Carrie (TV Film)
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Description
Nobody would argue with the thought that Sissy Spacek is the perfect heroine of Stephen King's scary tale of teenage telekinesis. But in a pinch, Angela Bettis, the star of this 2002 TV remake, fills Spacek's bloody shoes very well. Bettis--who expertly plays a similar role in the indie horror pic May--gets all the loner pathos of poor Carrie White, equally tormented by her cool classmates and her religious-fanatic mom (Patricia Clarkson). Her transformation from doormat to vengeful prom queen remains surefire wish fulfillment for anyone who ever felt a misfit in high school. Despite Bettis's intensity, it's difficult to justify remaking Carrie when Brian De Palma's 1976 version is enshrined as a classic of its kind (especially given the pedestrian TV-movie production values on display here). This one delivers its jolts, but when you could just as easily spend time with Spacek and De Palma, why bother? --Robert Horton
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