New miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's 'Carrie' released

To date, every remake of Carrie has failed to near the power of Brian De Palma’s 1976 classic take on Stephen King’s first novel: a terrifying and tragic story of a shy high-school outcast relentlessly bullied into a murderous, supernatural rage at her prom. It simply can’t be replicated; and thankfully horror auteur Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass), the man behind Carrie’s first miniseries adaptation, knows it.

While the basic plot, characters and classic scenes (Carrie pelted with sanitary products, a prom queen soaked in pig’s blood) are present, Flanagan otherwise remixes the story with a modern-day setting, sweeping reflections on contemporary America and a focus on cyberbullying previously attempted by the 2013 remake starring Chloë Grace Moretz.

Not everything connects. Purists will take issue, no doubt, with the central role that an anonymous Instagram account takes in Carrie’s bullying, resulting in scenes that feel a little too close to Gossip Girl or Mean Girls. And, while Flanagan introduces elements of King’s novel not in other adaptations, the presence of original characters such as Carrie’s mysterious friend Emeline (Thalia Dudek) don’t necessarily add much. If some plots feel like they exist purely to stretch King’s unusually short novel into a 6.5-hour, eight-episode event, they’re likely setting up something more, with Flanagan stating he envisions his Carrie as a “three season” series.

The biggest difference, however, is Carrie herself. While actor Summer H. Howell bares a striking similarity to De Palma’s lead, Sissy Spacek, her version of King’s anti-heroine is far-flung from the shy, scarred girl in the 1976 film, thanks to a new backstory. Here, Carrie’s ultra-libertarian, conspiracist dad and ultra-religious mother Margaret (Flanagan mainstay Samantha Sloyan) have never once let their daughter leave the house. But when her father dies on a building job in the show’s opening scenes, authorities discover Carrie exists, and she’s forced to enter school for the first time at 15.

Despite it all, Carrie is open-eyed and trembling with excitement as she enters school – the lead of a gentle, shoegaze-soundtracked coming-of-age story who is failed by others at every turn. After demanding she attend school, the state has made no effort to prepare her. She arrives unsure what the metal detector is, let alone aware of why the school needs one. She’s never even met another teenager, and this is a cruel cohort.

Carrie’s main bully Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton) is particularly vile in this version, with new insight into her dysfunctional family begging the question: if Carrie can choose kindness (until the very end), why can’t Chris?

In Flanagan’s telling, it’s Carrie’s contact with modern life – not her family’s lifelong abuse – that corrupts her kind heart. This is perhaps the most brutal retelling of the story yet, for a particularly brutal time.

Carrie is streaming on Amazon Prime Video from October 7.

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