How many times can you tell the same story? In the case of Carrie, the answer would seem to be: again. After the famous film directed by Brian De Palma in 1976, the sequel Carrie 2 – La furia of 1999, the 2002 television film, and the 2013 remake with Chloë Grace Moretz, Carrie White returns to the screen once more. This time it’s Mike Flanagan (the same one responsible for small masterpieces like Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor) who has turned the novel by Stephen King into an eight-episode series for Prime Video. A choice that, inevitably, brings with it a question: was another Carrie really necessary? For Flanagan, the answer is yes. But only on one condition: not to simply redo what the audience has already seen.
Why return to Carrie again? Mike Flanagan explains
The same Flanagan told TVLine that his initial reaction to the project was precisely what many viewers might have: “Why Carrie?” The director began to find an answer by thinking about the world in which today’s teenagers grow up. As his eldest son prepared to start high school, Flanagan reflected on the enormous differences between the school he attended in the nineties and the one a new generation would encounter. The violence in schools, the drills in case of shootings, and above all the social media have profoundly changed the experience of adolescence. And it is precisely in this that Stephen King’s novel began to feel surprisingly current to him. According to Flanagan, Carrie offered the opportunity to do something similar to what he had already done with The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Fall of the House of Usher: take a known story, dismantle it and rebuild it using familiar elements to create something new.
The Carrie in the Social Media Era
The new series retains some of the story’s most iconic moments, from the shower scene to the terrible prom, but places them in a contemporary context. And bullying becomes even harder to avoid. If in the original novel Carrie had to endure humiliations in the school corridors, today cruelty can continue even after returning home. Social media allow bullying to be amplified, shared, and transformed into a constant presence in a person’s life. It is one of the aspects that makes the new interpretation particularly interesting: Carrie’s story is not simply updated aesthetically, but read through the fears of a different generation.
The Differences: A Carrie the Public Doesn’t Know
Even the characters, in any case, shift slightly compared to the previous adaptations. Summer H. Howell plays Carrie, while Samantha Sloyan takes on the role of Margaret White, her mother. In the new series, Carrie and Margaret have spent much of their lives isolated from the world. Religion remains central for both, but Margaret is also portrayed as a victim of the toxic and abusive family dynamics that shaped her life. There is also another important difference: Carrie’s father is still present when the story begins. When authorities discover the girl’s situation, Carrie is forced to attend high school. And it is precisely there that her isolation ends and the real nightmare begins. The series does not stop at altering Carrie and Margaret, but expands the characters who orbit the protagonist. Chris Hargensen, played by Alison Thornton, is not simply the classic popular and cruel girl. The new version also seeks to show her motivations and vulnerabilities, giving greater depth to a character who in previous adaptations was mainly Carrie’s antagonist. Sue Snell, played by Siena Agudong, also experiences a different arc. After taking part in bullying Carrie, she begins to feel guilt and ends up becoming one of the girl’s closest allies. These changes allow the series to move away from a mere remake.
Stephen King Has Approved the New Version
There is, then, a particularly important element for Flanagan: Stephen King is on board with the project. The director has said that the writer appreciated the idea after seeing what had been produced for the series. His approval is certainly meaningful, especially considering how Carrie is now tied to the cinematic imagination created by Brian De Palma’s film. Flanagan, however, does not seem interested in competing with that version. His aim is rather to demonstrate that a story can be told multiple times and still have something new to say if the world around its characters changes. Carrie speaks of adolescence, isolation, bullying, the fear of being different, and the desire to be accepted. These are themes that do not belong only to the Seventies. In fact, according to Flanagan’s view, some of these elements can be even more unsettling in the contemporary world, where cruelty can become public in moments. So another Carrie, then, perhaps was necessary. Not to replace the one we know, but to show how much the world has changed since Stephen King first told the story of Carrie White.
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