Mike Flanagan’s ‘Carrie’ [Season Review]: A Horror Classic Reimagined for a Brutal New Era

“We were kids just trying to do our best.”

Stephen King’s works are so prolific that they’re practically their own genre. Mike Flanagan’s take on Carrie, King’s first novel, will be the fourth version of this story (not to mention its forgotten sequel, The Rage: Carrie 2 ,and short-lived stage musical). If there is any King story that we should be able to close the book on, it’s Carrie, and yet Flanagan’s impeccable track record for not just King adaptations, but adaptations in general, makes this eight-episode miniseries a fascinating experiment. It’s easy to dismiss this adaptation as frivolous and unnecessary, but it very quickly becomes apparent what Flanagan’s take on the source material brings to the table. 

Flanagan’s Carrie stays true to the root of King’s novel while using the perils of being a Gen Alpha teen as its biggest justification for reviving Carrie White. Flanagan filters this coming-of-age story about bullying, identity, and independence through the harsh realities of the modern world where schools have metal detectors, practice active shooter drills, and rumors snowball via social media. There’s now a scathing nihilism and an apathy that’s present toward the endless tragedies students face on a daily basis. School shootings were much more of an anomaly when Carrie was published in 1974, over 50 years ago, than they are today. This alone recontextualizes the impact of Carrie’s massacre in a new light. 

There are moments in which Flanagan’s Carrie still feels redundant, but this adaptation manages to justify its existence and asserts a fresh, frightening perspective that reimagines this haunting story. It’s a somber meditation on grief, control, and acceptance that’s a takedown of bullying and the trauma that’s become internalized in society’s youth. Carrie is timely, profound, and one of the most powerful adaptations of King’s iconic novel, but it’s also a standout entry in Flanagan’s oeuvre that reflects some of his strongest work to date.

Flanagan’s reinvention of King’s classic begins with Carrie White (Summer H. Howell) entering public high school after a lifetime of homeschooling under her strict mother, Margaret (). Carrie leans into the culture shock as she naively embraces this brave new world. Flanagan crafts the definitive coming-of-age high school drama for young adults with . This is by way of and , but in the best way possible.