Carrie

I AM not sure I have the appropriate words to describe my wide array of thoughts on the latest remake to come out of Hollywood.
After digesting the trailers on multiple occasions, remembering the original flick and casting my eye over a series of previews, I decided Carrie was going to be a bore.
An unoriginal approach that merely follows the script of the first version to a tee, and was only released to milk a few more dollars from a franchise whose days had long passed.
While I was right in that it followed the 1976 original in terms of storyline - I was wrong about almost everything else.
I loved it.
Chloe Grace Moretz had massive shoes to fill in the title role, made famous by Academy Award-nominated Sissy Spacek. Spacek's rendition in the '76 original was sensational, but Moretz is not far behind.
There are times when Moretz is almost too creepy to be believable, especially during the climatic telekinetic outburst, but she nails the bullied victim.
Anyone who has ever been bullied knows how it feels - you can not forget the emotions that run through your head - and that helplessness is communicated by Moretz perfectly through her performance.
Judy Greer plays Miss Desjardin (Miss Collins in the original), who becomes one of the only people to stand up for and defend Carrie. Greer doesn't have too much to say or do in the film, but she is the one person who actively seeks to help the troubled Carrie.
Julianne Moore is hands-down the best part of this film.
Moore plays Carrie's mother Margaret, a self-harming deeply religious widow. She detests Carrie's existence, shown in the beginning of the film threatening to kill her child moments after birth.
Most of her dialogue revolves around the recitation of religious texts, prayers and rituals. The creepy room she locks Carrie in - under the stairs in true Harry Potter fashion - is terrifying; a solitary confinement in which Carrie's evil is restrained.
Less is more for Moore - she is not in every scene, but the ones she does appear in are stolen by her. Not even a few telekinetic actions and a crumbling house stop that.
Carrie doubles as one of the first horror films I've watched in a cinema for years, and I don't think I could've picked a better film of which to dip my toes back in the genre.
The special effects only makes Carrie's telekinetic revenge more intense, allowing her to things to fellow students the original could only have dreamed of. It is a welcome update of the first Stephen King novel to be turned into a film, and if you are going to see, take the 9.35pm timeslot at the Saraton Theatre on Friday and Saturday - the late night screening only amplifies its effect.