Yesterday brought horror fans the full trailer for Mike Flanagan’s next television epic with an extended look at his new Prime Video series, Carrie. Though talk of a new adaptation of Stephen King’s first novel generated plenty of eye rolls when it was announced, the history of Flanagan as a TV storyteller is indisputable. Following the masterpieces that are The Haunting of Hill House, Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher, Flanagan and his collaborators have set the bar incredibly high, meaning a remake that might normally draw scorn could actually be something distinct and interesting.
Now that the first look has arrived, and the series itself will premiere all eight of its episodes in less than a month, the master of horror himself has sounded off on the new Carrie. Back at San Diego Comic-Con, Flanagan teased that King “loved” the show, but now the author himself has offered a review, writing on social media: “Mike Flanagan’s version of CARRIE is brilliant. What it has to say about social media is shocking and true.” Fans might be quick to assume that, of course, King would love any adaptation of his work, especially by a frequent collaborator, but that’s not always the case.
Since he became a household name, King’s opinions on movie adaptations of his books have been pretty well publicized. Fans are well aware that he has a distaste for Stanley Kubrick’s feature film version of The Shining from 1980, and has made it no secret that the endless Children of the Corn sequels are something he doesn’t give the time of day. To that end, King previously opened up about Brian de Palma’s adaptation of Carrie, calling it a “good movie” and later saying that the movie was “much better than the book.”
In that same interview, with EW back in 2011, King noted that “rumblings” of remakes for Carrie, The Stand, and IT had made their way to him, and he had the same reaction: “The real question is why, when the original was so good?” Funny enough, as fans now know, the remakes of Carrie and The Stand at that time might not have cleared the bar, but the new adaptation of IT quickly took on a life of its own.
To that end, King going out of his way to actively praise the new take on Carrie when he has previously been leery of new adaptations says a lot about what Flanagan has put together for the series. For what it’s worth, the previously mentioned shows created by Flanagan have been subject to critical acclaim:
All eight episodes of the series are set to premiere on October 7th, only on Prime Video.
