Carrie (TV Movie 2002)

Carrie: Directed by David Carson. With Angela Bettis, Patricia Clarkson, Rena Sofer, Kandyse McClure. Carrie White is a lonely and painfully shy teenage girl with telekinetic powers who is slowly pushed to the edge of insanity by frequent bullying from both her classmates and her domineering, religious mother.

“It seems to make as much sense to remake a great movie like Brian DePalmau0026#39;s 1976 horror/suspense masterpiece CARRIE for television as it did to make a sequel of it in the form of THE RAGE: CARRIE 2 three years before, but thatu0026#39;s what has been done. A lot of bells and whistles have been added to this television remake, but in the end this CARRIE is still in the shadow of the DePalma original.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAngela Bettis (GIRL INTERRUPTED) has the unenviable task of stepping into the shoes (and the prom dress) of Sissy Spacek in the title role of a New England teen tortured at school by cruel classmates (because she doesnu0026#39;t belong) and at home by her religiously fanatical mother (Patricia Clarkson, in the Piper Laurie role). Soon, she discovers she has telekinetic powers; and when the most gruesome of gags is played on her on prom night, all bets are off.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThough looking much more glazed in the eyes than Spacek ever did, Bettis gives a fairly good performance as Carrie; and Clarksonu0026#39;s portrayal of her uprighteous mother is much more low-key, but no less threatening, than Laurieu0026#39;s portrayal. The special effects, however obvious they might be, are also quite good. But in the end, the reputation of the 1976 original, with its combination of psychological horror and teen-angst drama, still hovers over this remake. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the pigu0026#39;s blood scene. It doesnu0026#39;t have the same jarring emotional impact this time around–not so much because weu0026#39;ve seen it before, but because here it looks slightly laughable when the blood gets poured onto Bettis. Because of DePalmau0026#39;s use of slow-motion in the original, the blood hits Spacek like a tidal wave.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI give the CARRIE remake a u0026#39;6u0026#39; just for trying. I only regret that its shortcomings as a film have less to do with its execution as a film than the fact that the original movie still resonates much more fully.”