YMMV / Carrie (2002)

• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Norma seems incredibly casual about nearly dying two weeks ago and losing most of her classmates. She even said "I'm sad that they died and all" in a blase way to the detective. Especially curious considering how hysterical she's shown getting during the prom scene.
  • A plot point with Sue. Detective Mulcahy wonders why she's so calm about the tragedy. It's because she knows Carrie's alive and is hiding her from the police.
• Better on DVD: The original broadcast ran for three hours with commercial breaks, and the prom scene was criticised for losing the flow of the drama to include those breaks. Watching the DVD with no commercials makes it forty minutes shorter.
• Broken Base:
  • Angela Bettis's performance has a large number of fans, some of whom even prefer her to Sissy Spacek. But since Spacek's Oscar-nominated performance is also iconic, the base is split right down the middle on which is better.
  • Patricia Clarkson as Margaret White is another one. While for years she was considered one of the best things about the film, especially for a more grounded take on the character, there are those who find she is too grounded, coming across as just overly strict instead of outright abusive while her mental problems and religious mania are downplayed (as Margaret's key characteristic is that she's a religious fundamentalist who is quite possibly insane).
• Can't Un-Hear It: Kandyse McClure and Rena Sofer are respectively regarded by many as the definitive versions of Sue Snell and Miss Desjardin.
• Catharsis Factor: The scene of Miss Desjardin disciplining the girls is frequently met with applause — throwing tampons at them, giving them a verbal smackdown, and managing to get away with hitting Chris without really hitting her.
  "Open your mouth one more time, and I'll plug you up."
• Critical Backlash: After being panned simply for daring to follow the 1976 original, a lot of people have expressed surprise at how much they liked this version. As noted below, younger fans and fans of the book tend to be more receptive to it.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Norma in this is portrayed as a hilarious Genki Girl, played to perfection by Meghan Black.
  • Helen also gets to be a heroic character this time around, and Chelan Simmons impressed.
  • This version's Tina is also quite loved, by people who think Katharine Isabelle was perfectly cast, and she really sells the Beta Bitch persona.
• Funny Moments:
  • "This is far from over! This isn't even in the same area code as over!"
  • The entire scene between the Morton and Chris' dad is both this and Moment of Awesome.
• Fanon: It's only in this film that Norma refers to the popular girls as 'The Ultras'. In the book, they were known as Mortimer Snerds (a reference to a brand of ventriloquist dummy, which was meant to imply they were unintelligent followers) and had no nickname in the first film. The Stephen King wiki used this name for the popular girls in both this and the 2013 film ('Ultras' being a more modern nickname), and they're often called as such.
• Fanfic Fuel: Unlike the book and the 1976 movie, this one ends on a Sequel Hook, which was supposed to lead into a TV show that was never picked up. What might that have been like?
• Genius Bonus:
  • Carrie references Pygmalion, which Tommy doesn't get, and then she amends to My Fair Lady — the more famous musical adaptation — as parallels to her story. Tommy had previously referenced She's All That, which was a Setting Update of both the same way this was for the original Carrie.
  • Carrie says she thinks Margaret makes up some of her teachings after she quotes Ezekiel 13. Margaret is indeed misquoting the text; the quote actually refers to women who practice or make garments for false prophecy, not lust.
• Ham and Cheese: Chris is pretty hammy on the part of Emilie de Ravin, who unsurprisingly does not often play bitchy roles.
• He's Just Hiding: Jackie Talbot tells Chris and Billy that at least eleven people made it out of the prom. Given that only about half that number made it out the vent, it’s possible that a few of the people on the dance floor survived being electrocuted (which is medically possible) and made it out before the gym burned down. If so, one can hope that Helen, Roy, and Mr. Morton were among them. Miss Desjardin makes it out alive, with no explanation of whether she crawled through the vent or took a mild shock to make it to the door.
• It Was His Sled: This adaptation is infamous for ironically pulling Not His Sled at the same time as Carrie survives and leaves town.
• Les Yay:
  • Sue seems really determined to make things right, even going out of her way to suggest Carrie model her prom dress for her. She also later jokes about having a lesbian affair with her.
  • Helen compliments Carrie on her ass at the prom, which gets a stunned reaction from her date. Likewise, at the start of the shower scene, she can be seen slapping Norma's ass while she's in a towel. And she even takes Sue by the hand to bring her to laugh at Carrie.
  • Carrie to Helen: "If they decide to run away together, I'll dance with you."
• Love to Hate: Katharine Isabelle's fantastically evil ditzy performance makes Tina this for some viewers.
• Moment of Awesome: Sue is a walking moment of this in the third act. She sees Carrie during the devastation, follows her to her house, and administers CPR. Then she hides Carrie from the authorities as they investigate.
• More Popular Replacement:
  • Helen in the first film is a case of Questionable Casting (played by Edie McClurg, an overweight actress in her thirties, who seemed out of place in the Girl Posse). Chelan Simmons was the same age as her character, gets a small arc where she undergoes a Heel–Face Turn, and is overall a more memorable presence.
  • A more divisive case is Kandyse McClure's Sue. While Amy Irving's performance is well-liked in the original film, there are some who feel she was miscast or felt the character was too underdeveloped (many of her big scenes were cut). This version restores most of her big moments, and clarifies that she's a heroic presence. The fact that she's a rounded character played by a non-white actress in a prominent role helps big time.
• Padding: As the film had to pad itself out to a three-hour running time (though forty of those minutes were commercial breaks), we get:
  • Sue running into Billy and Chris at a bowling alley and getting taunted for doing the detentions. Admittedly, this scene is in the book and does introduce Billy to the audience, but it was among the scenes put in to pad out the runtime.
  • A scene where Carrie loses control of her powers in class and rips her desk in two. It does act as mild Foreshadowing that in this incarnation, she can go into a trance and not know what she does with the powers.
  • Sue encountering Carrie trying on lipstick and trying to be nice to her.
  • Chris catching Carrie using Miss Desjardin's phone to speak to someone and antagonising her.
  • Jackie Talbot trying to fool Detective Mulcahey that his parents are dead right before he gets questioned about the pig killing.
  • Sue and Detective Mulcahey talking about religion.
  • Detective Mulcahy going into the ruins of Carrie's house and looking through her yearbook.
  • After being voted King & Queen, Carrie has an Imagine Spot where she and Tommy dance.
• Presumed Flop: The film was intended as a Pilot Movie for a potential TV series that never got picked up. For years, the word was that this was due to low ratings. However, the ratings for the remake were actually very good, and Bryan Fuller had already started writing a second episode outline when he learned that the network simply weren't interested in a series.
• Questionable Casting:
  • To some, Tobias Mehler (playing Tommy Ross) simply looked too old to play a high school senior. He was in his late twenties like his co-star Angela Bettis, but whereas she at least looked young enough, Mehler didn't.
  • James A. Janisse of The Kill Count found Jesse Cadotte to be grossly miscast as Billy Nolan, noting that he lacked the psychotic spark that normally made the character fun to watch.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Miss Collins is held up as one of the weaker parts of the original film due to Betty Buckley's flat performance and the character having a moment written in where she throws Sue out of the prom as she's trying to warn everyone about the prank. Rena Sofer's casting is seen as a huge improvement, and this time the teacher is responsible for getting several students out of the prom safely.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Angela Bettis filmed May before this, but it came out after. It ended up becoming a Cult Classic and ensuring that she'd be a regular in the horror genre for many years.
  • Emilie de Ravin would become far better known for Roswell, Lost, and Once Upon a Time.
  • The young Carrie in the flashback is played by Jodelle Ferland, who'd become a go-to actress for Creepy Children, playing Sharon/Alessa in Silent Hill, Bree Tanner in Eclipse, Patience in The Cabin in the Woods, and numerous other horror credits.
  • Helen is played by Chelan Simmons, who'd be best known for playing Hilary in Kyle XY or else dying in a memorable tanning bed scene in Final Destination 3.
  • Kandyse McClure was later in a recurring role in Battlestar Galactica (2003) and Hemlock Grove.
  • Voice-over example with Meghan Black, who'd voice Rogue in X-Men: Evolution and Atlanta in Class of the Titans.
  • Katharine Isabelle had filmed Ginger Snaps already, but it would take a few years for her to acquire the cult fanbase she has now. Especially once American Mary came along.
• Rule of Sean Connery: Patricia Clarkson elevates every single project she does simply by showing up in it, and this film is no exception.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: Bryan Fuller himself felt that the film could have had forty minutes cut from it. A lot of it had to be padded out to fit a three hour TV running time (albeit with commercial breaks; the film runs at two hours and 12 minutes without them). It is in fact 90 minutes before they get to the prom scene, whereas the original film was 98 minutes total.
• Special Effect Failure: While fans have grown nicer to the rest of the film in the ensuing years, few will defend the low-budget special effects.
  • It's glaringly bad CGI when Carrie is shown destroying the town, notably a horribly CGI'd fence breaking apart.
  • There's another really bad CGI shot of the mayhem at the prom when Carrie is standing on the stage.
  • The falling meteors are really bad CGI too.
  • Possibly the worst CGI came in the form of Chris and Billy's demise. Instead of in a plausible or graphic car accident, they die from the car being unnaturally lifted in the air and thrown against a tree just as lazily.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Having Carrie live at the end (to serve as a Sequel Hook for a TV series that never materialized) got huge amounts of criticism. There are, however, plenty of fans who like the idea of a potential series continuing the story and where the characters would go. Plus, a common Fix Fic is Carrie surviving the night.
• Tough Act to Follow: This version was unfavorably compared to the 1976 film when released, and while it has been Vindicated by History, the 1976 film is still considered better overall.
• Vindicated by History: It was panned viciously when it first came out for being seen as a poor remake of the 1976 film, to the degree that lead actress Angela Bettis herself said she wouldn't have seen it if she hadn't been in it. As time has moved on, younger fans and fans of the book have come to like this as a more faithful adaptation (the ending aside). Some casting choices (Rena Sofer as Miss Desjardin, Kandyse McClure as Sue) are seen by some as better than the original, and while Bettis' performance is not usually counted among them, that's mainly because she had a very Tough Act to Follow in Sissy Spacek, as she's still considered to have made for a very strong Carrie who many fans feel was on par with her predecessor. When the 2013 remake came out and got criticism for being too similar to the original, this one was compared more favorably due to the ways in which it played around with a few of the characters.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The tombstones in the graveyard at the end obviously point to the movie being set in 2002, but even beyond that, the film's attempts to integrate new technology into the story produce this effect now that that technology is old hat. Chris has a cell phone that she uses to call a friend rather than text, there's mention of an email conversation between Chris and her friend Donna (updating the letter from the book to fit the new setting), there are very blocky computers in the library, and Carrie has to be shown how to do an internet search. Tommy also references She's All That, which came out a few years before, and the scene with the prom ballots has a character joking about voting for Ralph Nader, a then-topical joke about the 2000 US Presidential election.
• Win Back the Crowd: A number of reviewers had been tepidly awaiting the film, but admitted to being blown away by the performances, particularly Angela Bettis's take on Carrie. Patricia Clarkson and Kandyse McClure also got lots of praise. Lots of fans either consider them equal to the originals, or in some cases better.

---