Mike Flanagan’s take on Carrie is a bold take on one of King’s best-known stories, but it doesn’t stick the landing. Here’s our Carrie review: To make Stephen King’s 1974 novel – which was less than 300 pages long – into a TV series is a bold undertaking. Yet that’s exactly what showrunner Mike Flanagan ... Carrie review | Mike Flanagan’s bold interpretation of Stephen King’s debut isn’t always on fire
Mike Flanagan’s take on Carrie is a bold take on one of King’s best-known stories, but it doesn’t stick the landing. Here’s our Carrie review:
To make Stephen King’s 1974 novel – which was less than 300 pages long – into a TV series is a bold undertaking. Yet that’s exactly what showrunner Mike Flanagan has gone and done for Prime Video.
This is Flanagan’s fourth Stephen King adaptation, but Carrie comes with its own set of expectations. It’ll be compared to Brian De Palma’s 1976 masterpiece, which was remade in 2013 into a ineffective shadow of that film. There’s also the 2002 TV movie that was supposed to kickstart a TV show which never materialised.
Flanagan has certainly forged his own path with Carrie. The basic premise here is the same; Carrie, an outsider at school and living with her devoutly religious mother Margaret (an excellent Samantha Sloyan), discovers she has telekinetic powers. As Carrie’s powers grow stranger, she becomes the target of school bully Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton).
Flanagan has truly taken the word ‘adaptation’ to heart, something that becomes clear from episode one. If you’re expecting a faithful take on King’s story, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Rather than power through King’s basic story, which arguably doesn’t have enough meat around its bones for an eight-episode arc, Flanagan has decided to find his own pressure points and flesh out some unexpected details.
This is a blatantly modern adaptation. Carrie’s humiliation after her first period arrives in the locker room is now filmed on phones and posted on the internet for everyone to see. Students are vaping rather than smoking. There are metal detectors in the school, something that greatly confuses Carrie, as do computers and the school shooter drill.
But the boldest aspect of the show isn’t so much its modern setting as how Carrie isn’t just about its title character. Carrie’s story is juxtaposed with Chris’s. As Carrie grows stronger, her bully grows weaker and angrier as we get glimpses into her home life. Episode three is a particular highlight as Carrie is having the best night of her life while Chris’s life is slowly but surely falling apart.
Thankfully, Carrie doesn’t turn Chris into a tragic victim nor does Flanagan ask us to forgive her for how she treats not just Carrie but everyone around her. We’re asked to understand what could have turned her into such a cruel being, but not to excuse her behaviour. A similar approach is tried with Margaret, who, despite Sloyan’s skills, never becomes as enthralling and terrifying as she should be.
It doesn’t all work, though. Flanagan expands the story maybe a little too much. He hints at other women through history with similar powers, an interesting but an underdeveloped idea. He inserts completely new characters: Katee Sackhoff’s role begins shrouded in mystery, but it proves to be more frustrating than fascinating, like many of Carrie’s secrets.
Most of the supporting characters are also left in the shadows. Matthew Lillard’s Principal Grayle, Amber Midthunder’s Ms Dejardin and Rahul Kohli’s Mr Peist don’t leave much of a mark. Sue Snell, played by Siena Agudong and one of the story’s most vital characters, is also overshadowed by Thornton’s Chris.
There’s a lot to love here, though, and most of Carrie is a superb adaptation that isn’t tied down by its source material, but a respectful and audacious expansion of it. That audaciousness gets out of hand by the end, when the several storylines fail to cohere into something that has any kind of denouement.
Flanagan has already said the “dream scenario” is to continue Carrie for another two seasons. These first eight episodes certainly hint at bigger things to come, but it leaves this season feeling a little half-baked. It has an exceptional, near perfect first half, but a disappointing second half with admirable ambitions.
Carrie is on Prime Video on 7th October.
