Carrie Remake Article

Remaking films is very popular with producers. There is already a direct target audience for them, so all there is left to do is the production and distribution. The 2013 version of Carrie is a good example of this. It started off as a Stephan King book which was very popular. The original film which was produced in 1976 was directed by Brian De Palma who was already famous for making horror movies. and distributed by United Artists (a subsidiary of MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) made huge takings in the box office which amounted to $33,800,800 after a small budget of $1,800,00 to make. The popularity of the film no doubt helped with the decision to remake the film for Director Kimberly Pierce. This was made in 2013 and had a budget $30,00,000, much more than the original cost to create. The film was however not as popular in box office takings and only managed to bring in $5,266,619. At the time it was voted one of the scariest films ever made. 

Carrie is a film based on the main character, Carrie White who is a shy teenage girl who after being brought up in isolation, doesn’t find it easy making friends. After being humiliated in the showers at school another girl takes pity on her and gets her boyfriend to invite her to the prom. This irritates another girl who then plans to ruin this special day for Carrie in front of the whole school. This takes a turn for the worst when nobody expects her to suddenly change and show her gift to everyone resulting in multiple disasters. 

With the film being hugely popular it had merchandise made which also helped to promote the film. Types of merchandise made were t-shirts, action figures and s sound track. This being an example of synergy. 

Kimberly Pierce decided to do a remake of Carrie in 2013, following its popularity in the seventies because she found the original story so great. She see’s how we can all relate to Carrie White. We all want to fit in and be accepted, and are all a little crazy at times when this doesn’t happen.
She cast Chloe Mortez as Carrie which is a great example of Star Theory; any fans that Mortez already has will want to go and watch the films that she is in, whether thats their preferred genre or not. 

The target audience for Carrie is teenagers and young adults and casting Chloe in this role fits the target profile well because of her looks and acting styles. Using an actress like this helps keep the film up to date and modern like Kimberly Pierce wanted to do. She also says that she wanted to put much more focus on Carrie’s powers and make her almost superhero like. Making the movie much more like the book keeps it authentic. 

The technology in the film tells us a lot about how times have changed, this explains why this film also cost more to make. 

In the 2013 version of Carrie synergy has also been used. Again they have created a soundtrack which features the popular band Vampire Weekend which the target audience will enjoy. Carrie figurines were also made to gain more money. 

The fact that the remake of Carrie did not make a huge profit shows that not all remakes work. This may be due to the fact that the storyline is a little old and that todays audience need fresh new ways to be scared as there are so many different types of horror genres out there already.