This remake of the 1976 classic wasn't as bad as I'd expected, but it wasn't all that good, either; just kind of meh. Aside from some cellphone use and the 'innovation' of a cruel schoolmate posting phone- camera footage of Carrie's traumatic first menstruation on the Net, it's practically a shot-for-shot remake of the 1976 original. The acting was actually pretty good overall, but despite being closer in age to the teen-aged character it's painfully obvious that Chloe Grace Moretz just doesn't have the same kind of gravitas that Sissy Spacek brought to the role, and she suffers by comparison. Making Carrie the most conventionally attractive girl in the whole movie also destroys a crucial point of audience identification with the character. When Carrie boldly ventures out of her comfort zone and dresses up for the prom, unusual-looking Spacek was endearingly awkward and heartbreakingly vulnerable. Moretz just looks prettier. On the other hand, Julianne Moore stole the show with a captivating performance as Carrie's psychotically religious mother. The direction was a bit pedestrian, too, and so what you end up with is kind of like one of those foreign movies remade by Hollywood and losing something crucial in the translation. In fact, it felt more like a TV movie adaption than a cinematic release. The 2013 'Carrie' is by no means a disaster, but neither is it a kick-ass triumph either; The pivotal prom scene wasn't quite as 'epic' as it was in the 1976 original, and moreover it is Spacek's monumentally creepy blood-covered stare from that version which remains the enduring iconic image most closely associated with the story. Moretz never comes close. Like most remakes of foreign movies it's just an unnecessary 'cover version', destined to being decisively overshadowed by the original.
Review of Carrie
