A genuine master of horror, with strong titles such as Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Fall of the House of Usher under his belt, Mike Flanagan has made a name for himself that I associate with horror storytelling of a high standard. I also can’t say enough good things about how talented Mike Flanagan has shown himself to be when it comes to adapting Stephen King stories. Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and The Life of Chuck are three King adaptations that Flanagan both honored and poured a lot of himself into. His latest King adaptation is for the small screen. It adapts Stephen King’s iconic debut novel, Carrie, and while the series isn’t without missteps, the modern take on the story is very well done. Though certainly not his best work, it is another feather in Flanagan’s cap.
Flanagan’s modern reimagining of Stephen King’s Carrie follows the titular character, a young girl (played by Summer H. Howell), who, after having spent her entire life in seclusion, is suddenly released into high school after her father’s death. Life in seclusion, and under the authority of her distrustful parents, did not prepare her well for the modern world or her body. So, when this young woman is shocked by her first period, as no one ever taught her about menstruation, she becomes the subject of intense bullying, led by Chris Hargensen (played by Alison Thornton), a popular girl whose life is also being turned upside down, but for very different reasons. While struggling with the challenges of intense bullying, modern life, and having a domineering mother — Margaret White (played by Samantha Sloyan) — Carrie also starts to realize that she has telekinetic powers that she may not be able to fully control.
Before I get too deep into this review, I should be up front and honest about this one fact: when the news first came out that they were doing a series adaptation of the novel, I wasn’t excited by the news. This is a story that has been adapted into a Broadway musical and multiple films, including one in 2013. And for what it’s worth, I still think Brian De Palma’s adaptation from 1976 is excellent. So, even though this was to be made by a visual storyteller whose work I love, I raised an eyebrow at the news when I first heard it. Now, it’s out, and I’ve seen it; I feel differently. While I still think De Palma’s film is a classic, and even though I have some mixed feelings about this as a multi-season story, I thought Flanagan’s modern adaptation was largely a strong effort that made some really interesting changes to the story and actually used modernity in ways that make the core story feel just as fresh as it perhaps once did.
It would’ve been very easy to make a half-hearted modern remake of the story. But Flanagan’s version of the story feels very much like a lot of thought has been put into understanding how this narrative would unfold in a world where social media is so prominent but also exists as a potential tool for bullying. As well as in a world where American kids all over that country have to partake in lockdown drills that prepare students for the possibility of an active shooter. Those are horrifying ideas, but they’re also very real, and I think Flanagan uses these modern realities to his advantage to give us a new understanding of Carrie’s challenges in high school, or rather, this version of Carrie. There are plenty of new inventions here from Flanagan that genuinely pull the series in a direction that keeps you on the edge of your seat, even though the core story has been told and retold so many times at this point.
However, I was not as enthusiastic about some of the decisions related to trying to balloon this story up to multi-season consideration. I dislike how the show ended up using other similarly superpowered characters in the show. It felt to me like the way they were ultimately utilized in the infamous prom night took away from Carrie’s character and the dark power of that chaotic event. The show also makes use of this individual who, it turns out, isn’t actually there, and it is more or less immediately obvious that it’s the case, even though the show holds out on revealing it as such for quite some time. I think these efforts made to make Carrie part of a larger connected universe took a little bit away from what made the story special, and I also think the finale has this odd start-stop structure, as they keep cutting back to an interview frame narrative that didn’t ultimately work for the show. In general, I think the first half of the show is extraordinary, but I also think that the second half of the show gets a little bit over-the-top when it comes to Margaret White’s online presence and the chaos at the school prior to the aforementioned prom night.
Although I still think it would’ve been more interesting for them to have gone with a more book-accurate character design for Carrie White, I do want to praise Summer H. Howell for her performance, which perfectly communicates her character’s good intentions and her naïveté. Other standouts include Alison Thornton, who is note-perfect as the outright evil ‘mean girl,’ but also Matthew Lillard, Amber Midthunder, and Tim Bagley, who all turned in strong work as the core members of the school faculty. I’ll also add that I think the show does a good job of making us understand why Chris Hargensen could turn out the way she does in this show, and the writers did a good job of giving nuance to the character without depriving the show of the character’s pitch-black, dark behavior.
So, while it ultimately won’t take the place of Brian De Palma’s iconic adaptation as the best version of the story, I definitely think that the show is a very well-made and acted modern update. I think the first half of the season is genuinely fantastic, but I also think that the efforts made to make this a multi-season narrative take away from the core narrative and its titular character. So, even though I am mostly a fan of the adaptation, I do have some significant issues with the show.
– Review written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
