Carrie 2013

Christy Lemire, ChristyLemire.com: It is a timeless thing for all of us, the ritual of high-school expectation and heartache. Once again, as it did nearly 40 years ago, Carrie turns it into an experience of biblical proportions. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: The results are distressingly anemic, pig blood and all. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It speaks well to the talents of Peirce and her cast that, in this "Carrie," you find yourself caught up in the story once more. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Peirce's film works for a considerable stretch as a derivative but impressively coherent vision. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Buying that this girl would have trouble making friends, or snagging a genuine date to the dance, is even harder than pretending that a pair of glasses makes Rachael Leigh Cook look undesirable. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: What's the point? Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Man, what a disappointment. Read more

Karen D'Souza, San Jose Mercury News: For all its cheesy '70s vibe, De Palma's movie far better captured the primal, almost "Lord of the Flies" nature of the high school experience, the sheer terror of being a social outcast. That's what really gave the "Carrie" myth such staying power ... Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: A work of smooth confidence and a humane, dimensionally human brand of horror. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Peirce is gifted, but she lacks the ability of directors like DePalma to transform schlock into something deeply personal. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Moore is terrifying as a guilt-addled true believer, and Moretz caresses her role when she gets the chance. And the hot topics do indeed remain hot. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: She blows stuff up real good, in a way that would make the devil - or Bruce Willis - proud. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Its bloodshed may be all dressed up, but it ultimately has nowhere to go. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: Peirce wants to make a hit, and, even with source material this strange, it feels as though she has. But if so, that's all she has made. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: More effective and less overblown than many unnecessary horror remakes, but it can't compare with the original. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: "Carrie" should have delivered more with the material in the filmmaker's feminist hands. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: What's scariest about Carrie in 2013 isn't that this wounded teenage girl has the power to kill -- it's that there are thousands of girls like her with no power at all. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Kimberly Peirce's new adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel is a grave but listless thriller. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: With nothing new to offer, "Carrie" is reduced to attempting the impossible: repeating De Palma's long, tense buildup to Carrie's prom, one of the most stylishly executed horror-film sequences in history. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: The movie is very good, both as a first-order viewing experience and as a contemporary gloss on Brian De Palma's classic 1976 adaptation of Stephen King's novel. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Nothing but a fancy bit of corporate Hollywood graverobbing - slipping into the copyright cemetery, digging up a generous loved one, and calmly stripping her of every bit of gold and silver they can pawn. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Slight, unessential but still effective ... Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Ms. Peirce plays up the story's religious themes and Carrie's burgeoning power as she discovers her telekinetic gifts, even as the dread of the female body that deepens Mr. De Palma's version somehow goes missing. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: Kimberly Peirce's remake of Brian De Palma's Carrie isn't a total fiasco like Gus Van Sant's remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, but it's equally gratuitous. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: If you're going to take another stab at this tale of a taunted, traumatized teen who exacts fiery revenge on, well, everyone, then Kimberly Peirce is the director to do it. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Rather than fixing some of the problems with De Palma's approach and trying something fresh, Peirce compounds them. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A well-made, highly satisfying and not particularly deep high school revenge movie. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's like going to prom with somebody you like, not somebody you love. Read more

Kevin C. Johnson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The new movie won't overshadow the superior original, but that was never the point. On its own merit, "Carrie" is a bloody good time. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Literally a pallid imitation of the original. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: It doesn't do anything strikingly wrong; it's just unnecessary. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: Chloe Moretz is unnervingly talented, but Carrie is not a role she was born to play. She hasn't a victim's bone in her body and fluffs the early scenes. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Rather than offering new blood, Carrie is a purely cosmetic revamp. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The new Carrie isn't atrocious - just flat and uninspired and compromised by the kind of mindless teen-movie "humanism" that De Palma so punkishly spat on. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Recent events - the Columbine massacre and the news, just this week, that a young Florida girl killed herself after being taunted by bullies who allegedly boasted about it online - have added resonance to the source material. Read more