I will admit that I'm not too fond of remakes. More often than not they rarely need to be made; the original was more than adequate in most situations, and it's usually clear that the studio behind the remake is just looking to cash in on a name, or renewed popularity in a genre or the original movie. Sure, there is the occasional remake that turns out better than the original - David Cronenberg's The Fly is one example, as is John Carpenter's The Thing - but they tend to be the exceptions rather than the rule.
Where does Kimberly Peirce's remake of Carrie stand then?
Well, in isolation (ie. treating it as a unique, stand-alone film and not a remake) it is not a bad film at all. In comparison to Brian DePalma's original, however, it does not really manage to surpass it, except perhaps in one or two areas.
Everyone probably knows the story by now but here it is anyway: Carrie White is a high school girl and an outcast among outcasts. She has a mother so insanely fundamentalist that she doesn't even know the facts of life, leading her to panic when she gets her first menstrual period at the age of 18. This trauma is further compounded when the other girls in her class mock and taunt her as she pleads for help, even going so far as to film her doing so. This event also awakens Carrie's telekinetic powers, however, and as Carrie becomes more aware of them she begins to research and practice using them - being sure not to let her mother find out lest she punish her even more for the "sin" of being a woman. Meanwhile, two of the girls involved in Carrie's bullying decide to do different things for her; Sue Snell feels guilty about her role and so decides to do something nice for her and asks her boyfriend to take Carrie to the prom instead of her; meanwhile Chris Hargensen decides to humiliate Carrie even further as petty revenge for Chris being banned from prom. Of course everything comes together horribly and Carrie ends up taking her telekinetic vengeance on all the people her mother predicted would laugh at her.
Okay, the parts of the remake that surpassed the original were the effects (somewhat obviously) and, I think, the way the film showed just how bullied and miserable Carrie's life was - at least before she discovered her abilities. Parts of the bullying, and the abuse she suffers at the hands of her very insane mother, are so bad that they pretty much make the movie a horror without the need for the prom night massacre (oh yeah, spoilers if you've somehow never managed to be exposed to the story in your life, I suppose). Both versions of the film manage to keep Carrie as sympathetic as possible, so that when she finally takes her revenge you still feel sympathetic towards her and even feel that she's vindicated in what she does.
But the real test of success for a remake is whether or not it really brings anything new to the film; basically, if a remake was actually needed. And in this case, I'd have to say that no, it wasn't. There's just a lot of things that are slightly 'off' about the remake - for example, while Chloë Grace Moretz does a very good job as Carrie White, there's that little inkling that she might be just a little too pretty to play the girl, who was always supposed to look a little 'peculiar'. The inevitable climax of the film is, ironically enough, surprisingly bloodless as well - while the effects are technically sound as I said above, it also feels like they squandered an opportunity to go 'all out' on Carrie's telekinetic vengeance.
There is, I feel, a vague undercurrent of feminism in the story of Carrie, and one thing the remake does seem to do is bring this out more. Carrie's becoming a woman - the start of her menstruation - also gives her a great and terrible power, which gives her the power to step out from her mother's shadow and abuse and to be herself - and of course to kill those who wronged her at the end. It's not a "Bitches be crazy; don't cross them," vibe, but more a cautionary tale on the dangers of a woman scorned/crossed, maybe.
Oh, and while the ending scene of Brian DePalma's version might seem a little hokey now, it's still streets ahead of the remake's version. A CGI broken gravestone, really?
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