From the dreamy slo-mo of its opening shower scene, drenched in Pino Donaggio's score, through the split-screen sensation of its fiery central party piece, to the final graveside "jumper", Brian De Palma's 1976 adaptation of Stephen King's slim first published novel hit all the high notes.

This presents something of a problem for Kimberly Peirce, leaving her update very little space in which to "reimagine" the tale of a bullied adolescent whose repressed rage manifests itself in telekinetic revenge. Yes, we get the inevitable addition of mobile-phone footage that allows Carrie's initial humiliation to spread around the school like modern digital wildfire. And yes, the fiercely talented Chloë Grace Moretz is the first actress to play Carrie close to her actual age (both Sissy Spacek and TV remake star Angela Bettis were in their 20s when they took on the role).

But other than that, this is uninventive fare, remaining largely faithful to both King's novel and De Palma's film with oddly inert results. The story itself retains its feminine core; the men are still sidelined as Carrie's dawning womanhood tears her away from her evangelistic mother (Julianne Moore notably less scary than Piper Laurie), while her peers veer between the sisterly and the psychotic.

There are some well-observed vignettes of the Mean Girl horrors of high school and the enhanced effects may pacify those teen audiences who would now probably sneer at De Palma's snakey firehoses-on-strings finale. If so, that's no bad thing – this is a sturdy tale that deserves to find a new audience. It's just a shame they won't find anything new in the process.