Horror fans have been familiar with Carrie White’s story since 1974, when Stepehen King published his first novel. Two years later, audiences were graced with DePalma’s take on Carrie for the big screen.
The cautionary tale has remained popular throughout the decades, with multiple adaptations and spinoffs. Horror lovers can’t get enough of poor Carrie’s story. But with DePalma’s film being nearly perfect, some fans wondered, why bother with yet another adaptation? What new angle can we bring to Carrie that we haven’t seen before, and that will add value to the discussion of her story? Well, Mike Flanagan has proven, once again, that he knows exactly what he’s doing, and the first two episodes of his Carrie adaptation for Amazon Prime leave no questions about “why Carrie again, now?”
Flanagan has always been excellent at adaptations, especially of Stpehen King’s work. Gerald’s Game should have been unfilmable, but Flanagan made it an incredible movie in 2017. When he made the film version of Doctor Sleep work for audiences whether or not they had read the Shining, he was threading the needle perfectly. And now with Carrie, Flanagan has brought her story into 2026 in a believable way. The bullying Carrie experiences involves smartphones and social media, and unlike the over-the-top “plug it up” chant in DePalma’s film, Carrie’s torture at the hands of her peers feels raw and real.
Carrie (Summer H. Howell) herself is perfectly positioned as an outcast in a cruel world. Flanagan added an original factor to her story which means she is completely unprepared when she starts her first day at public school as a Sophomore. School shooter drills horrify her, but even more mundane things, like the concept of homeroom, make her feel like a fish out of water. Everything is new to her, and the other kids pick up on this, and use it against her. There were fair criticisms when casting was announced, lamenting the fact that yet again, we got a skinny, pretty Carrie White, when in the book, she is bullied for her looks. However, Flanagan has perfectly positioned Carrie as a realistic target of bullying, and it works for the story he is telling.
The structure of the show harkens back to the format of the novel, in which news reports from after the final incident at prom interrupt the story, so the reader is jumping back and forth in time. In the show, characters who survived the incident are being interviewed, presumably for a documentary, and audiences experience that back-and-forth like readers did. It’s a smart choice, and it works well in the format of a miniseries, where it might not work as well in a film.
Another strength of Flanagan’s is, as usual, his characterization. He creates realistic people, most of whom are neither heroes or villains, but a little of both. From the first episode, he builds sympathy for Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton), who might be considered the villain in Carrie. But even Flanagan’s villains pull at our heartstrings.
The more compelling thing about Carrie’s first two episodes is that they can pull anyone in – whether you were looking forward to this series or not, and whether or not you have strong feelings about the source material. Flanagan has made another masterful adaptation, with his own flavour.
Two episodes were available to view.
The first two episodes of Carrie were screened in their world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2026 on Saturday, September 19. The show will be available on Wednesday, October 7 on Prime Video.
