner rage on her tormenters. Now, this film is an excellent supernatural horror-thriller and a great teenage drama. Brian DePalma really knows how to craft an excellent and suspenseful movie, as shown by his later work on films such as Dressed to Kill and Scarface. Stephen King's first novel is good on it's own, and it was the perfect choice for the first Stephen King adaptation. Although I wasn't happy with some of the changes from the novel (in the novel she lets some students and teachers live during the prom massacre, in this version she kills everyone, regardless if they were nice to her or night), I feel DePalma did a good job adapting the novel. Sissy Spacek appears in her breakout role as the shy and sympathetic Carrie. She is a very innocent and tragic character, and you really feel bad for her, all the way up until the end. Piper Laurie also gives a great performance as Carrie's insane mother Margaret White, who is a psychotic religious nut who believes all sex (including for procreation) is a sin and that periods are a sign of the devil, things that aren't even in the Bible. Amy Irving appears as the kind and friendly Sue Snell, and William Katt appears as her boyfriend Tommy Ross. A young John Travolta appears in a small role as Billy Nolan, an aggressive delinquent who dates Chris Hargensen. Nancy Allen (DePalma's future wife) plays the despicable Chris Hargensen, who is one of the biggest cunts in cinema history. Betty Buckley plays Miss Collins (the PE teacher, who was named Ms. Desjardin in the book), who tries to help Carrie through her problems and build her self-esteem. Other actors who appear include Priscilla Pointer (Amy Irving's real-life mother, who plays her mother Mrs. Snell in the film), PJ Soles (Halloween), and Syndey Lassick. The movie's build-up sequence to the prom massacre is incredibly tense and well-paced, and the music by Pino Donaggio is well-done and pretty eerie. Carrie is one of the better King adaptations, despite me not being a huge fan of the prom massacre scene, and it's definitely one of the best horror films of the 1970's, and is still as entertaining today as it was back in 1976. 4/5 stars.
Carrie (2013 film):
(Spoilers for original film!)
I'm not going to restate the plot for this version, but I will say that it follows the book a little more closely, despite some other changes. I actually thought this film was a pleasant surprise, as I actually liked some aspects better than the original, and some I didn't. The things I liked better: the improved special effects (although I thought they used CG a little too much), the way Carrie left some characters alive that she didn't in the original (like Miss Desjardin, Tommy Ross' friends, and the innocent students and faculty members), some new scenes (including showing how the bullies got the pig's blood for the prom prank), the performances, the clever marketing (I know that has nothing to do with the movie, but the "call Carrie" thing and the telekinetic coffee shop video were pretty cool), and the way in which she disposed of her bullies (especially Chris and her boyfriend, who got their comeuppance in the most brutal way). The things I didn't like: the CG blood in the prom scene (the original used actual pig's blood, not condoning that, but at least it looked authentic), the fact that Chloe Grace Moretz is far too pretty to be Carrie (not saying Sissy Spacek wasn't pretty, but they at least made her look kind of unattractive before the prom scene, Moretz's performance, however, was good enough to distract from that nitpick), some scenes weren't as well-executed (despite me liking the way the prom scene was handled story-wise, the actual execution isn't quite as good as the original, despite much better special effects), and some plot-holes (like the fact the whole prom massacre could have been avoided by a simple text message, because at least in the original they didn't have cell phones, so the whole "Sue has to go to the dance in person to warn Carrie" issue made sense). Other than those few negative things, I really enjoyed the movie. The film worked surprisingly well in a modern setting, it didn't have nearly as many issues as most horror movie remakes, and the performances were good. Chloe Grace Moretz shines as Carrie, and is able to do it justice, and stays true to the source material, while doing something new. Julianne Moore is also excellent, but she plays Carrie's mother Margaret. She gives an unsettling and somewhat tragic performance as the lonely and somewhat bipolar widower, and some scenes you are terrified of her, and others you kind of pity her. Judy Greer (Archer) is satisfactory as Miss Desjardin, the kind PE teacher. Gabrielle Wilde and Ansel Elgort do a good job as Sue Snell and Tommy Ross, and they also do the roles justice. Portia Doubleday plays a great villain, and is even more of an evil bitch as Chris than Nancy Allen was. She's one of those characters you love to hate and you can't wait to see Carrie have her vengeance on Chris and her psycho-bully boyfriend Billy (played by Alex Russell). Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry, Stop-Loss, The L Word) does a good job directing, and it's surprising to see her do a project like this, as most of her previous films are dramas. She does a satisfactory job, despite not being a master of suspense like DePalma. Interesting fact: the script was co-written by Lawrence D. Cohen, the writer of the original film. Marco Beltrami delivers a cool but somewhat forgettable score, despite being a gifted composer. Carrie is an enjoyable horror film, that has a great cast, is well-written and directed, as some cool special effects, and is a good movie in it's own right, as well as being one of the best horror remakes and one of the better Stephen King adaptations. 4/5 stars.
(Images: Wikipedia)
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