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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

The cast and crew of Carrie appeared on a much-anticipated panel at New York Comic Con this past weekend, and the first thing everyone wanted to know about was blood.

On a larger scale, director Kimberly Peirce, producer Kevin Misher, and stars Chloe Moretz and Julianne Moore discussed the pressures of adapting the iconic horror film about a telekinetic outcast who lashes out at her tormenters. But of course everyone wanted to know where they stood on the whole blood issue first.

Peirce explained that they tested the blood for 3-4 months, doing “blood dump” after blood dump. As she explained, it came down to a fairly imprecise science: “‘Is it three, four, five gallons? Is it thick or thin? Do we dump it from here?’ I can tell you this, most of the time you’re gonna miss. ‘Is it gonna hit her on the day?’”

Suffice to say, they hit the mark, multiple times. “It was fun for about the first two weeks, but then it started getting sticky and gross,” Moretz confessed. “We have the wet blood and the fire blood and the dry blood. We had a whole collection. You don’t shoot chronologically, so you have to map out what you’re doing. It was amazing because for each day throughout, the character—the blood—became part of who you are. I got used to coming home at night covered in blood. The people at the front desk were like, ‘My God, she must’ve had a really bad day at work!’”

They debuted the first teaser for Carrie, and while you couldn’t see much footage, what we did glimpse was powerful: A tracking shot over the town of Chamberlain, Maine, engulfed in flames. Whereas in Brian De Palma’s 1976 movie it was only the school gym that got torched by Carrie’s wrath, here the whole town is on fire. With voiceovers talking about the scale of the devastation and how “she seemed like such a nice girl,” the camera zooms in on a panting, bloodied Carrie. It’s a brief but chilling moment.

“The destruction in the book is quite a bit bigger than the [original] movie,” Misher noted. “We were able to utilize that in today’s day and age. But I think it all comes from character, at the end of the day. We didn’t want to do things just because we could. Kim had fun with the telekinesis because you can.”

“I do want to do a little shout out to Brian [de Palma, the director of the original Carrie],” Peirce said. “I think he set a lot in motion by making a fantastic movie. I’m friends with him and a huge fan of his, really. But I didn’t take anything from his movie. For me, really, it was reading Stephen King’s absolutely fantastic novel – falling in love with his depiction of Carrie, Carrie’s mother, and thinking, this is such a fantastic story, I need to bring this to life, because it’s so fun and so great.”

Lest you forget that we were at Comic Con, the first fan at the microphone was dressed as Kick-Ass and had actually won a contest to appear in Kick-Ass 2 – though his request to meet with Moretz briefly after the panel to get her autograph was met with boos from the crowd.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Be nice,” Moretz warned the crowd. To the fan she sweetly said, “I might see you in London, we can have our moment there.”

“And you might have to contend with her mother,” Moore joked.

That seemed to satisfy the crowd. They were also appeased by one more tidbit: If you call (207) 404-2604, you’ll hear a chilling conversation between Carrie and Margaret.


Natalie Zutter is a playwright, foodie, and the co-creator of Leftovers, a webcomic about food trucks in the zombie apocalypse. She’s currently the Associate Editor at Crushable, where she discusses movies, celebrity culture, and internet memes. You can find her on Twitter.

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