Carrie is the novel that introduced Stephen King to the world (although I did not really discover him myself until I picked up a paperback copy of The Shining a while later). Co-incidentally, the 1975 Hollywood version of Carrie is largely responsible for making Sissy Spacek a household name despite the fact that she already had been around for about five years. Obviously, the bullied teen's story has a firm grip on America's imagination.
Now comes word that a new film version, one much truer to King's novel, will be released in late 2013. The movie will star Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie and is directed by Kimberly Pierce.
I admit that the movie looks intriguing based on this one trailer, but I have to wonder whether anyone already familiar with Carrie will really want to sit through a new version, even one produced by today's technology. Will "familiarity breed contempt" in this case?
What do you think?
Enough time has definitely passed. They got away with a Spider-man reboot in less than a decade!
ReplyDeleteRemember when they did the Shining remake for TV in the mid 90s? I know a lot of people thought it was sacrilege. I'm one of the few that actually liked it more. True it didn't have Jack Nicholson (shoes that are almost impossible to fill), but it was truer to the book and it didn't have Shelley Duvall, who made the original unwatchable for me, no matter how great Jack's performance.
Interesting to see that they're remaking this, and that it appears to be faithful to the original (excepting the time period.) King's Carrie is tremendously fun, and the 70s movie is also tremendously fun, though in a different way. I don't know how fun this one looks, but I might be intrigued enough to check it out.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, have you called the number listed at the end of the trailer? (1.207.404.2604) Very funny.
Honestly, I think familiarity breeds comtempt in this case. It's not like Stephen King hasn't written anything new lately.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I had pretty much the same reaction to that The Shining remake as I am to this one. I'm just not all that interested in sitting through a movie that has little left to surprise me with - maybe that's a function of growing older and realizing how little time we are allotted as our fair share.
ReplyDeleteAaron, I'm gong to wait to see how this one is received before I decide on seeing it or not, I think. I'm just not enthusiastic at this point. The movie does appear to have been well done, however, so we'll see.
ReplyDeleteJames, I'm not exactly filled with "contempt," in this case. It's more a feeling of boredom with the whole idea, I think. The Carrie remake is likely to end up being a movie I never see - in a theater or at home.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of Stephen King and Carrie, so yes, if it plays here in Korea, I'll be in the audience.
ReplyDeleteI was aware of King almost from the beginning of his career. 1975: I was in the bookstore and saw a paperback copy of Carrie for $1.25. I liked horror books and I also liked books with a girl's name in the title. The price was right as well since I got $2.00 for allowance every week.
Those were the days, weren't they Susan...when a $2 per week allowance was actually enough to buy a new book. I don't know how I missed King for a while other than I was probably not much aware of the horror genre until he finally got my attention. Now I prefer his novellas to anything else he writes, with his short stories a close second. But I have pretty much gone off his novels.
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