Carrie (2013) R

Carrie (2013) R - Telekinetic girl wreaks havoc on her class prom when a practical joke goes too far.

I'm not sure you'd call this a remake of the 1976 film, as this was closer to the original source material, the novel "Carrie" by Stephen King.  There were updates to bring it into the modern age with cell phones and the posting of videos, but otherwise the plot was closer.  The body of the picture was excellent, with Chloe Grace Moretz (Kickass) capturing that feeling of being a teenager on the outside of the mainstream perfectly.  Julianne Moore (Children of Men) as Ms. White, with her religious mania and other mental problems of self-harm and abusive behavior was frighteningly realistic.

It was when the pig's blood dropped at the prom that things got bizarre, and not in a "there's some classic Stephen King" kind of bizarre.
It was at that point where the whole thing fell over like a broken wind-up toy.  Carrie's targets were random and, at times, counter-intuitive.  Why shove the PE teacher, the only faculty member who had been kind to her?  She picked her up to save her from being electrocuted, but she did it with a choke hold.  The choices were just strange, taking to impish torture of some random girl with electrical wires instead of going after her main enemies.  I felt like her single blast of fury was a more realistic choice than any of the individuals she went after.

And the reason the prankster couple were still there to pull out of the parking lot when Carrie walked out of the gym was probably supposed to be grimly amusing, but it just came off as contrived.  That got an eyeroll.

I would have cut some of the events in the gym and gone straight outside.  That probably would have made the showdown with her mother back at the house seem a little less like a second or third climax.  The battle between Carrie and her mother should have been the main event, since they struggled verbally the entire film.  Prom should have been the catalyst.  Prom should have been her training ground with her powers.  Instead it was like big battle, slight lull, big battle, slight lull, big battle.

Overall, not a lot of counts for this film.  No laughing, a few needle-drops when people were being particularly heinous, and one "Holy Crap" moment with the mother.  I wouldn't craft to this.  Too many sad and horrible vibes.

It was spooky, and it succeeded at portraying people at their worst and best in a way that Mr. King would approve.  But the ending was weird and fell far short of being a satisfying revenge scenario.  I give it three out of five stars.