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A Feminist CARRIE Remake?

Published at: Jan. 4, 2012, 7:41 p.m. CST

Nordling here.

Deadline is reporting that CARRIE will be remade over at MGM and that Kimberly Peirce is in talks to direct the Stephen King adaptation.  The script was written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who worked on the Broadway hit SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK.  Peirce's previous films were the acclaimed Hilary Swank film BOY'S DON'T CRY, and STOP LOSS.

Obviously, a remake of Brian De Palma's classic movie will be a source of anger amongst fans of the original.  De Palma's CARRIE is pretty much perfect the way it is - De Palma had a way to get to the pulpy center of King's work that no other director really has since, in a way.  Movies based on King's work often miss more than they hit, but CARRIE, while a timeless movie, came out at a time when the world's attention was focused on women's issues.  

Like THE EXORCIST before it, CARRIE explored a woman entering adulthood, but in a far different manner than THE EXORCIST did.  I'm sure that United Artists didn't expect the film to become as successful as it did - the studio likely wanted a quickie horror movie to capitalize on all the EXORCIST hysteria.  What they got was an undisputed classic.

The idea of a remake of King's book makes me wince, but it's also possible that this generation of young women don't have something like a CARRIE in their lives, and Peirce, who seems at touch with those issues, might offer an interesting take on the material.  But the original was fairly feminist in its own right, and it's doubtful that De Palma's version will ever be topped, in my opinion.

Nordling, out.

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