Ever since the first teaser images and trailer featuring a blood-drenched Chloe Moretz were released, we knew that the Carrie remake would match the original in terms of creepiness. But it wasn’t until we saw the first full-length trailer that we realized just how dark Moretz—and her religious nut of a mother played by Julianne Moore—are playing this. It all comes down to Carrie’s burgeoning psychic abilities, which take center stage in this trailer.
You’re gonna want to watch this trailer several times to get all of the little moments: Moore’s warbling hymn and the dead-eyed way she disciplines her sinful daughter. Moretz’s transformation into an angsty, twitchy freak even before she realizes she can move things with her mind.
But the halfway mark is where things get truly disturbing. Carrie is a movie about puberty and growing into yourself, and the shift where Carrie recognizes her powers is almost painful to watch. (However, before that moment, the infamous “plug it up” tampon scene—now with iPhones to record every second of Carrie’s humiliation—looks even more brutal.)
I can’t help but regard Carrie as a more psychotic Harry Potter—or, since technically Stephen King’s novel came first, Harry as a Carrie who actually got saved. Consider the way she causes accidents at school and home when her temper flares, and how her mother Margaret shoves her in a closet (under the stairs?). Except there’s no Ministry of Magic to reign her in for her tantrum. Instead we get some chilling, teasing glimpses at the pig’s blood scene and Carrie’s subsequent revenge on her fellow prom-goers.
The last shot looks a little action-movie-ish, but we’ll forgive them for that.
Carrie comes to theaters October 18th.
Natalie Zutter is a playwright, foodie, and pop culture blogger. Her writing has appeared on BlackBook, Ology, Bookish, and Crushable, where she discusses celebrity culture alongside internet memes (or vice versa). Weekly you can find her calling in to the Hunger Games Fireside Chat podcast, reviewing new releases at Movie Mezzanine, and on Twitter.
