Face-Off: Carrie vs. Pet Sematary (Remake Edition)

Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie White
Julianne Moore as Margaret White
Gabriella Wilde as Sue Snell
Portia Doubleday as Chris Hargensen
Judy Greer as Miss Desjardin
Alex Russell as Billy Nolan
Ansel Elgort as Tommy Ross
Barry Shabaka Henley as Principal Henry Morton

Coming into CARRIE with the movies BOYS DON’T CRY and STOP-LOSS to her credit, director Kimberley Pierce was a solid choice to tackle a remake that wouldn’t be trying to be a carbon copy of Brian De Palma’s classic original. Whereas with that one we got a more horrific, gonzo take on the King material Pierce goes for a more sympathetic, grounded take. In that spirit, Pierce showcases her talent for crafting compelling drama, particularly between Moretz’s Carrie and Moore as her mother. Moore, in particular, shines in her role, and Pierce centers some of the most unsettling aspects on the character’s self-mutilation – which is one element that makes her the most fascinating character in the movie. But Aside from making some of the moments between mother and daughter seem more real and tense, Pierce doesn’t get quite as much mileage out of the rest of the story. The drama and development of the other teens don’t often rise above the feel of a typical teen drama – albeit with some more R-rated features. The first story from King to put him on the map, it doesn’t have the scope to make it a natural, cinematic tale, so that’s why De Palma’s style was key to making it something that could sear itself into your brain. Pierce’s work here, while showcasing some strong elements here and there, doesn’t hit the same highs and in stripping things down everything can’t help but feel a bit unsurprising. She shouldn’t be faulted for anything, as trying to remake one of the most iconic horror movies ever seemed an impossible task, but unfortunatley, her work fails to justify why the studios thought they should greenlight this in the first place. 

Initially written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa before being re-written by the original movie's writer, Lawrence D. Cohen, the script for CARRIE does a fine job bringing to the story to the screen – but just not always in ways that offer anything new to examine. There’s the inclusion of the social media angle, and how Chris can post the torment of Carrie on the internet. This angle is welcome in the modern age, but feels more like a visual detail, showing Chris recording the “shower incident”, and then having scenes where she posts it online and then showing it at the prom. This element is a perfect example of how Cohen’s final draft saw an opportunity to change things up but didn’t always dig as deep as it could’ve. The themes of bullying don’t often go beyond calling Carrie a “freak”, failing to more richly explore the nature of bullying in the modern era. Perhaps its Cohen’s history with the material (which included writing Broadway musical version) that made the story developments feel too similar to the original movie. Pierce’s direction also contributes to this, but perhaps she would’ve had more to work with if the script found new ways to explore King’s story beyond a more grounded take on Carrie’s relationship with her mom. If there is one more admirable development in the script it's the expansion of the roles for the other teens, with characters like Chris, Tommy and Sue having a bit more place in the story and the reasoning behind their actions getting slightly more time to develop. The drama and scenes themselves don't add much more weight in terms of execution on screen, but on a story front it gives a bit more dimension to those involved other than Carrie and Margaret. As for those two, Carrie is still a sympathetic character and her mom disconcertingly fanatical, and the best-written scenes are the ones with the two of them together.

Bits:

Birth of Carrie

Shower Scene

Thrown in the Closet

Lifting the Bed

Using Powers on Mom

Mom in the Closet

Blood Bath

Prom Destruction

Car Crush

Margaret's Move

House Comes Crashing Down

Carrie's Grave

Lines:

Margaret: “They're all gonna laugh at you.”

—–

Sue: “Carrie had some sort of power. But she was just like me… like any of you. She had hopes, she had fears, but we pushed her. And you can only push someone so far before they break.”

—–

Desjardin: “Are you gonna get him a boutonnière, or are you just gonna pin a bloody tampon to his lapel?”

—–

Margaret: “You pray little girl, you pray for forgiveness!”

—–

Margaret: “These are godless times, Mrs. Snell.”

—–

Sue: “No! Carrie please don't hurt me.”
Carrie: “Why not? I've been hurt my whole life.”

With his work on CARRIE, composer Marco Beltrami crafted a score that emphasized the sympathetic nature of Carrie and the more fantastical roots of the story. The result is something that can sound wistful and almost dreamlike when Carrie is starting to discover her powers, like in the pieces “Levitated Mass” and “Mind Over Matter”. These remind me of the kinds of horror scores that recall the work of Danny Elfman, where there is both a fantastical nature and sound of the score that reflects the strangeness on-screen. It’s not just fast-paced, jumpy pieces or bland, melodramatic tomes. Beltrami’s music makes the proceedings as entrancing as they are unsettling. But when he goes big and for the spine-chills, he indeed goes big, as you can hear in pieces like “Kill ‘Em All”, which has a booming, cascading sound that adds a profound, inescapable tragedy to the wrath of Carrie – and along with the sometimes iffy visual effects is the biggest cue that differentiates the scene from the original. The moment feels monumental here, rather than deeply trippy and nightmarish like De Palma’s version. Beltrami’s score sports a lot of effortless gliding between the sweet and the unsettling, and it’s perhaps the best element of a rather forgettable movie outside of some of the performances. That being said, it is one more element that – good as it is – can’t quite match the work from the competition.

As I said in the “Direction” section, Pierce made it so the most unsettling scenes came from Moore’s Ms. White, whether it be how she scratches and cuts herself or just her general, crazy-person existence. Starting things off a bit differently than the original, we see White wrenching as she gives birth to Carrie, coming ever so close to stabbing the child the death. I mean, there’s little as grim as stabbing a baby with a pair of scissors, so some props do go to the script and Pierce for working that into a story that isn’t exactly scary or violent until the end. The shower scene is one of those creations that can’t be anything but unsettling to watch – the image of a bloody Carrie pleading for help and everyone responding in turn with mockery. But it’s also one De Palma and star Sissy Spacek executed perfectly the first time around, so the moment can’t help pale in comparison. The movie gets a lot of the more consistent tension from Moretz and Moore being around each other — that eerie, religious iconography littering their house. But nothing else until the end keeps things on that level. Again, it’s just impossible for the prom scene and the resulting chaos to hit the same high as the original, this time around made questionable by some wonky visual effects that can take you out of the sheer viciousness of Carrie’s wrath. More room to be bloody and nasty, Pierce does revel in the deaths of characters like Chris and her boy toy, a particular *chefs kiss* moment of violence being Chris’ head through the windshield. But perhaps this is too little too late. The rest of the movie lacks in the style to drive home the horror depths of the story, going more for tragedy and drama this time around.

Praise:

Rotten Tomatoes: 50% (44% Audience Score)
IMDb: 5.9
Metacritic: 53 (6.1 Audience)

Money:

$35 million domestic ($84 million global)