Carrie This Weekend

I know that it is considered hip to disdain remakes, but I have always looked forward to them. And, really, the trend has died down a bit in the last few years. Most of the successful horror movies in recent memory have been low budget, original productions.

The original Carrie is not only a horror milestone, but an important motion picture regardless of genre. It broke several taboos, and it touched on elements that had rarely been dealt with in the movies before. The movie is sad, warm, infuriating, and scary in varying degrees. Even the final Gotcha! moment, which was admittedly a bit of a cheap shot, was innovative. The producers of Friday the 13th and countless others stole it.

Brian DePalma was at the height of his skills as a filmmaker when he made Carrie. It is arguably his finest motion picture.

And perhaps most importantly, Carrie introduced the name of Stephen King to millions of moviegoers.

So, why remake it?

That's easy. The primary audience for this sort of movie is from age 15-25. And, the sad fact of it is, these kids are not going to watch an old movie. Sure, a few of them will, but it is a rare young bird who is interested in older movies.

As wonderful as DePalma's Carrie is, it is a bit dated. The picture was compromised as well. Carrie's demonic rage was much more devastating in King's novel. I assume that budgetary restrains prevented the old movie to do the finale the way King wrote it.

King describes Carrie as overweight and pimply, and obviously Chloë Grace Moretz is a breathtakingly beautiful young woman. That's Hollywood for you, and you might as well bitch about the high concessions prices and the abundance of ads before the feature presentation at the movie house. I complain about that stuff, too, but it does not prevent me from going to the movies.

Then there is Julienne Moore as Carrie's religious fanatic mother. Piper Laurie was excellent in the original, but Moore just might top that performance. She is one of my favorite actresses.

It's Halloween, folks. Time to stop being cynical and start being enthusiastic. Carrie has all the makings of a fun, scary, ghoulish time at the movies. And besides, when was the last time you saw a good King story on the big screen? The Mist?

If Carrie is as good as I hope (pray!) it will be, we can look forward to yet another remake by the same screenwriter, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. He has written the script for The Town That Dreaded Sundown. I live for this shit.