Mike Flanagan Explains Why He Changed CARRIE’s Infamous Period Scene: “We Needed to Talk About the Normalization of Cruelty”

Mike Flanagan is bringing Carrie into the smartphone era, which means one of the story’s most brutal moments just became even harder to watch.

For his new Carrie series, Mike Flanagan has reworked the infamous locker room scene from Stephen King’s 1974 novel to reflect what bullying looks like in 2025. Carrie’s classmates don’t just torment her when she gets her first period. They pull out their phones and record it.

It’s a savage addition, but that’s exactly the point. Flanagan explained that putting smartphones into the hands of Carrie’s classmates fundamentally changes the scene and gives the story another way to examine the cruelty teenagers can inflict on each other.

"Yeah, we talked a lot about how it changed when there were phones in people's hands, that scene especially. And in every other version, that's the first scene," Flanagan tells GamesRadar+.

"And so one of the first things we kind of started to play with was, I think that's the end of the pilot, and I think we're gonna walk us into that. It's so tough to even imagine doing any story, any serious story about the modern teenage experience without engaging with the topic of social media because it is so ingrained in their day-to-day lives."

In King’s story, Carrie gets her first period without knowing what menstruation is and believes she’s dying. Rather than help her, the girls in her gym class humiliate her by pelting her with sanitary products.

Flanagan’s version keeps the cruelty of the original scene but adds something painfully familiar to anyone growing up in today’s society. The other students film Carrie’s humiliation, turning an already traumatic moment into something that can be captured, shared, replayed, and potentially preserved online forever.

"And the normalization of cruelty that comes with that was something that we really, really felt like we needed to talk about," Flanagan continues. "But yeah, it broke open a lot of things for us. I think that's one of the things I'm so impressed with about today's teenagers: I wouldn't have had the fortitude to survive.

“I barely survived high school as it was. That was in the '90s. We didn't have to worry about any of this stuff. And I thought I was barely holding on by my fingernails. You know, I was a bullied kid too."

That approach gives Carrie a modern horror element that fits disturbingly well with King’s original story. Carrie White has always been trapped by the people around her, from the abuse she suffers at home to the torment she faces at school. Social media gives her bullies an entirely new weapon.

The series stars Summer H. Howell as Carrie White, who has been homeschooled until her teenage years and is entering public school for the first time. The familiar pieces of King’s story are still here, but putting Carrie into the current social landscape makes her experience even more vicious.

Flanagan also came away from making the series with a new appreciation for teenagers who have to live with the possibility that practically any embarrassing mistake, awkward moment, or personal experience could end up online.

"I can't even fathom if I would have had to go to school daily, and contend with all of my torments, all of my mistakes, all of my growing moments being potentially captured and shared for the world forever. I don't know how they do it. So I came out of it amazed with the fortitude of today's teenagers. Nothing but respect."

Howell is joined by Samantha Sloyan as Margaret White, Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, Alison Thornton as Chris Hargensen, Amber Midthunder as Rita Desjardins, and Matthew Lillard as Principal Grayle.

King has already given Flanagan’s adaptation his stamp of approval, praising the series and specifically calling out its handling of social media. "Mike Flanagan's version of CARRIE is brilliant. What it has to say about social media is shocking and true."

The smartphone and social media addition fits right into the core horror of Carrie. The story has always been about what happens when cruelty keeps escalating and nobody bothers to stop it. Giving that cruelty a camera, an audience, and a share button makes it even uglier.

He’s using technology to make Carrie’s nightmare feel frighteningly familiar to a generation that has never known a world without social media.

Prepare yourself emotionally, because this one looks rough. Carrie premieres on Prime Video October 7 with all eight episodes available at launch.