Carrie has inspired up to four movies, but it has never been the basis of a series. The closest it came to that format was through a canceled NBC production that was originally intended to serve as a continuation of the 2002 TV movie.
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The famous Stephen King novel will finally make its debut in that format this year, when the Prime Video platform launches an eight-episode miniseries directed, written, and showrun by Mike Flanagan.
Part of his first collaboration with Amazon MGM Studios – the studio with which he has just signed a multi-year deal – the filmmaker embarks on the adaptation of the book that Brian de Palma successfully brought to the cinema in 1976, with actress Sissy Spacek in the role of Carrie White and Piper Laurie as Margaret, her religious fanatic mother.
Flanagan greatly respects that film and does not lose sight of its impact on popular culture. He also knows the American author’s universe after having adapted Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and the novella Chuck’s Life. And this time, after careful consideration, he concluded that the best option was to bring the story to the present day.
“The themes Steve talked about half a century ago – kindness versus cruelty, empathy, bullying, and school violence – have become even more relevant today than he could have imagined, due to our relationship with technology and the extent to which violence affects our teenagers, especially in the United States,” he explained to Entertainment Weekly.
Carrie White (here played by Summer H. Howell, an actress selected from over a thousand applicants) has spent her life confined at home with her mother, Margaret (Samantha Sloyan). After the sudden death of the young woman’s father, her family attracts the interest of the authorities and is forced to enter a public school for the first time.
In that space, she will encounter the classic characters from King’s story: Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton), Carrie’s main bully; Sue Snell (Siena Agudong), the teenager who feels sorry for her; Tommy Ross (Joel Oulette), Sue’s athlete boyfriend; Billy (Arthur Conti), the town bad boy; Miss Desjardin (Amber Midthunder), the female gym teacher; and Principal Grayle (Matthew Lillard).
Flanagan detailed that this is a different Carrie than the one Sissy Spacek portrayed on the big screen 50 years ago. “(She) ventures into the forest of adolescence with no sense of danger and with an innate trust in people and kindness,” he noted, describing the character as “open,” “enthusiastic,” “curious,” and “sincere.”
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Meanwhile, the protagonist’s mother keeps her away from the world as a result of her attempts to create a “utopia” for the young woman, and that affects the dynamic between them, making it “completely different.” “She is a woman who intensely loves her daughter and wants to protect her from this world and the dangers Margaret knows and Carrie does not,” he stated.
And what about the prom dance that marks the climax of the story? It will be there, but it won’t be the same, according to the series creator’s vision. “We will get to it in a completely different way, and the events of that dance will be completely different,” he revealed.
Another striking point is that, starting from the second episode, the fiction will introduce other young women from around the world who also possess the gene that grants telekinesis.
“Carrie’s specific place within that group of women is part of the real joy we discover throughout the season,” he previewed, emphasizing that the novel included “the fact that she is part of a sisterhood of women with a gift and simply doesn’t know it (…) The book makes that absolutely clear, but that was something we could revisit and develop.”
Warning that the changes applied will probably not go unnoticed among fans, the filmmaker declared that under his hand “this was never going to be a direct adaptation. The only way to approach it was to build something new from the ingredients of Carrie. Otherwise, it makes no sense to try to repeat such a well-told story.”
Although for now Prime Video has limited itself to announcing that the series will premiere during the spring, that is, between September and December, it is not unreasonable to think it will be released around Halloween.
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