Carrie
2013 · Directed by Kimberly Peirce
Original language: English
- drama
- horror
The story
An awkward, telekinetic teenage girl is the object of relentless bullying at school and an oppressively religious mother at home.
What it’s like
Washed-out suburban daylight gives way to sickly fluorescent corridors and a dim, hymn-heavy kitchen where the walls seem to close in, and the 2013 Carrie leans into a glossy, cool-toned digital look with plenty of handheld closeness on its teenage faces. The mood is clammy and anxious, a slow-building dread that breaks into operatic chaos, with a score that swells from taut strings into thudding percussion and a prom sequence drenched in saturated reds and blues. Scenes often hold on a single tight frame, letting humiliation sit uncomfortably before the film finally releases it. Its emotional core is a shy, isolated girl gradually discovering her power while her mother's religious fervor tightens its grip, and the arc is one of fear turning into fury. The violence is intense and cruel: bullying, a graphic shower-room humiliation, and a bloody, explosive climax with brutal deaths and some gore, though the horror relies more on pressure and cruelty than on splatter. Best suited to viewers who want a bruising, emotionally raw thriller over a comfort watch, and to fans of revenge stories with a strong sense of dread.
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