•

BluRay/DVD Reviews

CARRIE (MGM Home Entertainment)

By • Feb 28th, 2014 •

Share This:

So I went walking in to CARRIE convinced that it was going to be mediocre. Not awful, but not noteworthy. I love it when I’m wrong.

This is, of course, a remake of the original 1976 CARRIE, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. There were a number of remakes of CARRIE, all of them tragic. So I didn’t hold out much hope for this iteration. But it turned out to be pretty decent. I’d argue that it gets as close to capturing the same feeling of the original as we’re ever going to get.

A teenage girl named Carrie is the outcast of her school. She’s often ridiculed and has a super religious mother who tells her not to communicate with anyone. She can also use the force. Well, actually it’s just plain old regular telekinesis, which Carrie teaches herself to control. I really liked how Carrie reacted to her powers, I think she acted the way any teen would, get super stoked and learn how to use them right. I know if I could suddenly shoot fire from my hands I would keep it quiet until my big moment came. And boy did Carrie have her moment. Once Carrie is finally pushed to her limit her psychic powers take over and she rains hell upon the land. This is a classic scene that is as much of a spoiler these days as ”Vader’s Luke’s father” (I swear the STAR WARS connections are unintentional). That said, the way they handled this situation was just what I wanted. They really made you feel sorry for Carrie, and tried to make you forget the raining hell machine that we all know she becomes. Even I briefly forgot I was watching Carrie and not some other film about loneliness.

This is an example of a film that’s perfectly cast. Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie makes for a very realistic and fun performance, and Julianne Moore portraying one of the scariest movie mothers is a nice treat. All the kids in the school were despicable, going out of their ways to make Carrie miserable. Throughout the film I kept thinking to myself, “No, that’s horrible, no way high school kids would do that”. But then I remembered that oh right, they do, and have a damn good time doing it. The fact that this film reminded me of high school means it did something right. But I also liked how not everyone in this school is a psychopath trying to ruin Carrie’s life, and there’s actually one or two who try to be her friend.

The extras on the Blu-Ray are mandatory watching. The biggest inclusion is a shocking alternate ending that I won’t spoil here, but it’s kooky and out of this world. There are a ton of deleted scenes as well, making for a lot of new material to watch in total. Coupled with a Making Of Documentary and one of the greatest horror movie pranks I’ve ever seen, it was defiantly worth it for me to purchase this movie. I was happy watching Carrie be happy, and I was pumped seeing her destroy the town with her power. Is it better than the original, ehhh that’s up to you to decide. Does it beat all the other remakes of the past? You bet it does.

Tagged as: , , ,
Share This Article: Digg it | del.icio.us | Google | StumbleUpon | Technorati

Comments are closed.