Is a slightly longer screen version of the Stephen King classic a better version? Maybe not! (Anybody remember Stephen “Wings” Weber’s take on Jack Torrance a few years ago?)
Entertainment Weekly gives it a “C” and says:
In the horrifyingly slow remake of Stephen King's high school chiller, Angela Bettis (above) seamlessly slips into Sissy Spacek's prom dress as the telekinetic teen geek, but Patricia Clarkson makes the bad decision to underplay her Bible-crazed mother. Somehow, the story of a social outcast who wreaks bloody revenge on her classmates doesn't seem so entertaining in the post-Columbine era. And on what planet do gym teachers look as smokin' as Rena Sofer?
The Hollywood Reporter says:
Although the 1976 Brian de Palma movie that starred Sissy Spacek was hardly a cinematic classic, NBC's new version, written by Bryan Fuller and directed by David Carson, is no improvement. In fact, the three-hour TV film strips the story of most of its symbolism and ambiguity, turning it into a largely anticlimactic tale of serious payback and glitzy special effects.
8 p.m. Monday. NBC.
