We all know the classic story of Carrie White, the girl with telekinetic powers who was pushed too far at her senior prom.
The tale’s almost 40 years old and yet it’s remained so iconic for one reason: it’s scary as hell.
To this day, the 1974 novel by Stephen King or the 1976 movie version is capable of instilling fear into any potential bully’s heart. And now that we’re all grown up enough to watch it without covering our faces in horror, a new version has made its way into theaters.
The title character of the lonely outcast is played by Chloe Moretz while her extremely religious mother is played by Julianne Moore.
The plot remains the same. Carrie’s sheltered upbringing has left her ignorant of normal bodily functions. When she gets her period in the school showers, she freaks out and begs her classmates for help, thinking that she’s bleeding to death.
The mean girl of the school, Chris, begins to throw tampons at Carrie and captures the entire incident on her phone, later posting it online, making Carrie’s humiliation that much worse. Chris promptly gets banned from prom and decides to get revenge on Carrie. It’s around this time that Carrie begins to realize she has telekinetic powers.
The true horror of this movie, however, is when Carrie’s at home. Mrs. White believes Carrie to be the spawn of the devil and lurks half hidden in hallways, has a prayer closet with pictures of religious icons plastered to the walls, and there’s a disturbing scene where she scratches her own leg with a seam ripper.
After Carrie gets asked to prom, Mrs. White forbids her from going and firmly insists that everyone will hurt her. After this, you all know the story by heart. And for the record, pig’s blood is still gross 40 years later.
Director Kimberly Peirce injects enough details from this generation to keep things modern and fresh. However, this version of the story leans more toward the sad end of the spectrum rather than downright scary.
As for Moretz’s take on Carrie…it’s a far cry from the original Sissy Spacek. Spacek’s cold stare and indifferent expression made her a much more frightening Carrie whearas Mortez’s idea of an intimidating display of telekinesis is to gasp and flare her nostrils while holding her hands aloft and alternating between blinking rapidly while squinting or blinking rapidly while widening her eyes.
However, when Carrie’s not doused in a gallon of pig’s blood, Moretz does display more vulnerability and therefore makes Carrie a more relateable character.
This version is more for those who don’t do so well with scary movies. After all, everyone loves a good high school movie. This one just happens to have a lot of blood, a murderous mean girl and an extremely high body count.
