Get ready world, Carrie is coming back (and I’m not talking about Sarah Jessica Parker in another Sex and the City movie). According to a new report, MGM and Screen Gems are teaming up to remake the iconic horror film.
The original Carrie – Brian DePalma’s 1976 film about a timid and tortured girl who uses her telekinetic powers to punish her many bullies – is widely considered a classic of the horror genre and one of the best film adaptations of a Stephen King novel. The film garnered two Academy Award nominations, with Sissy Spacek getting a nod for Best Actress in a Leading Role as the title character, and Piper Laurie earning a Best Actress in a Supporting Role nomination for playing Carrie’s psychotic and fanatical mother.
With so many horror remakes hitting theaters in recent years, It’s not surprising to learn that Carrie is getting a second look. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the film has already been butchered twice before with a ridiculous 1999 sequel and a 2002 made-for-TV version. Still, just because you know you’re going to get punched in the gut doesn’t make it feel any better when it happens.
One reason that Carrie stands the test of time is because it’s not a horror movie in the traditional sense. Carrie doesn’t scare you, but it does something far more interesting – it gets under your skin. Carrie, as played by Spacek, is a poor and damaged girl, sheltered to the point of being unfamiliar with her own body.
As you watch her face torment and abuse from all sides, you feel pity, disgust, and even anger at her plight. Then, in the final part of the movie, when Carrie taps into her psychic powers and lays waste to everyone who hurt her, you feel…happiness? Satisfaction? Ashamed?
Carrie is a movie that leaves its audience conflicted, and that’s part of its appeal. Will a remake achieve that same success? Doubtful. What’s far more likely is that the movie will be stripped of its essential core and churned out as slickly as possible, with the hopes of stealing a weekend at the box office.
This film is in the early stages so anything is possible, but early impression is that this is a bad idea.
