Blu-ray Review: CARRIE – It Ain’t Subtle

Kimberly Peirce’s Carrie can be accused of many things, subtlety, however is not one of those things. It’s always tough trying to adapt a Stephen King novel for the screen, but it’s even more difficult when that novel has already been adapted into a classic horror by an in-his-prime Brian De Palma. Perice’s film follows the same tale as the novel and original film, as Carrie White (Chloe Moretz) begins to break away from her over-bearing mother (Julianne Moore), when she discovers that she has supernatural powers. However, bullying from her school peers becomes unbearable – and then she takes her revenge.

Carrie is proficiently made. The visuals are slick enough and the film ticks all the right boxes to make it suitable for a teen audience, but there’s nothing there for older viewers. Peirce tries to update Carrie by throwing in things like video phone and youtube, but none of it rings true. It’s as if Pierce is attempting to be ‘hip’ but failing miserably.

Performance-wise, things are off. Everything seems to be over-played, meaning that anything that could potentially feel reals comes off as if it’s from a teenage television drama. There’s no nuance (highly evident from the opening scene illustrating Carrie’s birth). The actors aren’t helped by a script that feels over written, but Piece has to shoulder some of the blame.

Carrie is a film about teenagers for teenagers. Older fans of Stephen King’s novel or Brian De Palma’s seminal film. Youngers audiences may get a kick out of it, but nobody over twenty will.

Special Features

The movie of Carrie may not be great, but the blu-ray comes with a great bunch of features. Kimberly Peirce gives a serious commentary (she believes the film is better than it really is), deleted and extended scenes add a few extra moments and behind the scenes bits and pieces show how the film was made. A great package for a disappointing movie.