Mike Flanagan's new eight-part television adaptation of Carrie reimagines Stephen King's debut novel about a telekinetic teenager for the modern age, taking teenage bullying, alienation and vengeful violence to new extremes. The series, now streaming on Prime Video, expands the story far beyond the 98-minute runtime of Brian De Palma's 1976 film, adding plot and characters while retaining the core themes.
The question of why remake a stone-cold classic is addressed directly in an accompanying letter to critics, in which Flanagan says he asked himself the same question when approached about the project. The answer, the review suggests, lies in the internet age, where bullying and alienation have reached levels that De Palma and King could never have imagined.
An expanded, kinder take on the classic horror
Unlike the lean, mean film, Flanagan's version runs eight hours, with signs of a second season already being sown. However, it avoids the streamer's curse of bloating, with almost everything and everyone present for a reason. The result plays more like a teen drama with extra bite than a straight-up, blood-soaked horror event, and it is kinder than the film – a byproduct of fleshing out the 'baddies' who cannot remain elemental villains over such a long period.
The series opens with the high school gym on fire, frantic 911 calls playing over scenes of the inferno as it consumes the school and spreads through town. The calls segue into reports of 200 deaths, and the flames fade into interviews with survivors and students who knew Carrie. Descriptions range from "Shy" and "A bully" to "A victim," "Quiet … genuinely kind," and "A monster."
Character depth and modernised cruelty
Carrie (Summer H Howell) is introduced hiding in the 'prayer closet' with her mother Margaret (Samantha Sloyan) as police enter their home after Carrie's father is killed at work. None of his co-workers knew he had a family. Carrie has been homeschooled and never allowed past the garden walls, but she is not the terrified, damaged figure expected. Instead, she is open, curious and keen to experience her new life, with Howell playing an essentially good and optimistic character that could easily have become more Anne-of-Green-Gables-with-PMT than a potential hellraiser.
Margaret is not the religious zealot of the film or source material. While conservative Christianity is her thing, and she has been influenced by her husband's controlling character and conspiracist bent, Flanagan's version mixes this with real and profound love and fear for her daughter's safety. Sloyan brings out every note, and the effects of being forced out into the world are as carefully explored as Carrie's own journey.
Carrie's tormentor Chris (Alison Thornton) is given reasons – not excuses – for her growing savagery, while Sue (Siena Agudong) wrestles with her conscience from the beginning. The dynamics between them, Carrie and the other friends are nicely detailed.
Bullying takes centre stage
The supernatural powers take second place, especially in the early episodes, to the horrors unleashed by Chris and her gang on the new girl. The famous period-in-the-shower scene is filmed on mobiles and ends up online via a malevolent Gossip Girl-style account, with countless other cruelties compounded.
This Carrie does not have the raw power of the film, but it has intelligence, wit and things to say about the fathomless potential for good and ill in the teenage heart – and how impossible it is to teach them which way to go. Carrie is on Prime Video now.
