Mike Flanagan Is Taking Carrie White to Her Fourth Prom
Did you hear about Mike Flanagan? He's taking Carrie White to the prom... for her fourth time!
In general, I'm not particularly fond of horror TV. Film is the name of my game. It's what I grew up on, and there's something about a self-contained story conveyed in a single sitting that simply can't be replicated when it's stretched out across multiple episodes or seasons. Nonetheless, there are two upcoming horror series that I'm salivating for. Both will serve as contributions to an iconic long-lasting horror franchise, and take place over the course of eight episodes. For horror fans who have been living under a rock for the past several months, these series are Brad Caleb Kane's Crystal Lake, which will function as a prequel to Sean Cunningham and Victor Miller's prototypical 1980 slasher, Friday the 13th, and premiere on Peacock sometime in 2025/26, and Mike Flanagan's adaptation of Stephen King's classic coming-of-age supernatural drama, Carrie, set to premiere on Amazon Prime Video.
While Crystal Lake boasts the benefit of an original story, rewinding the clock to sometime prior to the events of the original Friday the 13th and zeroing in on the tragic private life of Pamela Voorhees, Jason's mother and the original killer of Camp Crystal Lake who will be portrayed intriguingly enough by Linda Cardellini (I would've selected Naomi Watts myself, but what do I know?), Carrie lends itself better to a TV format. When it comes to translating a slasher property into a television medium, there's always the inherent risk of diluting the graphic gore and nudity that serve as the bread and butter of the subgenre in order to appease the demands of a TV network. In the case of supernatural horror, where the emphasis is placed less on graphic displays of viscera and more on the psychological deterioration of a complex character, the shortage of carnage presents less of an issue. Plus, I believe there's enough material within Stephen King's first-published (but fourth-written) novel to fill out a time slot of eight hour-long episodes.
Before we get down to the nitty-gritty of Flanagan's approaching miniseries, we must address the elephant in the room: this will be the fourth adaptation of King's supernatural horror story. Not the second or even the third. No, I repeat, the fourth. Obviously, the adaptation that matters most in the hearts of the majority of lifelong horror aficionados, including yours truly, is Brian De Palma's original 1976 unsurpassed classic, a remarkably fast-paced slow burn which managed the unlikely feat of taking a tragic story of lifelong torment and eventual fiery retribution and giving it a digestible and exhilaratingly campy treatment. Following a mostly unrelated and best forgotten rehash of a sequel in 1999 blandly titled The Rage: Carrie 2 (why the subtitle is positioned before the primary title will forever remain a mystery), two more cinematic adaptations ensued: David Carson's made-for-TV remake in 2002 and Kimberly Peirce's big-screen contribution in 2013. Ironically (and sadly) enough, Carson's tele-remake outshines Peirce's by a margin wide enough to fly a plane through. Sure, it's sluggishly paced and lacks the melodramatic passion of De Palma's take, but at least it distinguished itself by taking a more faithful approach to King's source material as opposed to lazily ripping off just about every scene of the first movie a la Gus Van Sant's Psycho. All that to say, how many freaking times must this girl be escorted to the senior prom?
When a rumor was first unleashed about yet another adaptation of the high school revenge fantasy, the first possibility put forth was the casting of trans actress Hunter Schafer as Carrie White, of which I was of mixed reaction. On the plus side, I thought that could be an interesting take on a horror icon. Rather than casting another conventionally attractive biological female to put on the outdated clothing and walk through the halls of Ewen High School with her head down and lips invariably shut, here we would have a transgendered Carrie, a teenager physically uncomfortable in her own skin. In addition to being bullied by her uniformly malicious classmates for her timid demeanor, unappealing getup, lack of friends, and awkward lack of social sophistication, now her tormentors would have another reason to other her and make her life a living hell. For that reason alone, I was mostly team Schafer. But then there's the flip side: with a mother as fanatically religious as Margaret White, how on earth could Carrie ever hope to alter her gender? It would alter the framework of the entire narrative. Well, there goes that dose of potentially groundbreaking originality.
But then came the announcement that Mike Flanagan, one of the most active and beloved filmmakers working in the horror genre today, as well as the go-to for Stephen King adaptations, had signed on as the man with the plan behind an eight-episode Amazon Prime adaptation of Carrie. In my view, Flanagan is the most frustratingly inconsistent provider of modern horror. While I'm two films short of having seen every entry in his horrorography (Absentia and Before I Wake), my favorite film of his so far is Gerald's Game, which I only saw one time back in 2020 and yet has refused to exit my mind five years later. It's the best horror film I've seen in the past decade, and retains its spot as the third greatest horror film I've seen in my entire 26-year life (trailing just behind The Ring and The Silence of the Lambs). Then there's the lesser but still great Hush, which contributed an ingeniously simple yet intellectually stimulating twist to the home invasion slasher genre while announcing Flanagan and his wife, Kate Siegel, as a horror filmmaking team on par with Rob and Sheri Moon Zombie. Apart from those two gems, however, this is somehow the same man who churned out Ouija: Origin of Evil, the vastly superior yet still only marginally above-average prequel to Stiles White's atrocious Ouija, the similarly mediocre haunted mirror Shining knockoff, Oculus, and finally his worst film to date, Doctor Sleep, a ridiculously metaphysical sequel to one of the greatest aforementioned horror films ever made.
Even with his spotty track record, I can't imagine a writer-director-editor more qualified to take on such a monumental, character-oriented horror property than Flanagan. For all his faults, this is a man who balances his inclination for horror with a genuine investment in the characters who populate his stories. And that's a quality that should serve him well in resurrecting the story of Carrie White, a tragically misunderstood and mistreated outcast whose only desire was to fit in and feel accepted by the very people hell-bent on ensuring she felt anything but. If anyone can bring something fresh to the prom table here, I trust it will be Flanagan.
It goes without saying that the first thing we think of upon the announcement of a new adaptation of Carrie is just who will take on the eponymous role? Long before this miniseries was even announced, I envisioned Elsie Fisher as the ideal choice. Not only did she submit an unforgettably introspective and tenderly heartbreaking starring turn in Bo Burnham's 2018 coming-of-age dramedy, Eighth Grade, but she (at one point in time, anyway) sported an appearance practically identical to the one imagined for Carrie by her creator, Stephen King: moderately overweight, long blonde hair, pale skin, and covered from head to toe in acne. Her performance as Kayla Day, a 13-year-old outsider enduring her final weeks of middle school, could have been a training course for Carrie White. Fisher already demonstrated an aptitude for embodying the skin of a teenage girl who desperately wants to rip free from it, and all she'd have to do now is take it up a notch, transitioning from a bullied victim to an all-powerful goddess thirsty for long-overdue vengeance. I have no doubt she could've pulled it off. Her age (22) would fit the character perfectly, and her authentic, un-made-up Everygirl appearance would serve as a necessary subversion of the glamorous Hollywood one possessed by Carrie's most recent inhabitant, Chloe Grace Moretz. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.
However, along with the announcement of Flanagan's involvement came the equally galvanizing rumor that Milly Shapiro of Hereditary fame was in the running to play the anti-heroine. While Shapiro may not possess an excess of body fat, she boasts an appearance that's perfect and unique in every other aspect. Due to a birth defect called cleidocranial dysostosis that mainly impacts the bones and teeth, Shapiro doesn't look like the majority of kids her age. That would theoretically make her an ideal target for bullying at the hands of the kind of merciless, empathy-deficient sociopaths with whom Carrie attends school. In Ari Aster's 2018 supernatural horror phenomenon, Shapiro played the relatively small yet already iconic role of Charlie Graham, a withdrawn and deeply troubled young girl struggling to cope with the recent passing of her grandmother and with a love for chocolate and beheading dead birds with a pair of scissors. (You know, normal kid stuff.) With few lines and a dead-eyed stare with the capacity to instill the fear of God in even non-believers, Shapiro left an unsettling lasting impression before enduring an unpredictable and unimaginably gruesome end. How did I not ever once consider her for this role? If she can give such a memorable performance in a supporting role, imagine what she could do with a leading one such as Carrie!
Alas, 'twas a rumor that wasn't meant to grow into fact. For whatever reason, no further mention of Shapiro's involvement was made. Instead, it was announced that another young actress, 21-year-old Summer H. Howell, known for her role as Alice in the direct-to-DVD slasher sequels, Curse and Cult of Chucky, was in close negotiations for the titular role. Sigh. Once again, we have yet another skinny, conventionally appealing actress as Carrie, albeit one who at least bears a resemblance closer to that of Sissy Spacek, with her adorably freckled face and long, straight brown hair, than the Hollywood supermodel look of Chloe Moretz. At the moment, I can't speak on behalf of Howell's acting talent -- her role in Curse of Chucky required her to play cute and clueless the entire time -- but if Mike auditioned 1,800 other candidates for the role and felt in his heart that Howell offered the most remarkable take, then I trust his judgment fully.
As for the secondary leading role of Margaret White, Carrie's abusive, self-righteous Bible-thumper of a mother, there was very little question as to who would claim the part. This is Mike Flanagan we're talking about after all, someone who tends to recycle actors from his previous projects to the point where they're now referred to as members of the "Flanafam." Feel free to ask Brian Eggert of Deep Focus Review to vouch for me: I knew, long before her casting was announced, that Samantha Sloyan was going to be cast as Margaret just based on her performance alone as Beverly Keane in Flanagan's 2021 vampire horror show, Midnight Mass. Talk about a training exercise for a future role. Sure, it's an instance of total typecasting, but so what? If someone is born for a particular role, then so be it. R. Lee Ermey made his bones as an actor playing sharp-tonged, commanding drill sergeant types, from his career-making debut as Gunnery Sergeant L. Hartman in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket to Charlie "Sheriff Hoyt" Hewitt in the remake of and prequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and I don't recall hearing anyone complain. Fun fact: Sloyan will go down as the third redheaded actress to play Margaret, following Piper Laurie and Julianne Moore. Kudos to Flanagan for finding a physically inspired matchup for his starring mother-daughter duo; it's more than easy to accept Sloyan as the mother of Howell.
As a natural lover of horror villains, the casting I was the most excited for was that of Chris Hargensen, the leader of the tribe of mean girls at Ewen High and Carrie's chief tormentor. While I'm not familiar with the previous acting work of Alison Thornton, just by observing her physical appearance in Google images and some interviews, I can safely say I'm salivating to witness her performance as Chris. She has the perfect look: brunette (as Chris was originally written to be), drop-dead gorgeous, and stubbornly resistant to smiling in her photos. She looks, and I mean this in the most complimentary way possible, like a miserable, wicked bitch. And with her thin lips and disarmingly polite smile (when she does smile, that is), Thornton bears a passing resemblance to Emilie de Ravin, who played the role in Carson's 2002 remake.
When I first saw the faces of Joel Oulette and Arthur Conti, I got their roles backward. I thought for sure Oulette was cast as Billy Nolan, Chris' delinquent, misogynistic boyfriend, and Conti as Tommy Ross, Sue Snell's jock boyfriend with a heart of gold. Oulette has that classical tough guy/greaser look with his long, chestnut-colored hair and muscular physique, whereas Conti looks more like a skinny dweeb who wouldn't harm a fly. But that makes their casting all the more subversive and intriguing. Will they each be able to pull off their role which runs counter to their appearance?
Amber Midthunder plays Rita Desjardin, the first-year gym teacher who assumes a maternal role over Carrie and punishes the girls after she catches them bullying Carrie in the locker room. Midthunder is an unconventional choice for this role. At 28 years old, she's less than a full decade older than the popular girls she's teaching and scolding. Midthunder is also markedly sexier and younger-looking than the three actresses who played the part before her (Betty Buckley, Rena Sofer, and Judy Greer), so it'll be interesting to see if she can convincingly step into the shoes of a badass teacher who's older, wiser, and ain't afraid of no mean girls. Playing her employer and closest confidant is horror icon Matthew Lillard. Unlike in Wes Craven's original meta slasher, Scream, or the adaptation of the horror game, Five Nights at Freddy's, Lillard will play a good guy for a change: Principal Henry Grayle. When it was first announced that Lillard would be partaking in Flanagan's miniseries in an undisclosed role, I knew it would be for either Ralph White, Carrie's hitherto unseen father, or Principal Grayle (renamed Peter Morton in the previous films, who is the assistant principal in the novel). While I was technically right once again (not to brag or anything), my money was on the former.
Speaking of which, it seems we're finally going to get to meet the man who created Carrie (and I don't mean Stephen King). In De Palma and Peirce's movies, Ralph is merely mentioned by Margaret. In the novel, he was killed in a construction accident prior to Carrie's birth. In the 1976 adaptation, he ran away with a woman and fathered Rachel Lang, the protagonist of the sequel. In 2013, no mention is made of his whereabouts, but like in the book and first film, it's revealed he raped Margaret. 2002 is the only adaptation in which Ralph isn't even discussed. According to the official plot by Amazon Prime, Ralph White's death is recent. This suggests a major change to the story. Rather than growing up going to public school and being subjected to ruthless bullying her entire life, my theory is that Carrie will have spent her formative years being homeschooled by both of her parents. Then after Ralph dies, Margaret will be forced to send their daughter to the public high school out of a financial inability to teach her on her own. So the locker room incident may be the first of bullying that Carrie undergoes here. Flanagan also seems to be making a big deal out of the use of cellphones. In an interview with Variety, when asked to share his vision for Carrie, he offered:
"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. The central tenets are still the same, but it's about much more than Carrie White. 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. 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. So 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. Carrie White in the locker room when people have phones in their hands is a whole different thing."
It's reassuring to hear Flanagan insist that he and his team of co-writers aren't interested in rehashing the same old story for a fourth time, because what would be the point of that? Just re-watch any of the three adaptations at your disposal. Regarding the last part, though, it seems Flanagan is either unaware or conveniently forgetful of the fact that he isn't the first adapter to incorporate the power of cellphones into Carrie White's story. In the latest iteration, in fact, a cellphone was used by Chris to record Carrie as she experienced her first period in the locker room. Then after Chris dumps the bucket of pig blood on her at prom, Tina uploads the video on projection screens to humiliate her tenfold. So I don't understand why Flanagan is making it sound like he dreamed up this modern bullying twist from his own mind. Hopefully he does more with the idea than Lawrence D. Cohen and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa did in their screenplay.
Siena Agudong was the first actress booked for Carrie, in which she will play Sue Snell, the goodhearted outlier of the clique who initially participates in Carrie's locker room bullying attack only to soon after experience intense remorse, compelling her to beg her boyfriend, star athlete Tommy Ross, to take Carrie to the prom instead. Thalia Dudek plays a mystery character named Emaline, whose name hasn't appeared in either the book or any of the previous adaptations. Perhaps she's based on another character and was given a fancier, more modernized name? Judging by the actress' appearance, however, my guess is Emaline won't be a member of the Ultras. Just sayin. Rounding out the cast are a mix of Flanagan favorites and newcomers: Kate Siegel (who I would've chosen for the role of Rita Desjardin), Michael Trucco, Katee Sackhoff, Rahul Kohli, Tim Bagley, Heather Graham, Tahmoh Penikett, Crystal Balint, Delainey Hayles, Danielle Klaudt, Mapuana Makia, Rowan Danielle, Naika Toussaint, and Cassandra Naud.
Frustratingly, Flanagan is still refusing to disclose the roles of the aforementioned ensemble, or give information on this "Emaline" figure while we're at it. Being a self-proclaimed master caster, my assumption is the role of John Hargensen, Chris' lawyer father from whom she's received a good portion of her charms, will be filled by either Trucco, Bagley, or Penikett. If he's not playing Hargensen, I'm putting my money on Trucco playing Ralph White; it seems like a pivotal role Flanagan would assign to his longtime collaborator. Will Kohli be playing another authority figure as he did in Midnight Mass, such as the head detective or sheriff of Maine tasked with getting to the bottom of what happened on prom night? Born with a large nevus under her right eye, I can only assume Naud will play one of the outcasts of Ewen who is frequently targeted by Chris and her gang of Ultras. (If she's actually a member, consider my mind blown with regard to Chris' unusually high tolerance for people with physical abnormalities.) Klaudt and Danielle look like they could pass for sisters. Perhaps they're playing the Thibodeau sisters, Donna and Mary Lila Grace.
The official plot summary by Amazon Prime describes this upcoming iteration as "a bold and timely reimagining of the story of misfit high-schooler Carrie White (Howell), who has spent her life in seclusion with her domineering mother (Sloyan). After her father's sudden and untimely death, Carrie finds herself contending with the alien landscape of public high school, a bullying scandal that shatters her community, and the emergence of mysterious telekinetic powers."
Aside from the implied involvement of Ralph, Flanagan's take sounds like it's adhering to the bare bones of the narrative crafted in 1974 by Stephen King, albeit updated with modern technology (again, not the first adaptation to apply this resource). The promised adjectives of "bold and timely" definitely elicit my interest, however, as does the evident talent behind this fresh retelling. Flanagan is performing the quadruple duties of showrunner, executive producer, writer, and director of select episodes, and executive producing alongside him as always is Trevor Macy of Intrepid Pictures and Amazon MGM Studios.
Unfortunately, I don't have Amazon Prime (or any streaming service for that matter), so the best I can hope for is for someone to download all eight episodes on Goojara or on the Bee TV app of my Amazon Fire TV Stick, the latter of which is prone to inconsistent visual and audio quality as well as notoriously unpredictable buffering. The fact that I'm willing to settle for such a lessened viewing experience speaks to my uncontainable excitement for this horror miniseries, so after the last 12 years of one of horror's most sympathetic antiheroes lying buried in the grave, blooden up your buckets, pick out your dress or tuxedo, and buy your tickets because Carrie is returning to the prom -- and setting it ablaze all over again.
Carrie has commenced principal photography as of June 16th, 2025, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is set to conclude on October 17th, and will stream exclusively on Amazon Prime Video at a currently undisclosed date in 2026. (Based on the nine-month timespan from the completion of Midnight Mass to its premiere date, my expectation is for sometime next summer, namely July. Never have I wanted a present summer to end so the next could begin so passionately.)
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