Movie Review: Carrie!

So I just got home from watching the movie premiere of Carrie at SM Megamall and I'm still gushing about it. 

What can I say ? The 2013 movie really did justice to the 1976 cult classic and the 1974 Stephen King novel which it is based on. 

Now I haven't seen the original 1976 movie nor have I read the book but I already had an idea what it was about - thank you Wikipedia. 

In a nutshell it is about the eponymous Carrie, a shy young girl who just wants to fit in but in her case it's a little difficult because of her very religious (borderline obsessive and self-flagellating) mother and your usual mean girls - extra mean girls I think and aside from all of that she discovers her telekenik abilities. Think a bullied and loner Jean Grey but without the guidance of Professor X and we all know she turned into the Dark Phoenix right? And as Sue in the movie says - 'you can only push a person so far' - before they crack or in Carrie's case before they unleash their Telekenetic abilities in a pool of blood, destroys dreams and turns a fairy tale evening into a nightmare.

No one is going to hurt you. Both dysfunctional and destructive this mother and daughter tandem is an unhealthy one. Chloe Grace-Moretz and Julianne Moore as Carrie and her mother in a scene from the 2013 version of Carrie. 

Paul and I are big Stephen King fans, we've read a couple of his books and even bought the DVD box set of his Kingdom Hospital - although that was not as good as we had hoped - just goes to show that not everything associated with Stephen King is necessarily good but oh boy 2013 Carrie was!

Helmed by Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry) who did a great job of setting the movie in modern 2013 where bullying also meant cyber bullying. Girls can really be mean sometimes right? 

Now I'm not a big fan of horror or slasher movies but Carrie is more than a horror/scary movie/story, it has themes that surprisingly transcend time and are still relevant 39 years after the novel came out such as bullying and cruelty. 

Stephen King has said that he based Carrie on a girl he knew in High School who was made fun of because of the same clothes that she wore to school and when she was able to buy a new set of clothes the more she was laughed at. Carrie was loosely based on this girl and sadly this is something that we don't only read about in novels or watch in movies, it is reality. Bullying is a truth that we cannot ignore nor remain deaf and blind to. Just a little take home though after watching the movie. 

So many children and teenagers have taken their own lives because of being bullied and because of the cruelty of their peers. I mean its bad enough that Carrie's mom wouldn't tell her about the flowers and the bees or anatomy (Because it's a sin!) but to also get the whole bullied treatment in school too? What is a telekenik girl to do? Watch the movie to find out! :P 

Blood Bath. A page off Entertainment Weekly's special coverage on Carrie. To the (L) is Chloe Grace-Moretz in the 2013 remake and to the (R) is Sissy Spacek in the original 1976 film. 

Can I just say thumbs up to an amazing performance from both Chloe Grace-Moretz and Julianne Moore - Clap! Clap! Clap! Moretz played Carrie perfectly - I haven't seen Sissy Spacek's take on it but Chloe had a better after blood bath look. Her strength and vulnerability as Carrie were believable as well as was her awe and teenage gushes after all what girl doesn't want to go to prom right? And Julianne Moore - Wow! she was creeeeepy-religious-mommy perfect. I don't think I've ever seen Julianne Moore this not glamorous or pretty - she was pale and scary and Paul concurs too. 

Carrie is now showing in Cinemas I suggest that you guys book a movie date either with your boyfriend/girlfriend or with your friends. Watching it with all the sound effects and the grissly gruesome details on the screen is so much better than your computer monitor or laptop. I mean the sound effects are really going to make you hide, jump and cringe more. 

Check out the trailer below! 

Carrie is already showing in cinemas on October 16 and is distributed by Columbia Pictures. 

For more trivia on Carrie check out my Upcoming Movies blog post here. 

Thank you SM Cinema for the tickets! :) 
  





By Ica Cheng