Carrie White is a shy young girl in her senior year of high school. Carrie is also a bit of a social misfit and outcast. Most of her classmates either make fun of her or don’t even know that she exists. But at the senior prom, Carrie White will break out of her shell and all will finally notice the quiet young lady, when a power that she has been hiding inside of her will finally be let loose for all to see.

In 1976 Carrie, directed by Brian DePalma, stormed onto the big screen and introduced the world to Stephen King’s first published novel. In 2002 it was remade as a television miniseries, but is it as good as the original or does it just get a bucket of pig blood dumped over it?

This is going to be a pretty simple review folks so here it goes; If you have read the novel and never seen the '76 version, then you will really like this film. If you have seen the '76 version, then this film will suck. If you have seen the '76 version and read the novel, you will probably like both versions for different reasons. See I told you this was a simple review.

Carrie 2002 is updated to current times and follows the novel nearly to a T; it even has the meteor shower, which really surprised me. You also get Angela Bettis slipping on the prom gown as Carrie. Bettis does a fair job and has the awkward, misfit routine down to a science, but I thought she looked just a little too old for the part. You also get Patricia Clarkson in the role of Margret White, Carrie’s zealot of a mother, which was a plus to the film. And of course you can’t have a version of Carrie without some hot ass, snobby, high school bitches and a few jock style assholes as well, all the actors look the part and play their roles well, but nobody was really outstanding or memorable.

And as I said earlier, the film really follows the story in the novel and has a decent cast. "So what’s the problem Prime?" you may be asking, well here it is: DePalma’s 1976 film, is damn near flawless. Even if it varies a little on the story from time to time. Angela Bettis is good, but Sissy Spacek was fantastic, Patricia Clarkson was a haunted Margret White, but Piper Laurie’s was a damn demonic bitch straight out of hell! Also I always thought Amy Irving, P.J. Soles and Nancy Allen were incredible, especially in that damn shower scene….. mmmmmm, steam, teens and more wool than in a lonely farmer’s zipper. Plus how can you go wrong with the future Greatest American Hero and Vincent Vega having small roles, you can’t.

Carrie, much like The Shining, there is just such a huge amount of prestige and power to overcome from the film version to the television version, it’s not that it’s bad or inferior, it just can’t live up to the reputation of it’s big brother or sister, which really shows the reputation of the initial version.

Carrie '02 isn't bad, but even as much as I tried to remove the images of the first film out of my head, I was simply unable to do it and as a result found myself a little bored from time to time watching the much longer television version, but it was worth the watch.

5of 10 compared to 1976
7 of 10 compared to the novel.