6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.1 |
A sheltered high school girl unleashes her newly developed telekinetic powers after she is pushed too far by her peers.
Starring: Chloë Grace Moretz, Judy Greer, Portia Doubleday, Alex Russell, Gabriella WildeHorror | 100% |
Supernatural | 34% |
Teen | 21% |
Coming of age | 7% |
Psychological thriller | 7% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Mobile features
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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.
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.
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.
1976
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2000
Stephen King's It
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