Kimberly Peirce's remake of Stephen King's classic Carrie is new blood in an old bloodbath

FILM OF THE WEEK: Remake of the iconic Carrie is much like new blood in and old bloodbath

The new school of hard shocks

FILM OF THE WEEK

Carrie

Director: Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry)

Starring: Chloe Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore, Gabriella Wilde, Judy Greer, Portia Doubleday

Rated: MA15+

Rating: 3.5 stars

THERE was much huffing and puffing of the "how dare they?" variety when news first broke of a Carrie remake.

Director Brian De Palma's 1976 adaptation of the Stephen King novel was both a game-changer and a gut-wrencher, culminating in one of the most ickily iconic finales in horror movie history.

While the new Carrie will never be regarded in the same way, it does have a searing relevance on its side that the original did not at its time of release.

The rampant rise of social media has been accompanied by a spike in the number of teenagers traumatically bullying each other.

In particular, young women.

And on several tragic occasions in recent times, American high schools have become the killing fields that King first predicted in his book four decades ago.

The new version of Carrie opens on an ominous note. A woman is lying on a bed, howling in pain.

There is something so unhinged about her cries that it takes some time to realise she is actually giving birth. It is a creepy scene, all the more so because it takes this lady a seeming eternity to decide whether she will keep or kill the baby.

Cut to 15 years later, and the same woman (played by the ever-in-the-moment Julianne Moore) is crazed as ever, prone to endless religious ramblings directed at her only child.

Carrie (Chloe Grace Moretz) hears much of this chilling chatter from inside her "prayer closet" - a locked cubicle to which she is invariably banished by her mother for sins too trivial to mention.

Dowdy, downcast and always on edge, Carrie stands out at school like a sore thumb.

There is no relief from the hell of home life to be found here. In fact, things are worse for this poor girl.

Not only is the traditional onset of womanhood freaking Carrie out. With puberty comes a rapidly developing set of telekinetic powers she is unable to understand, let alone control.

All threads of this unsettling tale are due to be tied up in a famously frightening final act at the high school prom. Just as Carrie is on the verge of being accepted by her peers, one of them moves to make sure this never happens.

Unlike before, however, Carrie is ready to strike back at anyone who dares harm her. Save for a few minor tweaks, director Kimberly Peirce follows De Palma's bloody blueprint for this disturbing climax to the letter.

As originally designed, it is a sequence that seriously messes with your head, and refuses to straighten everything up afterwards.

The film owes much to the damaged dynamic at work between Moore and Moretz. Both are always on the brink of exploding or imploding.

Whatever happens - despite many overpowering urges to look away - you won't be able to take your eyes off them.