As a Stephen King fan, I have read almost all his books and seen many attempts to bring them or his short stories to TV or film. Some attempts were good; others were disastrous. But now, Mike Flanagan is at the helm for Prime’s Carrie. Does Flanagan do King right?
Carrie S01-E08
The 1974 novel by Stephen King, Carrie, is about a teenage girl with telekinetic powers and a bloody rampage, rightly unleashed on some rather obnoxious teens and teachers. While the 1976 film tried to capture the horror of King’s tale, it never matched the level of fright King delivered in his book. Carrie was published 52 years ago. It was the first step into King’s world of horror so intense that lights were left on after the last page was read.
But when Andy asked me to do weekly reviews of Amazon Prime’s Carrie, I almost said no, but then I saw that Mike Flanagan was the creator and showrunner. Summer H. Howell plays Carrie White, and Samantha Sloyan plays Margaret White, an obsessively overprotective mother.
Flanagan’s depiction of the Carrie story starts strong, so I am going to tell you what I liked about the series before sharing my final take on what went wrong. I love how we get a deeper look at Carrie White’s (Summer H. Howell) early childhood and the dynamics of a prepper family. I enjoyed Flanagan’s focus on the isolation effects on children forced to live in an environment of constant doom and conspiracy. Having witnessed firsthand the different types of homeschooling (good, bad, and ugly) while working at a museum, I immediately understood that Carrie would be considered prey in today’s educational system.
Having people in my own family who are die-hard conspiracy theorists, I completely understood Carrie’s mother, Margaret’s (Samantha Sloyan) panic mode after her husband (Tahmoh Penikett) had been killed in a work accident. Margaret was now forced to mingle with the very people she feared, and if that wasn’t enough to push her over the edge, the state was now taking control of Carrie’s education. No more homeschooling. No more control by an unhinged mother. This was the perfect cocktail for a disaster.
Mike Flanagan gives Carrie a voice by filming the school experience through Carrie’s eyes. Carrie was raised in isolation and now had to learn to become part of a hive, including classes, friends, and enemies. Summer H. Howell portrays Carrie as a Pollyanna who wants to be part of the cool kids. She finds a friend in Sue Snell (Siena Agudong), who is part of the inner circle of the high school’s queen bee, Christine Hargensen (Alison Thornton).
Flanagan understood and portrayed the nastiness of today’s teenagers perfectly. We hear about it every day on the news…Cyberbullying…the act of inflicting harm on a fellow human through mass embarrassment via YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Children being harassed to such limits that they kill themselves. Flanagan got this right with Christine and her group of little bitches. Watching the joy that Christine took in hurting others is more frightening than any monster King can dream up.
The helplessness of the teachers (Amber Midthunder, Matthew Lillard, Tim Bagley, Rahul Kohli) and the children’s parents who were being picked on via a site called Carrie Red is also accurate. Teachers’ hands are tied because parents have not taught their children about respect and consequences. I have teachers in the family, and I was also a substitute teacher. The real monster in this scary tale is a teenager who hasn’t learned empathy from her parents and knows her parents will excuse all her crimes because they are too busy working and living their own lives.
Flanagan did that part right, and that is what I loved best about the series. We got a more detailed look at what happened before Prom night. We were even able to sympathize with Queen Bee Christine because she was also a victim of abuse. Neglect is abuse.
So where did Flanagan fuck up?
Conclusion and Spoilers
Okay, so I know Mike Flanagan plans to make a three-season series out of Carrie, but Emaline (Thalia Dudek)? Astral projection? A dangerous telekinetic named Adelaide (Kate Siegel) who is tracking down other telekinetics? I loved seeing Kate Siegel in this series, but at this point I questioned Flanagan’s desire to incorporate King’s theory about the “TK” gene being passed down genetically through families.
I am hesitant to even consider watching S02 and S03 if Flanagan doesn’t handle Carrie with the same surgical skill he did with The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher. My biggest fear after watching the last episode of Carrie is that we will get a bad version of Mean Girls. I hope that I’m wrong, because up to now…Mike Flanagan has made horror cool again…but sometimes… it’s best to leave well enough alone. We shall see.
