Here on InReview, we couldn’t let Halloween pass by without reviewing a scary movie.
“Carrie” is a Halloween mainstay. While I haven’t seen the original, I thought I’d give the 2013 reboot a try.
The film stars Chloë Grace Moretz as high school student Carrie White, who is ostracized by her fellow classmates when she freaks out to getting her first period, which her mother, Margaret White (Julianne Moore), never told her about. Shortly afterwards, a video of the incident is uploaded to YouTube and the ringleader of her bullies, Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubleday) is suspended, barring her from prom, which makes her double down on her harassment of Carrie. Meanwhile, another girl involved in the incident, Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde), voluntarily decides to not go to prom and asks her boyfriend, Tommy Ross (Ansel Elgort), whom Carrie had a connection with, to go to prom with her.
Carrie starts to rebound by connecting with Tommy and discovering that she has powers, though her mother serves as a roadblock. She’s a religious fanatic and intentionally sabotages Carrie’s social life for being too “immodest” and later tries to hurt her when she finds out about her powers, which she assumes are from the devil.
Chris is convinced by her creepy older boyfriend, Billy Nolan (Alex Russell), to kill a pig and dump its blood on Carrie during prom, which she halfheartedly helps with, though it’s clearly mostly Billy’s malicious plan. Billy is an evil character with no redeemable qualities as we see when he kills the pig from which the blood comes from with no remorse; he’s a psychopath that belongs in prison.
Margaret, however, is the true villain of the film. Her obsession with religion over raising her own daughter left her ill-equipped to handle high school life and completely unprepared to handle her powers. I also understand why an older film would paint her powers in a devilish light, but in 2013, cinemas were dominated by the superhero genre, and in that context her powers aren’t that big of a deal. Virtually any superhero could have gone down a path like Carrie without the right guidance. As “Spider-Man” has taught us: With great power comes great responsibility.
This film makes me want to watch the original. Its concept is one with a lot of potential, especially in a modern film, but it didn’t hit its stride here. Moretz has the strongest performance and does sell quite well the fish-out-of-water Carrie who tries to do good, but is spurned at every opportunity. Yet her key snap at the film’s climax is not convincing at no fault of Moretz; the film’s direction and script does little to give her opportunity to show her inner turmoil throughout the film.
Moore sells her antagonist very well, but she overshadows Doubleday and Russell; Doubleday doesn’t fully commit to her character and Russell’s comes off as a stereotype.
“Carrie” (2013) is a middling horror flick that doesn’t live up to its full potential. Perhaps its worst sin is that it isn’t scary, and its horror elements come off as comical more than anything. Still, its concept is mostly executed fine — it’s just nothing exceptional.
“Carrie” (2013) gets a 6/10
InReview: Reviews, Commentary and More 
Leave a comment