High school is rough. There are cliques, bullies, and awkward moments. If you could have changed your high school experience and had more control, would you have? And at what cost?
A remake of the 1976 horror classic and adaptation of Stephen King’s book, “Carrie” follows the life of Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz), a socially-awkward girl raised and sheltered by her mother Margaret (Julianne Moore), a deranged religious fanatic. After discovering that she has telekinesis and enduring bullying in school, Carrie uses her power to gain control over her life– and to seek revenge. If you think this is a film for kids, it’s not. The film is riddled with violence, gore, language, and sexual themes and innuendo, and revenge is glorified. The movie is rated R.
In the film, it’s Carrie against the world. Her peers bully her and her mother’s religious beliefs lead to abuse. When Carrie discovers her telekinesis, however, she faces a new internal struggle– how will she choose to use her powers?
The cinematography was decent. Whenever a scene had Carrie’s mother in it, it had a dull color to it, which contributed to the horror element of the film. When Carrie was at school, the colors were more vibrant.
Carrie’s house and clothes set her apart from everyone at her school. Other students wore stylish clothes and had modern houses. Carrie, however, wore outdated clothes and lived in an outdated home. Everything about the set seemed intentional, to make a point about Carrie.
The acting was great in scenes in the home with Moretz and Moore. The actresses made the dysfunctional characters come to life. In scenes without Moore, Moretz’s character seemed forced.
The story was unrealistic. “Nice girl gets mad and wants revenge” made sense. It’s the little things. Carrie’s mother sheltered her in such an extreme way, but she sent her to public school. The teacher at school doesn’t just befriend Carrie, but also eggs her on when she’s upset.
*spoiler alert*
Carrie wipes blood from menstruation on other girls. In real life, they would definitely run to wash that off before filming, but they took out their phones to make videos of Carrie instead.
*end spoiler*
If the movie wasn’t unrealistic, it couldn’t have played out the way it was intended to, but it was still annoying.
*spoiler alerts*
I hated how the movie glorified revenge. Yes, Carrie had a right to be upset by the bullying she endured at school. But she eventually used her telekinesis to seek revenge and murdered countless people at her prom after being the victim of a cruel prank, and that kind of reaction wasn’t justifiable, like it was almost made out to be.
*end spoilers*
The movie was a flop. Details didn’t add up. It wasn’t scary– just gorey and revenge-glorifying. The partially good acting and cinematography didn’t redeem the movie. Word of advice: don’t stop at not letting the kids watch Carrie. Don’t bother watching it at all. C-.
Twitter review:
Families should be wary
Of watching the film “Carrie”
Mature themes, bad language, gore,
And the horror film was a snore.
#Carrie
11/1/17
Jenna Shackelford
poppingthequestionsreviews.wordpress.com 