"They're all gonna laugh at you!" I didn't sleep the night before my first day of junior high. I was terrified. All my clothes were from Sears. I was sure they would know I was a poor farm girl. And I was fat. I had a huge butt and no boobs. I wore size 10 shoes. Surely they would notice my giant, freaky feet.

They. THE GIRLS. I wasn't worried about the boys. See, if you're a dork and a guy, you might score a black eye or a broken rib. But if you find yourself on the wrong side of a pack of girls—you're fucked. They don't want to break your bones; they want to break your heart. Girls get straight A's in Psychological Bullying 101.

The story of Carrie White—a horror-drama written by Stephen King and turned into a film in 1976—is timeless. The genre classic is now being revamped by director Kimberly Peirce, best known for her 1999 film Boys Don't Cry, an equally horrific story based on the real life of Brandon Teena, a young trans man who was raped and murdered after his male friends discovered that he was trans. Peirce, who is openly gay, is undoubtedly aware of the terrors of queer bullying. And with Carrie, Peirce aims her sharpened focus on the high-school "mean girl."

Before even seeing the remake, I decided no other actress could compete with Sissy Spacek's earlier version of the shy teenage outcast. Spacek was perfect—with her unconventional prettiness and her nervously soft Southern drawl. But as a modernized Carrie White, Chloë Grace Moretz nails it. The new Carrie is literally that—a modernization that's otherwise the same film, word-for-word, scene-by-scene. The few new details, like the locker room "menstrual blood humiliation" scene being videotaped and posted on the internet, brings the story into 2013, and adds a savage edge. Margaret White is intensified, too, with Julianne Moore playing Carrie's religious freak show of a mom. Her Bible rants have more fury and fervor, and she often says "I love you" to Carrie, making the mother-daughter relationship richer. Mom is also a self-mutilator (which is more gory, in one scene with a sewing tool, than any bucket of pig's blood could ever be), and Carrie's telekinetic powers get a boost from fancy, modern CGI.

The film still isn't very "scary." I suppose it never was. It's never been about religion or telepathic superpowers. Carrie is the story of a young woman being bullied by other women, and her own mother. It's a cautionary tale about pushing someone to the breaking point. And it's a story worth retelling. recommended