Mike Flanagan Will Bring Carrie into the 2020s By Updating the Bullying
Mike Flanagan can't just rely on pig's blood for his Carrie miniseries.
Even if you’ve never seen the 1976 Brian De Palma classic Carrie, you know the central image: telekinetic teen Carrie White, covered with pig’s blood at the senior prom. The scene comes directly from the 1974 Stephen King novel, and has rightly earned its place in horror history. However, like many of King’s concepts, it’s rooted in teen culture from decades ago, even feeling a bit outdated by the time the movie arrived in the mid-1970s.
While teen culture may change, bullying is eternal. So while Mike Flanagan‘s upcoming miniseries adaptation of Carrie for Prime Video will certainly share some elements of the King novel and the De Palma movie, its depiction of bullying will feel fresh. According to Matthew Lillard, who plays high school principal Henry Grayle in the series, Flanagan “went back, pulled out other elements from the book, then took real-life examples of what’s happening with bullying in America and applied them to this new adaptation.” Lillard told Collider that Flanagan’s “literally ripping things from the headlines and applying them to modern day so that people can relate to what Carrie’s going through.”
More than just ensuring verisimilitude, Flanagan’s updates can enhance the story’s central themes. Carrie follows the last days of high schooler Carrie White—played by Sissy Spacek in 1976 and by Summer H. Howell in the miniseries—a sheltered teen who manifests telekenetic powers. Originally portrayed by a thundering Piper Laurie, and now by Flanagan regular Samantha Sloyan, Carrie’s religious fundamentalist mother Margaret abuses her daughter, making her afraid of herself and making her a target of high school bullies.
As such, Carrie plays as a twist on the classic trope that regular humans are the real monsters. Carrie is a sweet and vulnerable girl who is mistreated by her classmates and, in the novel, by townspeople. Even after her powers manifest, Carrie doesn’t initially embrace them to lord over others. Only after a prank leaves her covered in pig’s blood at the prom does Carrie crack and go on a rampage, killing friend and tormentor alike.
Since 1976, Carrie has been updated three times, with most trying to bring the tale into the present. 1999’s The Rage: Carrie 2 continues the story of the first film by having survivor-turned-guidance-counselor Sue Snell (Amy Irving) encounter another telekinetic girl (Emily Bergl), who experiences date rape instead of bullying. While the 2002 TV movie starring Angela Bettis brought little new to the story (which is surprising, given the involvement of screenwriter Bryan Fuller), the 2013 remake starring Chloë Grace Moretz and directed by Kimberly Peirce integrates social media into the story.
Even more than the 2013 film, Flanagan’s update will have to deal with the reality of school shootings, which fundamentally change the tenor of King’s novel. In 1974, a school massacre seemed unthinkable. In 2026, they are old news. However, Flanagan has never been one to go for shock value, and his soulful, monologue-heavy approach may be just what Carrie needs to make even tired images feel fresh and scary again.
Carrie streams on Prime Video in October 2026.