Carrie (1/14/2014)

Rated R for bloody violence, disturbing images, language and some sexual content.

Starring Chloe Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore and Judy Greer

Directed by Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry)

This is the epitome of the pointless remake.

A reimagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White (Chloë Grace Moretz), a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother (Julianne Moore), who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom.

Good remakes often bring new insight to familiar characters or update stories we are already familiar with. But this remake of Carrie does neither. Then again how could you improve on Stephen King’s work? Another option would have been to do a shot-for-shot redo, but they didn’t do that either. In fact, the surprises and creepiness of 1976’s version are completely absent in this remake. Did the filmmakers honestly believe that they were going to find audiences who were unaware of Carrie‘s disturbing finale?

Let’s talk about the cast. Unfortunately, Chloe Grace Moretz is not the ideal actress to play Carrie. She is not believable as the awkward reclusive and eventually very disturbing teenager.

Julianne Moore is fine in her role, convincingly looking the part, but the script stalls any chance for her to bring a fresh perspective to the character.

Finally there are the special-effects. And I suppose one could make the argument that visually this version looks better. But it certainly isn’t enough to rescue it out of my “skip it” rating.

SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
Although there is no nudity, there is one brief simulated sex scene, and a hand full of references.

Like the original, the shower scene is disturbing as we see her hands covered with blood and she screams for help, not knowing what menstruation is while other girls throw tampons at her, chanting, “Plug it up!”

There is a large amount of violence; some are more explicit than others. The scene at the prom contains a number of frightening and violent scenes of people being pushed into walls, crushed by bleachers, electrocuted, and burned alive. This is disturbing and extremely terrifying, though also very emotional, especially for Carrie herself.

There are about 5 F-words, 16 S-words and several other obscenities.

The entire film has this eerie, creepy, unsettling nature about it. The film is surrounded with themes of: Incest, Sin, Adultery, Adolescence, Maturity, Self-Confidence, Depression and Peer-Pressure.

CONVERSATION STARTER:

1. What were some of the things that triggered Carrie’s anger?


2. What are some things that make you angry?


3. Read Ephesians 4:26
   
   In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry
   
   According to that passage, is it wrong or sinful to be angry?


4. When did it become sinful for Carrie?


5. When does it become sinful for you?


6. What can you do this week to better control your anger?