So this is one of those movies where even if you haven’t seen it, you know the big moment. Which is a shame, because the movie would probably work better if you didn’t.

Like, as Carrie’s getting ready for the prom, her (kindly) teacher suspects that the other girls are setting her up to be the object of derision. We know immediately that they are, but the movie is actually a bit coy about this. And in fact, one of the best parts of the movie is that one of the girls wasn’t — she did something that could easily have been a step toward cruelty, but it actually was an act of (probably ill-considered, but still) kindness.

And that’s what makes the tragedy work: You’ve been on edge waiting for this one particular betrayal, but it never comes because it wasn’t a betrayal — but Carrie in her fury is incapable of distinguishing her enemies from her friends, and so even the well-meaning get burnt. If it had been simple enough that everyone was being cruel to her, her reprisal would have felt more simply righteous, and the movie would be a lot less interesting.

Beyond the famous prom, unfortunately, the movie does tend to fall into simplicity. The religious horror elements, which are clearly meant to provide thematic weight, mostly feel like well-trod ground. The mother is so cartoonishly over-the-top in her fanatical repression that she loops around from terrifying to kind of silly. I get that the story wants to draw a line from religious extremism to violence, repression to explosion, but it ends up feeling like shorthand — an over-familiar cliche re-used for the umpteenth time in a too-obvious way.

(In this context, I actually did kinda like John Travolta’s messed-up relationship with the bully girl. They’re both terrible, and they’re terrible to each other, and yet as much as they kinda hate each other, it’s clear that they also love it. It’s a more interesting dynamic than just having them be normally mean.)

Anyway, I don’t think it rises to greatness, but it is pretty good; and there’s enough in the movie to justify watching it even while you know what’s coming.