Mike Flanagan’s Carrie series on Prime Video is horror with a heart
Mike Flanagan's newest project is the Amazon Prime Video series Carrie, and, as everyone knows, it is an adaptation of Stephen King’s first published novel. The novel released in 1975, and Brian DePalma’s celebrated film version debuted in theatres in 1976. Since that time, the story of plain, lonely Carrie White has been adapted twice more, once in 2002, and once in 2013.
I was always a bookworm as a kid and teenager, and I first discovered King when I was 13 years old. Both of my parents were big readers; my Dad loved police procedural and science fiction, and my Mom loved horror novels. She had read ‘Salem’s Lot, and I often picked up her books after she was finished and read them myself. I was immediately hooked into the vampire story. And after I read it, I checked out every one of his books I could find in the library, including Carrie.
That first movie was perfection (the other two adaptations not so much), so I was not super enthused about a new version of the story. But then came the news that Mike Flanagan would be adapting it, and I was all in. Flanagan had already proven himself with the film versions of Gerald’s Game and Dr. Sleep, and with his King-inspired story telling in the Netflix series Midnight Mass.
I was not wrong to trust him with Carrie’s painful story. Flanagan manages to honor King’s original vision, while also adding something new to the story, and he does all of it while keeping us emotionally invested.
Carrie will be available on Prime Video October 7
Since the film is set in the present day, it makes sense that Flanagan made her parents Ralph and Margaret doomsday preppers and conspiracy theorists. Because of their paranoia, Carrie and her Margaret have been hidden within the home; most people don’t even know they exist until Ralph is killed at work. Obviously, when it’s discovered he has a child who has never been in school, Margaret is forced to send Carrie to the local high school.
Most of the first episode is dedicated to that first day, when Carrie is actually excited at the prospect. On her first day, she is nervous, but happy…and that happiness is taken away fairly quickly. Classmate Sue Snell is friendly enough to her, but Chris is obviously a mean girl from the start (though we see enough of her home life to know understand why she is so troubled).
The big event on day one is when the school has an active shooter drill, complete with gunshot audio being played loudly in the hallways. Carrie has no idea that there is not really a shooter in the school, so her overreaction is understandable and we feel sympathy for her. So her first day does not go well, despite the fact that the counsellor (Matthew Lilard) is kind and understanding towards her, and Sue Snell is friendly enough.
Day two is worse, and that’s the part most of us remember – when Carrie has her first period, and thinks she is ill or dying, because Margaret never gave her a heads-up. High school girls being high school girls, they tease her and throw tampons at her as she sobs on the shower floor in the locker room.
Throughout the episode, we are shown video of townspeople, teachers, and students giving their statements after the big fire in the gym, which we know will happen towards the end of the series. And when Carrie is upset about something, we see atmospheric proof, such as rocks raining down on her house, lights flickering, etc.
It was smart of Flanagan to focus so many things were not in place when King wrote his novel, or when the first movie released. At that time, there was no social media, so the mean girls in high school couldn't whip out their non-existant cell phones to record embarrassing events. Metal detectors were not part of walking into school in the morning.
Flanagan always has a stellar cast in place for his projects, and Carrie is no exception. Summer H. Howell is a sweet, innocent little Carrie, and it’s impossible to not feel for her. Samantha Sloyan, so great as the evil Bev in Midnight Mass is equally brilliant as Margaret, Siena Agudong gives a sympathetic performance as popular Sue, and Alison Thornton is appropriately mean as Chris.
It’s always good to see Matthew Lillard on screen, and his performance as Grayle is solid, and even the always-likeable Rahul Kohli (who played the Sheriff in Midnight Mass) is back on the Flanagan “stage.”
I really liked the first episode of Carrie, and I look forward to seeing the rest of the series when it comes to Prime.
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