Mike Flanagan has brought Stephen King’s demented masterpiece, Carrie, back to life. This time, the immortal story has been translated into a contemporary series for today’s audience and explored in a bigger world on Prime Video.
Flanagan’s Carrie follows the titular outcast, played by Summer H. Howell, facing the cruel world today. Her sheltered, home-schooled background and naivety make her an easy target for bullies like Chris Hargensen (Allison Thornton). Her father died in a tragic accident, and her religiously disturbed mother, Margaret (Samantha Sloyan), is determined to keep her locked away. As she grows overwhelmed by her demons at High School and at home, Carrie mysteriously develops telekinetic powers. There is going to be Hell to pay when everyone realizes what she is capable of.
For the most part, other than its modern setting, Mike Flanagan’s series is a faithful adaptation of Stephen King’s original novel. King’s story was a nuanced cautionary tale about bullying, abuse, and isolation. Since director Brian De Palma adapted Carrie’s story into the 1976 film, an era of horror grounded in realism emerged. Ironically, Carrie never had a series, despite spawning a standalone sequel and two remakes. The stage has been set for an auteur to expand the narrative into a linear format, which Flanagan did with gravitas.
The Anomaly
Carrie is essentially a case study of human nature and limitless power from an adolescent perspective. Over the course of the story, we see a vicious cycle emerge when pain becomes power and power becomes corruption. External circumstances can influence human behaviour, especially in high school hierarchies and broken homes. Trauma and peer pressure breed bullies and victims. What happens when victims become anomalies? How would that look today? Flanagan asks and answers those questions in Prime Video’s series with his characterizations and plot points.
When we meet Summer H. Howell as Carrie White, she’s a timid girl with childlike wonder and innocence. All she wanted was the sense of belonging deprived by her mother after so many years. Howell emulates Carrie perfectly. She captures her vulnerability and goes a step further, presenting a sweet child in urgent need of care. Her version of the character is the ticking time bomb with a more gradual descent into chaos, that Flanagan’s adaptation requires. Chris Hargensen (Allison Thornton) and Margaret White (Samantha Sloyan), along with other factors, all light her fuse.
Margaret and Chris are fleshed out through Flanagan’s writing, while Sloyan and Thornton humanize their characters. Margaret is a paranoid, overly religious mother whose parenting has caused more harm than good. Sloyan depicts a damaged mother who only knows how to act out of fear, instead of love. Deviating slightly from the source material, she is not as physically abusive as she is mentally and emotionally. Every decision she makes for her daughter’s well-being is fundamentally wrong. However, Sloyan does a fantastic job making audiences believe that she believes she is always right. Unlike Margararet, Chris acts out of unfiltered rage, being Carrie’s true antithesis, a predator addicted to inflicting pain so that she can forget about her own. Thornton evenly conveys Chris’s hurt and hatred in her character interactions. Her range shows how she can switch from being lonely to acting like a friend to stabbing you in the back. Chris is the modern bully, synonymous with a sociopath.
Although Flanagan provides additional context for their abuse, he makes it clear that they are not good people at all. Most of the characters do not experience growth in the traditional sense. They either regress or escalate, revealing their true natures. After all is said and done, the only person with the least blood on their hands is Sue Snell (Siena Agudong). Sure, she makes mistakes, but she consistently commits to doing the right thing, making her the only light in all this darkness.
The Wider World
Carrie’s most controversial change is not the modern timeline. That honor goes to the implementation of other supernaturally gifted women besides our anti-hero. Flanagan will undoubtedly divide fans with such a liberty, but he does not divert attention from Carrie. He simply adjusts the narrative around her. Carrie does not join X-Men, Hogwarts, or anything that betrays the franchise’s horror roots. Her powered peers remain in the background, observing from afar. You can barely consider them supporting characters because they are mainly framing devices used for narration and foreshadowing.
The enhanced individuals are one of many instrumental factors in Flanagan’s worldbuilding. He sets his series apart from prior adaptations by masterfully subverting expectations without compromising the integrity of King’s work. Prime’s series is not a 1:1 adaptation. However, it is a dignified reimagining that balances ket set pieces with shocking plot twists.
Flanagan envisions three seasons, which would mean completely fresh territory. There has never been a canonical continuation of Carrie White’s story. Season One adapts King’s singular novel. Should Prime Video renew Carrie, he would have the power to further reinvent the character and build a new lore. I find those prospects exciting and frightening because I am partially skeptical about a continuation despite my admiration for Flanagan’s vision.
Here Comes Carrie
Whatever the future has in store for Carrie, Mike Flanagan produced a fantastic debut season. Poetic license is not taken for the sake of appealing to a modern audience. Flanagan fulfills his mission of proving how relevant King’s story is today. Subsequently, he stretches it to foster organic evolution and examine trauma from other points of view.
Flanagan explores the psyches of tormentors without oversympathizing with them. Even though they are people burdened with trauma, their actions are never justified. Chris, Margaret and enablers are responsible for their choices and must face the consequences. Unfortunately for them, those consequences look like Carrie.
Despite the division I expect from fans of Stephen King’s original novel, I cannot deny the impeccable quality of Mike Flanagan’s Carrie.
