Carrie White returns to the screen in the novel’s fourth adaptation.
On Oct. 7, Mike Flanagan’s new Carrie adaptation released on Prime Video. Among other movie adaptations, this rendition is an eight-episode mini-series, around an hour-long episode each.
Based on a novel of the same name by horror author Stephen King, the show follows a young girl named Carrie White, played by Summer Howell, who discovers that she has telekinetic powers.
When she enrolls in public school at age 15, Carrie is extremely isolated from her peers after spending most of her life only speaking to her extremely religious and conservative parents.
The original story takes place in 1979, but Flanagan’s version is set in the modern day, with social media being an integral part of the story. Although this is a striking change, it adds new layers to Carrie as a character.
A school Instagram page goes viral for cyber-bullying students and teachers, though Carrie takes most of the hits. Carrie doesn’t have a phone, but she still experiences the pain of being ridiculed online.
Another significant change was to the main bully, Chris Hargensen, played by Alison Thornton. She is generally unwelcoming to Carrie from the start, and when Carrie gets her first period in the locker room, Chris shoves her in the showers and throws hygiene products at her with the other girls.
In the show, the addition of phones means that almost everyone was recording the event. Shortly after, Chris posts it on social media for everyone to see.
Chris’ behaviour is entirely unforgiveable, and her extreme torment of Carrie makes it easy to understand why Carrie was so angry by the end. However, the miniseries’ longer run time offers Chris more dimension .
Viewers see her get abandoned by her parents and start to understand why she does the things she does. This doesn’t make it right, but it is different than simply being cruel for the fun of it.
The television format allows more time to delve into the lives of all the characters, including Carrie. In other adaptations, Carrie is already struggling and unhappy at school when we meet her. But Flanagan’s Carrie is optimistic and happy.
For the first three episodes, Carrie smiles through her bad days and experiences a semi-normal high school life, where she parties, makes friends, and studies.
For her age, Howell gives an incredibly strong performance as Carrie. Her incredible expressions let the audience really feel her emotions — and Carrie experiences a lot of them in every episode.
The first Carrie adaptation was released in 1976, starring Sissy Spacek, directed by Brian De Palma. Spacek is amazing in Carrie, and the image of her at the prom is iconic. Howell is only four years younger than Spacek was, but her version of Carrie felt much younger and more fitting for the story Flanagan tried to tell.
More the anything, the new adaptation is an extremely dramatized version of the high school experience. Casting young actors was a good decision, as it makes their internal struggles more realistic, especially for younger viewers.
As Carrie’s mother, Margaret White, Samantha Sloyan gives a standout performance. Sloyan is no stranger to horror, nor is she unfamiliar with Flanagan, as they worked together on Midnight Mass. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Flanagan said that he knew Sloyan would play Margaret, saying that “this is the part she was born to play.”
He was correct. Unlike previous interpretations, Sloyan’s take on Margaret deepens her extremism by attributing it to love. In the mini-series, she stands up for her daughter and protects her from things she considers to be harmful. In an original change by Flanagan, we also realize that Margaret’s manipulation of Carrie stems from her being brainwashed and held captive by her husband for their entire marriage.
Further, Flanagan introduces an original character, Emeline, played by Thalia Dudek. Part of an organization of women with telekinetic powers, Emeline encourages Carrie to use her powers against her school bullies.
In the mini-series, Emeline is responsible for locking Carrie’s classmates in the gym, starting the fire, and convincing her to cause extreme damage on prom night. At the end, Carrie doesn’t die like she does in the book, but is saved by Emeline.
The addition of Emeline and the all-female collective takes a lot of blame off Carrie and adds an air of mystery to the traditional thriller.
A fresh take on a classic story, Flanagan’s Carrie strays from the original, yet it still demonstrates the outcome of a young girl pushed too far.
Tags
adaptation, horror, Television
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