If only Carrie could use her power against remakes

The original “Carrie” must be spinning in its film vault. Instead of being allowed to rest in peace, another movie classic has been pointlessly redone.

NBC is billing this three-hour version of “Carrie,” which airs at 8 tonight and is rated TV-14, as a more faithful adaptation of Stephen King’s horror novel because it includes scenes director Brian De Palma and screenwriter Lawrence Cohen left out of the 1976 original -- which only confirms that truer doesn’t necessarily mean better.

De Palma’s film built tantalizing suspense as Carrie gradually got in touch with her supernatural side, but this version by director David Carson and writer Bryan Fuller spoils the mood by unleashing too much too soon, including an early barrage of silly digital effects.

This update is especially disappointing because the basic story, with its themes of religious terror and campus revenge, should be more relevant than ever in today’s world.

Angela Bettis (“Girl, Interrupted”) stars in the title role as an outcast tormented by her high school classmates and her fanatical mother, Emmy winner Patricia Clarkson (“Six Feet Under”), until a prom prank pushes her over the edge, unleashing her telekinetic fury. David Keith, Rena Sofer, Kandyse McClure and Emilie de Ravin co-star.

This “Carrie” offers one deliciously icy jolt before the final credits, a twist on the memorable grabber at the end of the original. Yet it’s too little too late.

So why did NBC bother with this project?

Who knows? Perhaps it was possessed by the same inexplicable spirit that drove Gus Van Sant to remake “Psycho” a few years ago.