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Carrie Blu-ray delivers stunning video and audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
A sheltered high school girl unleashes her newly developed telekinetic powers after she is pushed too far by her peers.
For more about Carrie and the Carrie Blu-ray release, see Carrie Blu-ray Review published by Michael Reuben on January 12, 2014 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
Interviewed about the 2010 remake of A
Nightmare
on Elm Street, actor Jackie Earle Haley was
asked why anyone would want to step into the shoes of Robert Englund in the iconic role of
Freddy Krueger. Haley gave an interesting answer. He pointed out that the studio was going to
remake the film whether or not he took the role. Why not see what he could do with it?
Director Kimberly Peirce must have thought something similar when MGM and Screen Gems
offered her their remake of Brian De Palma's 1976 classic Carrie. Even Stephen King, who isn't
known for his fondness of film adaptations of his novels, admired De Palma's film and saw little
reason to redo it. "The real question is why, when the original was so good? I mean, not
Casablanca, or anything, but a really good horror-suspense film, much better than the book." In
fairness, King did say he'd be interested in what David Lynch or David Cronenberg might make
of the story.
But it was Peirce who got the assignment, and she dutifully dug into King's novel, looking for
elements that might allow Carrie to be reinvented for a later era. So in Peirce's version, we get
cyberbullying, a far more sympathetic—even pathetic—portrayal of Carrie's mother, Margaret
White, and a more assertive Carrie who quickly moves from being a passive victim to a predator
bent on revenge. Throughout the extras, Peirce refers to the film as a "superhero origin story".
What Peirce failed to accomplish, though (and what De Palma achieved in spades), is to weave
the luxuriant spell of attraction and repulsion that is the distinctive quality of great horror. Her
film hits all the right beats, contains solid performances and has effects of which De Palma could
only have dreamed in 1976, but it never gets under the viewer's skin.
Carrie White (Chloë Grace Moretz) is that kid at school: the shy one who stands apart, doesn't fit
in and is an easy target for abuse. Most such unfortunates never get even, but what if one of them
had hidden powers? That premise was an essential element in the 2008 Swedish filmLet the
Right One In (remade in 2010 asLet Me In,
also starring Moretz), and it's key to Carrie's plot, in
which a bullied nobody is revealed as a telekinetic superbeing who can kill with a thought. Carrie
doesn't know this about herself when the film opens, because her powers don't mature until
puberty, which hits with a vengeance when she gets her first period during a locker room shower
after gym class.
Carrie thinks she's dying when the blood begins to flow, because her deeply disturbed mother,
Margaret (Julianne Moore), has withheld from her daughter all knowledge about sex and
womanhood in a futile attempt to prevent Carrie from growing up. Margaret could easily be
dismissed as a religious nut, but Peirce and Moore go out of their way to show her as a borderline
psychotic so possessed by terror that she constantly engages in self-injury to control her fear. Her
"religion" is part Christianity, part self-invented sexual obsession. In De Palma's film, Piper
Laurie transformed this character into a terrifying grotesque, but Moore locates the pathos and
the sorrow in Margaret White. She might even have made Margaret sympathetic—in a different
movie.
Carrie screams for help in the locker room, and her classmates mercilessly mock her ignorance
and pelt her with tampons, until the gym teacher, Ms. Desjardin (Judy Greer), comes to her
rescue. The leaders of the she-wolf pack are best friends Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde) and Chris
Hargensen (Portia Doubleday), whose very different reactions to the incident will lead to disaster.
Sue regrets her treatment of Carrie and tries to make amends, while Chris doubles down on her
hatred and seeks to treat Carrie even more cruelly. The respective efforts of the (now former) best
friends reach their conclusion at the school prom, where Chris and her boyfriend Billy Nolan
(Alex Russell) humiliate Carrie in front of the whole school, little suspecting that the girl they
thought was a wispy nobody has been practicing her new-found skills at moving objects, starting
fires and self-levitation.
This is perhaps the most dramatic difference between Peirce's vision of Carrie and De Palma's.
In De Palma's film, Sissy Spacek portrayed Carrie as a dreamer lost in her own thoughts, even
when she began to realize the extent of her capabilities. Her telekinetic effects often seemed to
surprise her, as if she didn't expect her daydreams to become reality. Moretz's Carrie, by
contrast, begins experimenting with her powers as soon as she discovers them. By the time she's
reached the prom, she has already used them to emancipate herself from her mother, and when
she takes her revenge on the school, she does so deliberately, pointedly and with focus. In the
final reckoning with Margaret, Spacek's Carrie reacted spontaneously and then was shocked at
the outcome, but Moretz's Carrie makes a deliberate choice. It's as if Peirce couldn't envision a
passive heroine after decades of butt-kicking female action stars and plucky girl survivors in
horror films.
The problem is that a "strong" Carrie becomes just another entry in a long line of generic lead
characters. De Palma's and Spacek's Carrie was memorable precisely because there was never
anything strong about her; unlike Peirce, they weren't making a superhero origin story. In
Peirce's film, Carrie's heroism extends all the way to the end, in ways I will leave for the viewer
to discover. As for the "too shocking for theaters" alternate ending included on the Blu-ray, let's
just say that the only thing shocking about it is how bad it is. Most deletions belong on the
cutting room floor, and this was one of them.
According to IMDb, Carrie was shot with the Arri Alexa and processed on a digital intermediate
at 2K. The cinematographer was Steve Yedlin, who has shot all of Rian Johnson's films (Brick,
The Brothers Bloom and Looper). The image on Fox/MGM's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray
reflects the noiseless clarity one expects from today's DI-processed digital productions, though it
is sometimes a bit less detailed than one might expect from a 4K image downconverted for Blu-ray. The colors are vivid and varied, ranging from the cool
blues of the water volleyball match
where we first see Carrie, before any manifestation of her powers, to the increasing presence of
reds and dark browns as her powers grow and mature. Nighttime blacks, which are crucial in the
final act, are solid and deep, and the white levels of bright lights and fire in the critical prom
sequence are never overstated.
The healthy average bitrate of 27.95 Mbps is more than sufficient to avoid compression errors.
This a fine image, limited only by its 2K source.
Carrie's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 track provides plenty of excitement as the telekinetic title
character gradually masters and then deploys her formidable powers. Structures creak and groan,
glass breaks, electrical fixtures overload and shatter, and doors slam and crack—and all of it
happens as loudly as possible, to the point where you have to wonder why everyone doesn't
suspect there's something really strange happening in this small Maine town. The prom scene
and its aftermath are a tour de force of sound editing as well as of CG effects, as Carrie's
vengeance fills the surround field with crashs, flames, electrical charges and the screams of the
terrified crowd. The fate of Chris and her boyfriend, Billy Porter, is much louder and more
elaborate in this version of Carrie. It's unclear who had more fun, the sound editors or the
computer artists.
Bass extension is deep and solid, but the mix keeps the dialogue clear enough that Julianne
Moore's bizarre prayers and incantations as Margaret White can still be heard, even when she is
muttering to herself. Marco Beltrami tosses of another of his spooky scores, but the film might
have been better served by something less typical of the genre, in the way that Pino Donaggio's
dreamy classical instrumentals lured the viewer into Brian De Palma's world in the 1976
adaptation.
Since Carrie is a new movie and not an MGM catalog title (and not one of those oddball
exceptions like the remastered Robocop), Fox
Home Video has provided a main menu,
bookmarking and all the standard bells and whistles with which it graces its own Blu-rays.
Commentary with Director Kimberly Pierce: For the most part, Pierce sticks closely to
the action on screen, commenting on the themes at play in the particular scene. She also
comments on some of the filming and effects techniques and the actors' performances.
It's an interesting enough commentary, but it doesn't reveal any hidden layers to the film.
Alternate Ending: The disc has been formatted to allow selection of either the theatrical
cut with its standard ending or with the alternate ending. To see the alternate ending
separately, select "Go to Theatrical Cut (with alternate ending") from the Setup menu
and skip to the final chapter. Pierce has recorded a few words of introductory commentary
for the alternate ending, but nothing detailed.
Deleted/Alternate Scenes (w/optional commentary) (1080p; 2.35:1; 10:18): A "play
all" function is included.
Hail
Chris and Tina Kiss
Billy's Wild Ride
Carrie Levitates Margaret
Drive to Pig Farm
Carrie and Tommy Kiss
Billy Kisses Chris
Margaret Cuts Herself
Tina on Fire
Tina on Fire Stunt Double Dailies (w/optional commentary) (1080p; 2.35:1; 2:18):
These dailies show how the death-by-fire at the prom was done with real fire, rather than
CG and trick photography, using a recently developed technique involving bandages and
protective gel.
Creating Carrie (1080p; 1.78:1; 21:07): The participants in this making-of documentary
include Pierce, Moretz, Moore, Wilde, Greer and producer Kevin Misher. They discuss
King's novel, themes that the remake tried to emphasize and the actors' preparation for
their roles.
The Power of Telekinesis (1080p; 1.78:1; 4:02): The director, producer and cast discuss
the portrayal of telekinesis in the film.
Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:39): In a PR stunt to publicize the
film, the 'Snice Coffee Shop in the West Village in New York City was rigged to stage an
outburst of telekinetic temper by a real life "Carrie", as cameras recorded the crowd's
stunned reaction.
Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:35:1; 1:56): "In every neighborhood, there is one family .
. . "
Sneak Peak: In addition to the trailers listed below, at startup the disc plays trailers for
the remake of RoboCop, Paranoia and MGM's 90th Anniversary, which can be skipped
with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.
Obvious care and craftsmanship went into the new Carrie, but I suspect that anyone familiar with
the original will watch it ticking off the similarities and differences between it and De Palma's
version rather than being drawn into the world of the film. Viewers new to the story may be
entertained, but they may wonder what all the fuss was about. The Blu-ray satisfies on a
technical level, but what MGM and Fox should really be working on is a remaster of De Palma's
original. That would be recommended. This one is up to you.
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Use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons to agree or disagree that the title is similar to Carrie. You can also suggest completely new similar titles to Carrie in the search box below.
