run time: 100 mins
rating: R
considered: Drama, Horror
starring: Chloe Grace Moretz, Julianna Moore, Gabriella Wilde, Portia Doubleday, Ansel Elgort, Judy Greer
movie summary: 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. (www.imdb.com)
my thoughts: Everyone who likes horror movies, Stephen King books, or Sissy Spacek knows the story of Carrie White.
Carrie (Chloe Grace Moretz) is the awkward teenage girl in high school with a psycho religious mom (Julianne Moore) at home. She has no real life experience and doesn’t fit in with the rest of the girls in school. One day Carrie gets her period and the popular girls lead Chris (Portia Doubleday) and Sue (Gabriella Wilde) make fun of her. The girls are punished for their actions, but Chris decides she doesn’t deserve to be punished and walks away. She loses her ticket to prom but vows to get even with Carrie.
Sue feels horrible for making fun of Carrie so convinces her boyfriend Tommy (Ansel Elgort) to ask her to prom. Tommy agrees and pursues Carrie until she says yes. They attend prom together, and share a slow dance before becoming Prom King and Queen.
In the few months leading up to prom, Carrie has come to realize she has the special power of telekinesis. For hours every night she secretly practices her new power by moving things around her room. She has mastered her power so much that she uses it against her mom before leaving for prom.
After being crowned Queen, Chris dumps a bucket of pig’s blood all over Carrie. Everyone in attendance breaks out in a laugh and Carrie begins to lose her mind. She brings down a reign of terror destroying everything in the gym while killing everyone. She slowly walks away from the school as it burns to the ground. She returns home, washes all the blood and sin off, before her mom stabs her. Carrie uses her powers to kill her mom before the house caves in on to itself ending her life.
I made the mistake of watching the original Carrie from 1976 the night before this movie and I will say it is almost a word for word reimaging. There are only a slight few plot twists and differences, but if anyone has seen the original, this is pretty much the same exact thing. The only positive thing about this movie is the fact it’s 2013 and special effects have come a long way. When Carrie is learning how to grow her powers, she’s able to do more than in previous movies. The prom scene, as famous as it is in film history is even better in this version. There is a lot more blood and fire, plus Carrie is able to kill people in different methods then back in the 1970’s. The biggest problem about the movie is Chloe Grace Moretz is the wrong person to play the shy, awkward, weird lead because it doesn’t suit her. She tries really hard in some scenes, even biting her bottom lip, but at the end of the day it doesn’t seem right. One other problem is the role of Sue (Gabriella Wilde), she was a total miscast because she appears really tall and looms over everyone in her shots.
I went to see this with someone else, she rated this movie a solid 7 and liked it. I didn’t feel the same and would only ever watch this again or own it because of Chloe Grace Moretz.
my star rating: 4 out 10
Ten Stars or Less 