How Mike Flanagan Will Make ‘Carrie’ Feel Like a New Story

Horror and literature fans alike will be excited to hear that seasoned Stephen King cinematic universe storyteller Mike Flanagan has something new planned for his Carrie adaptation. The eight episode mini-series proposed by Amazon was an idea Flanagan initially balked at. He told Variety, “I initially thought, ‘Why? It’s been done.”

You can’t blame him for hesitating; the book has already been adapted several times. But after giving it considerable thought, he said, “I found an answer to that question, and it made me very excited.”

He then turned to someone who obviously needed to be part of the discussion: famed horror author Stephen King, who Flanagan has had a fruitful working relationship with—including on his current feature The Life of Chuck.

“But when I went to Steve, his answer was ‘Why?’ His first response was, ‘Leave her alone. She’s been through enough.’ But it’s that thing where the more information I could share, and sending him the bible and the plan for the show, he could see the thing we were trying to do that was new.” Flanagan explained. “Then he said without giving away too much, ‘Ohh, now I’m interested, just as a fan. I’m excited to see where this goes.’ Once he said yes, then we were off, because if Steve had said no, I wouldn’t do it. So the relationship has evolved, but he’s always remained incredibly respectful of separating the book and the movie.”

The Doctor Sleep filmmaker seeks to modernize the narrative we know about Carrie’s struggle to fit in, not just at school but at home. How that would transform in the digital age informed his take. “The thing I would say is the original story is half a century old and it’s wonderful. Its themes were about youth and bullying and the consequences of that. I believe that in today’s modern world, the power of what it means to be a bully, the breadth of that and the impact of bullying, have changed a lot,” he said.

“The central tenets are still the same, but it’s about much more than Carrie White,” Flanagan teased, hinting that while other on-screen adaptations centered on Carrie, he plans on deeper explorations of the other characters and world around her as well.

“I can’t really talk about what we’re doing, I can only really talk about what we’re not doing. We’re not retelling the story as it’s been told, and we’re not making a show about telekinesis. It’s in there, but that’s not what it’s about,” he said, ruling out about leaning too much into Carrie’s supernatural inclinations. “There’s a version of it where Carrie White carries a tragic superhero origin story that goes horribly wrong. I feel like they’ve done that, too.”

This new version of the story will seemingly tie into how social structures have become more toxic, in the age of online platforms becoming places of radicalization even when kids leave schools. “We’re focused way more on the destruction of a community through these very modern tools. What happens in a world where the internet has created an environment of perceived anonymity? Carrie White in the locker room in every iteration is a horrifying scene,” he said. “Carrie White in the locker room when people have phones in their hands is a whole different thing.”

That definitely brings to mind contemporary youth-centered dramas such as Adolescence but by way of Stephen King Horror—and we can’t wait to see what Flanagan comes up with.

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