Film Review: ‘Carrie’

“You will know her name,” scream the posters for the new bigscreen version of “Carrie,” as if anyone could forget it after seeing Brian De Palma’s brilliant 1976 movie or reading the original Stephen King novel. Aimed at captivating a new generation of viewers unfamiliar with the tale of a cruelly unloved high schooler who unleashes telekinetic revenge on her classmates, director Kimberly Peirce’s intermittently effective third feature eschews De Palma’s diabolical wit and voluptuous style in favor of a somber, straight-faced retelling, steeped in a now-familiar horror-movie idiom of sharp objects, shuddering sound effects and dark rivulets of blood.

The Sony/Screen Gems release will likely conjure a decent B.O. opening before dipping steadily thereafter, following the commercial pattern of the many slasher movies and supernatural thrillers it rather too closely resembles, especially in the sadistically overwrought, f/x-heavy closing reel. But while it can’t hope to match the galvanizing impact…