CARRIE (2013); Carlisle's Final Word.

“You pray, little girl! You pray for forgiveness!”

Margaret White.

"You've got red on you."

Script Logic; 1/2 

Pace; 1/2

Acting; 1/2

Aesthetic; 1/2

Originality & Intention; 1/2

Final Score; 5/10

For once I'm current!

Another unnecessary remake, one in a long line. You can’t (shouldn’t) review a film like this without considering the source material. Some might argue that a film has to ‘stand on its own merits’ but as far as I’m concerned, you remake a classic, you accept the risk of comparriosn. It’s only fair if you’re going to copy what’s already been done…

So, first the casting. Gone is the haunting and melancholic presence of Sissy Spacek, the antagonist now portrayed by the much-too-conventional Chloe Grace Moretz, totally miscast as the teenage outcast. Timidity never really fits Chloe so well as it did Spacek, and I found it hard to believe that she was ever bullied in school for the way she looked- it was like watching one of the countless American high-school rom-coms, where you’re just waiting for the nerdy girl to remove her glasses, shake her hair loose and step out as a jaw-dropping sex bomb. There’s no escaping from the fact that when Spacek walks through the fire and carnage of the climax, with her rigid figure and startling eyes, she’s a terrifying agent of malevolence and retribution, a Greek fury-made-flesh. When Chloe Moretz floats around she looks more like one of the X-Men.

Subtlety and suspense are not the film’s strongest suit, everything here is turned up to 11; From Carries psychic awakening to the cruelty of the Carrie’s worst tormentor (seen this time round slitting a pig’s throat, just so the audience knows for certain that she's the villain). The end result is a quicker, slicker and louder Carrie, but one which for all its brash editing and effects  fails completely to capture the macabre final of its predecessor.

Polish and CGI do not a good horror film make.