TV Show Review on: Carrie

Liam's Review

Carrie 26’
Carrie has been on my radar for a while now, probably my most anticipated release of the year alongside Obsession. That’s saying something, considering how long I have been waiting to see Curry Barker’s work make its way onto the big screen, ever since his early youtube horror shorts.

Mike Flanagan delivers what might be his strongest work since Midnight Mass, demonstrating a growing appreciation for the idea that sometimes less really is more. Some of the habits that have occasionally made his work feel heavy-handed have been reined in, although his tendency towards exposition still makes an appearance now and then. Nevertheless, this is a confident adaptation that shows a lot of hope for the future, and really demonstrates he's refining his craft.

The Good
Almost every actor in this series seems determined to give their all, Samantha Sloyan is a particular standout, bringing a surprising amount of nuance to a character who could easily have been reduced to a caricature (as King so very well likes to do). Joel Oulette also captures the essence of Tommy really incredibly, delivering some of the series’ most heartbreaking moments (that I'm not going to talk about due to spoiler territory)

However, the real star is almost certainly Summer H. Howell as Carrie. She brings an incredible amount of emotional intensity to the role, balancing vulnerability with an increasingly visceral presence. I cannot wait to see where she goes after this, and she's certainly one to look out for in the future.

I was initially pretty sceptical about stretching Carrie into an eight-hour series. Stephen King’s original novel is relatively short, and previous adaptations seemed to be pretty short and sweet for a reason.

Thankfully, Flanagan handles the pacing remarkably well (which is again, a pleasant surprise from him). The story maintained consistently as pretty fun and natural, and while watching the series, I never found myself itching to skip ahead (That is an achievement in itself considering I binged it in one sitting).

The modern setting also works surprisingly well. The characters feel believable within their environment, and the incorporation of social media gives the story an updated dimension without feeling entirely detached from its original themes.

The Not So Good.
One of my biggest negatives with the story concerns a recurring issue with adaptations of Carrie. The reluctance to cast an unconventionally attractive lead.

There's always a level of suspended disbelief the viewer holds when you cast Carrie as conventionally attractive, since the main driving factor for her alienation was her off-putting nature. Carrie is by all means necessary an outsider within societies confines, which exemplifies why she represents exactly what's wrong with our society. I’d like to think that eventually a director will trust us with a less delicate version of our titular scream queen.

I should reinstate, this is not at all a criticism of Summer H. Howell’s performance, she's incredible. I just keep thinking, could Carrie be even more confronting if it challenged audiences to empathise with an unattractive lead? to consider their own innate prejudices?

The music is easily the most inconsistent element of the series. For example, the preface to the infamous prom scene shows Carrie, and the characters we've been led to love for seven hours getting prepared for prom, backed by Lana Del Rey’s “did you know that there's a tunnel under ocean blvd?”. This was exceptional and absurdly harrowing. And then, almost comically, the next scene within the prom has some of the most laughably sardonic examples of modern prom music I’ve ever heard. Very “how do you do, fellow kids”.

The series builds its tension remarkably well, but I found the iconic prom scene significantly less satisfying than I was expecting, especially considering how long it was building for. The scene's brutality deserved more room to breathe, and Flanagans penchant for monologues and pacing issues really rears its head. It came across as less “conclusion!” and more “sequel prep”.

I also feel like it should've leaned further into it’s more grizzly subtexts with the ending, especially considering the real life parallels and inspirations the scene draws from. The original adaptation of Carrie chooses to end the film with Carrie dying un-climatically, and ruining her closest, most empathetic classmate's life. Driving her deep into a spot of fear and mourning. She dreams of Carrie rising from the grave and attacking her, portraying how these deeply wounded and flawed people are reduced to their decisively evil last choices, and not their entirety.

Final Thoughts
I went into Carrie with fairly mixed expectations, but Flanagan has done pretty well!. It is not without its flaws of course, but ultimately Flanagan has created an entertaining and relatively faithful modern adaptation of an older horror classic, it doesn't surpass the original in my eyes. But it does make me much much more excited for Flanagan’s The Mist!

Dylan's Review

I’ve never considered myself a huge horror fan, but I do love all the obvious must-watch Stephen King classics, like Pet Semetary, Misery and The Shining, as well as his stories outside the horror genre, like Stand by Me, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. I'm also quite a fan of his legendary rants on Twitter!

I was excited to learn from a recent Book Hero newsletter that his breakthrough novel Carrie was being adapted into a new TV series for Amazon Prime - directed by Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass and others). Alex and I loved watching Midnight Mass together, so I proudly shared the news with him, only to be met with something along the lines of, "Carrie? For what, the fifth time?"

Yes, somehow I'd completely missed the fact that Carrie has already been adapted for the screen multiple times...

Flanagan's adaption of Carrie, which also sees Stephen King himself as the Executive Producer, had me hooked immediately. The acting (Summer Howell is incredible!), the soundtrack and the story itself. A teenage girl subjected to relentless bullying who discovers she has supernatural powers and uses them to take revenge. What's not to love?

This new adaption leans heavily into themes of surveillance, online abuse, and cyberbullying, with Carrie subjected to some incredibly cruel and targeted harassment on Instagram. Given that the original novel was published way back in 1974, this is obviously a modern twist, but it works only too well as a hook for 2026. l I found these themes especially topical and quite confronting at times - and can only imagine what this must be like for parents with kids at high school or those who are there at the moment. High school is hard enough without your every move being documented on social media!

Alex and I still have a few episodes to go, so being ignorant to the original story, I don't know how it ends - but I'm looking forward to the payoff. This show is so easy to recommend to anyone who loves horror or the supernatural (even if they’ve seen one of the various adaptations before) and perfect timing for the spooky season with Halloween just around the corner.

Shirl, Liam, and Kevin have binged the series, and the verdict from everyone I've spoken to is pretty unanimous - it’s a must watch!

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