Mike Flanagan Bringing Stephen King's 'Carrie' to Amazon!

Two things can be true at once – for example, loving something while also acknowledging that there is room for improvement. In my case, this would apply to the 1976 horror classic Carrie, directed by Brian de Palma and based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Despite its campy reputation these days, the film is, in my opinion, a masterpiece not just in the horror genre but in cinema in general. The climactic prom scene alone is a masterclass in directing, editing, and building tension...

Still, it has its flaws… The main one, for me, is that it lacks the true spirit and nuance of King’s novel.

We all like to think of ourselves as above the bullying of a poor, socially-outcast teenager like Carrie White, right? Especially when she is the meek, fresh-faced Carrie White as portrayed in the movie by actress (and former irl homecoming queen) Sissy Spacek. Yes, we would all like to think that we would have immediately stood up for Carrie and defended her against her tormenters. But in King’s book, it’s not so simple.

King’s Carrie is overweight, pimply, wears frumpy homemade clothes, and occasionally tells her classmates they are going to hell for their sinful ways. Now, no one here is condoning the treatment she received from her bullies nor are we going to get into victim-blaming, but the point that King is making is that Carrie seems to make little effort not to provoke her abusers. We see none of this in the de Palma film – it’s only hinted at in the opening scene where Carrie freaks out over getting her period in the locker room and her gym teacher slaps her across the face to calm her down; later, in the principal’s office, the teacher confesses that she kind of empathizes with the other girls in locker room who were making fun of Carrie because geeeez it’s just your period, girl, chill! There’s just something about Carrie White that triggers the worst in us, whether we will it or not. Just as Carrie is unable to control her telekinetic abilities when she is pushed too far…

Now, we might finally get that perspective as it’s been announced that none other than Mike Flanagan is developing a Carrie series for Amazon! Granted, Flanagan is not exactly known for his 1:1 adaptations (see: “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”), but he is known for getting into the real meat and meaning of a story. He is also no stranger to tackling Stephen King’s works, having already brought the author’s Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and The Life of Chuck to the big screen. King clearly trusts this guy with his work, plus every single series Flanagan has put out so far has permanently stuck to my soul, so I am very confident that this will be the adaptation that I have been waiting for!

We won’t know for sure, though, until we find out who he casts as Carrie. If it’s another Sissy Spacek, well… so much for that. One thing we can count on, though, is that Flanagan will likely cast his wife and frequent collaborator Kate Siegel as Carrie’s mother!

Stay tuned!