Has Virtually Nothing To Do With Stephen King's Novel ! Watch The 2013 Version Instead !

Rating: 1/10 (8 May 2014)

I used to like this film a lot, and watched it several times, and didn't even bother reading the Stephen King novel (who is my favourite author, of whom I have read 13 books) as I thought that it would be the same than the '76 film. Similarly, I wasn't that interested on the 2013 re-imagining of the novel (which is NOT a remake of the 1976 film, as so many people wrongly think) for the same reason: didn't think it would be better than what I had already seen. Oh boy was I wrong!!! The main reason why the 2013 version is SO much better is because it follows the novel much closer: it's mainly a drama with horror, unlike the '76 version, which didn't care about what the poor Carrie White went through and just wanted to scare the audience about a poor innocent and bullied girl, which I find disgusting. The re-imagining, right from the start, gets you into Carrie's shoes, and you FEEL her pain, from being bullied every day, unlike the previous version where you never cared that much about her, since the screenplay didn't bother with that. The 2013 version is ABSOLUTELY HEARTBREAKING while the '76 one is just your average teen slasher, with the main character using telekinesis to kill others instead of knives as the main difference.
As well, the acting is BEYOND THIS WORLD on the re-imagining: Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore are both phenomenal and should have won Oscars, with the rest of the cast (specially Judy Greer, Portia Doubleday and Ansel Elgort) being also fantastic. Compare this with the '76 version, where the acting was so over the top that both Amy Irving and Piper Laurie thought their characters were comic (and you can read this in the trivia of this film right here on IMDb): the first one thought that her character was for comic relief as she spent most of the time in the film bickering like an idiot with her boyfriend (unlike the novel, where all their conversations are deadly serious) while Piper Laurie admits herself that she overacted so much that she thought the film had to be a comedy. No more comments are required about the acting, as it's clear, other than even though Sissy Spacek was quite good, Chloe Grace Moretz was not only much better, and had the right age for the character (which in the book is a teenager and not someone approaching her thirties, like Sissy Spacek was when filming) but looks much more like her as well (as Carrie is described in the book itself) as well as acting far more similar to her, by, for example, being far more vocal and less naive than the '76 character (again, just like in the novel).
Some of you may think 'but King himself liked the '76 version a lot'. Well, even though I'm his biggest fan, I have to admit(and everybody knows really) that he is no expert at films, as shown by his direction and screenplay in the terrible 'Maximum Overdrive' (1986), on his multiple horrible screenplays, such as for the terrible 1994 TV adaptation of his fantastic novel 'The Stand' (and several others) and on choosing the not so good director Mick Garris to direct several of his book adaptations, such as 'Riding The Bullet' (2004), 'Desperation' (2006) 'Sleepwalkers' (1992) and others. Somehow in all the aforementioned adaptations the story always changes from being extremely dark in the books(as typical in King's books) to something far lighter which even approaches soap operas in theme.
Everything else is also much better in the 2013 version: phenomenal and heartfelt direction by Kimberly Peirce ('Boys Don't Cry'), vastly improved screenplay written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, beautiful and haunting music by Marco Beltrami (unlike the Psycho rip-off of the '76 film) and far better special effects, to name just a few aspects vastly improved from De Palma's film.
Do yourself a favour and forget about this film and instead watch the 2013 version HONESTLY: that is, not just to criticise it but to discover what a fabulous film it is, and using your own mind to decide whether you like it or not, not what others have said.