Story: Quiet girl, shunned by her peers. Religious freak mom. When the girl’s first period hits, bullying hits 11. Another girl gets the guilts, tells her own boyfriend to take poor Carrie to the prom. And if you need to know what happens next, you haven’t been paying attention to pop culture for the past several decades.

Scares: Even though this story is pretty much tattooed on my brain, there were a few. Mostly thanks to Juliana Moore’s brilliant performance as Mrs. White.

Splat factor: Not too much, which is funny considering the prom throwdown. It almost feels like a PG-13.

Closing scene “shocker”?: Of course. But not the one you’re expecting.

Remake, Sequel or OG (Original Ghoul)?: A remake of the 1976 Brian De Palma/Sissy Spacek classic, which was itself an adaptation of Stephen King’s 1974 novel.

Trick or Treat?: This story always breaks my heart. Poor ignorant Carrie White, so out of the human loop. And I ask the same thing over and over – where are the adults to help? (Yeah I get that this story focuses on the cruelty of kids, but still.)  In this Carrie there are more grown-ups, both ones that help and some that are just like teens in their heartless behavior.  The true standout among the adults is Juliette Moore as Mrs. White, Carrie’s insanely religious mother.  With scenes that focus on Mrs. White — including a prologue that shows how Carrie was born — Moore brings out a touch of sympathy and a whole lot of creepy chills to the character most horror fans think they already know.

This remake is actually pretty good, and the added scenes that focus on characters like popular girl Sue Snell and sympathetic P.E. teacher Ms. Desjardin give a better understanding of what was going on around Carrie.  Art direction here, with it’s small touches — sewing machine with fabric to show they make their own clothes, crosses tucked away here and there in the White house — flesh out the backstory nicely without overuse of exposition.  There’s also great Mrs. White “what she sees because she’s nuts” POV shots.

The glaring problem with Carrie is it’s ending.  There’s no need to tweak the ending, yet Pierce attempts to put her own stamp on this well-known scene, and it falls flat.  In fact, it not only shits on the original film and novel, but undoes all the anti-bullying, be-good-to-people feels that came before, not to mention the cheezy FX and music that’s crazy inappropriate for the scene. It’s such a clusterfuck of fail that I’d like to own a digital copy just so I can edit out and delete the last 3 minutes.  Doing that would leave a much better film in it’s place.

Score: 

3 out of 5 pumpkins. It got docked a full pumpkin thanks to the no good, very bad, extremely horrible “shock” ending. Don’t shit on the classics, Kimberly Pierce.