Mike Flanagan continues his mission to adapt as many Stephen King tales as possible with his upcoming series based on Carrie. Prime Video has just released the first full trailer for the new show. He’s giving us a bit more insight into how the filmmaker is making this story his own.
Carrie is based on Stephen King’s 1974 novel of the same name. It has already been adapted into 3 films in 1976, 2002, and 2013. Not to mention a 1999 sequel to the 1976 movie, The Rage: Carrie 2. (Just because we want to pretend like that nonsensical sequel doesn’t exist doesn’t make it so). Flanagan’s take will be the first attempt to adapt the story into a series and expand upon the original work.
The Series
The show tells the story of Carrie White (Summer Howell), a misfit high‑schooler who spent her entire life hidden in her home by her obsessive mother, Margaret (Samantha Sloyan). The sudden death of her father forces her into public school. There, she soon becomes the target of a bullying campaign by her peers. However, this harassment starts to unlock previously untapped telekinetic powers.
The trailer expands upon what we saw in the previous teaser, but it does give some new insight into the bullying the titular character faces. In the teaser, we see a tight-lipped smile out of a clearly Mean Girls-coded teen. The full trailer gives us a bit more of this exchange. When one girl seems to genuinely compliment Carrie’s dress, her friends begin to passive-aggressively mock her. Phrases like “You sure did,” or “I love that for you,” (in reference to her being homeschooled) are taken as genuine signs of friendship. Whereas anyone who has been around a bully, or even seen one in a movie, knows that these girls are laying into the new kid.
Once they find out she has never been to public school, let alone properly socialized, they know she is a new and easy target. While there was some pushback against how Carrie was treated in previous adaptations, namely from Sue, Tommy, and Ms.Collins. We do see some (possibly) new characters defending her in the trailer.
Plug It Up
Yes, what is a Carrie adaptation without the infamous “plug it up” scene? For any readers who may be unaware, Ms. White gets her first period in the girls’ locker room after gym. Unfortunately, a blend of being raised by a religious zealot and poor education has prevented her from knowing what that is. From Carrie’s perspective, she is hemorrhaging and, more than likely in pain due to cramps. However, she has no clue or frame of reference for why this is happening. When she, understandably, freaks out, her classmates mock her while throwing tampons and pads, screaming “plug it up!”
So this poor girl thinks she is dying and people begin screaming and throwing things at her. This is a pivotal scene leading to one of the most understandable crashouts in history. Every adaptation has done this segment from the book, and Flanagan’s will be no exception. He will also have her bullies record it and upload it online to cyberbully her. Every version, sans the novel and first film, has included this element. And we’re sure if cellphones and the internet had existed then, King and Brian De Palma would have included them too.
Bullying Goes Digital
Once that video goes viral, it seems like this series will spin into a debate about free speech vs public humiliation. And canned lines about care trolling and trying to “be nice” are front and center. (That’s not a knock at the writing for the series. That is genuinely how this kind of bullying goes. It sounds insincere because it is insincere.)
One of their peers even points out how cruel it is of them to film her when she thought she was dying. While not everyone at the high school bullied this girl in prior versions, there is a chance there will be even more pushback in Flanagan’s take. Given that it’s a series, there is a lot more runtime to play with social dynamics, which is, by nature, a huge part of the storyline.
The Biggest Change
Making Carrie homeschooled in this version does add a new twist to the character. In previous versions, including the original novel, the character had grown up with these children. She knew that she was being bullied. When her peers all of a sudden started being nice to her, Carrie was clearly suspicious. She is isolated, not stupid. However, the loneliness of her isolation overrides her better judgment and the pleas of her controlling mother. (Who, for once, did have her best interests at heart, even if it was for the absolute wrong reasons).
While this gives Carrie a (possibly infuriating) naive quality in this version, it does cut out some of the fattier parts of the story. The issue is that since Carrie knew people didn’t like her, it means people like Sue, Tommy, and Miss Collins, who genuinely do seem to like her, have to work extremely hard to gain her trust. Now that element is cut out of those who may like the character, which is great. But it also sets the stage for her to trust people she shouldn’t way too fast. That can lead to a whole bunch of nastiness before we even get to the prom.
Howell’s narration in the previous trailers makes this element a bit clearer given her sheer confusion at her bullies’ behavior. She keeps questioning why they put in so much effort to hurt her, when with that same effort, they could have genuinely been her friends. And who didn’t ask themselves that the first time someone faked being their friend?
Release Date & Trailer
Siena Agudong, Alison Thornton, Joel Oulette, Josie Tota, Arthur Conti, Thalia Dudek, Amber Midthunder, and Matthew Lillard also star in the upcoming series. Flanagan is writing, executive producing, and directing 4 episodes.
All 8-episodes of Carrie will hit Amazon Prime Video exclusively on October 7th. We’ll keep you posted on updates about the series as it develops. You can check out the official trailer below:
