In the remake of the original Brian De Palma film, and based off of the novel by Stephen King, Carrie tells the story of young Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz) who goes through life being tormented by classmates and teachers. The only person she feels close to is her religion-obsessed mother Margaret (Julianne Moore). After a cruel joke, one of the popular girls, Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde) decides to provide an act of kindness to Carrie by allowing her boyfriend to ask her to prom. But along the way, Carrie starts to develop telekinetic abilities that could bring disastrous results if she’s pushed too far.

I believe that to compare this remake with the original and say which is better would be completely wrong and impossible. Both films have very strong aspects of their own that make them both able to stand on their own. But to discuss this version as a remake itself, I would definitely have to say it was VERY well-done. The film really gets into the emotional side of the story, we really get to know Carrie and get a sense of her loneliness. This in part is due to an excellent performance by Chloe Grace Moretz in what I really think is her best performance to date. She portrays the emotions of Carrie with such ease that you really feel for the character and think of her as a real person. But when it switches gears and her evil side appears, Moretz provides a very chilling performance. We are also given Julianne Moore as Carrie’s mother. From the start of the film and until the very end, Moore shows just how unhinged Margaret White is, and she does it perfectly. Her performances leaves the viewer really unsettled with her dead and haunting performance. As for the effects, unfortunately this remake is filled with a lot of CGI. Does it completely ruin the film? No. But it does take away a lot of the effect. The prom scene for example, while much more violent (which I was pleased about), the CGI was really noticeable. But despite this, some of the effects combined with amazing camera shots is very well-done. One example being when two characters are involved in a car crash, the impacts in the crash were very cool (and slightly disturbing) to watch.

So overall, Carrie is a very well-done and perfectly modernized remake that lets us get in touch emotionally with our lead, plenty of bloody moments, and most of all, amazing performances by Moretz and Moore.

–Cody Landman