In just under a month, audiences will be treated to a new adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie, in the form of a TV series adaptation from none other than Mike Flanagan. Infamously, Carrie was the first novel ever published by the obscenely prolific author and has been adapted to the screen many times before, most notably with Brian De Palma’s 1976 Sissy Spacek-starring film, which helped to launch the idea of Stephen King adaptations as an institution unto themselves. But this new take on the material is unique in that it is both a modernization of the story, set during the present day, and a full eight-episode-long season of television rather than a 90-minute film.
While King has certainly become known for the writing of lengthy works over the course of his career, Carrie is actually a fairly short novel, which has led many to question the choice to turn it into a full season of streaming TV for Amazon Prime. However, the author himself has spoken out and given the adaptation his stamp of approval, calling Flanagan’s new series “brilliant.”
In a recent post on Threads, King wrote, "Mike Flanagan's version of CARRIE is brilliant. What it has to say about social media is shocking and true. " The irony of writing this review on social media aside, this is fascinating in a number of ways.
First off, it’s easy to assume that King would likely give any adaptation of his work a positive review given that he has a vested interest in these things performing well, but that’s actually very much not the case. Famously, King derided Stanley Kubrick’s seminal adaptation of The Shining for literally decades, finding the film to be a desecration of his characters and story. So, it was far from a shoo-in that King would like the new version of Carrie.
However, King does have an established relationship with Mike Flanagan, which is worth noting. Carrie is Mike Flanagan’s fourth adaptation of a Stephen King property, and the author has been historically quite fond of the filmmaker’s work. Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep (an adaptation of King’s follow-up to The Shining) famously tread the line between remaining faithful to King’s work and harnessing the cinematic power of Kubrick’s version so well that King publicly admitted he had reconsidered his initial appraisal of Kubrick’s film. Elsewhere, Flanagan’s most recent King work, The Life of Chuck, saw King attend its premiere, something that has become a rarity in recent years. So it isn’t really a surprise that King is a fan of Flanagan’s work on the new show, as he and Flanagan’s tastes seem to align quite well in general.
But perhaps the most interesting part of King’s review is that final line about “social media,” as it teases just how much Flanagan’s Carrie is investing in the idea of updating the bullying-centric elements of King’s novel for the modern age. Carrie is about a young outcast girl who discovers she has psychic abilities and eventually, after being pushed too far, winds up using them to exact revenge on those who bullied her. It sounds as if Flanagan’s version is going to take King’s classic tale and update it for modern audiences, without losing the heft of the novel, at least according to King.
Sign me up, I am extremely jazzed to see what Flanagan is up to here.
Add us as a preferred source on Google