Stephen King Says Mike Flanagan’s Carrie Is a “Brilliant” New Take on His Horror Classic

Stephen King is already sold on Mike Flanagan’s new take on Carrie, and his reaction suggests this adaptation has found a nasty new way to make the classic horror story hit home.

The upcoming Prime Video series brings King’s 1974 novel into the modern world, with Mike Flanagan using social media and the uglier side of teenage life online to put a contemporary spin on Carrie White’s nightmare.

According to Stephen King, the results are seriously effective. Posting on Threads, King shared his reaction to the series: "Mike Flanagan's version of CARRIE is brilliant. What it has to say about social media is shocking and true."

That social media angle looks like it’ll play a major role in Flanagan’s version of the story. The new eight-episode series stars Summer H. Howell as Carrie White, a teenage girl who enters high school after spending most of her life isolated from the outside world.

Carrie doesn’t understand many of the social rules her classmates take for granted, and she’s also been kept in the dark about puberty. That makes her an easy target for some truly cruel bullying. Of course, anyone familiar with Carrie knows picking on this particular teenager eventually becomes a very bad idea.

As Carrie struggles with her new surroundings, she begins discovering that she possesses powerful telekinetic abilities, and those powers eventually lead to violence.

A newly released trailer offers a better look at how Flanagan has updated the material. One of the story’s most infamous moments, Carrie discovering her period at school, now comes with an added layer of humiliation as the incident is filmed and spread across social media.

It’s an ugly but fitting evolution of the original story. The cruelty Carrie experiences no longer has to remain inside the walls of her school. In this version, it can be recorded, shared, replayed, and seen by everyone.

This also marks the first time Carrie has been adapted as a television series, giving Flanagan eight episodes to explore Carrie, her classmates, her home life, and the events leading toward the story’s horrific conclusion.

Early reactions have been encouraging, with the first two episodes described as "powerful" and "relevant."

Flanagan has built a strong reputation for adapting King’s work, but Carrie gives him the opportunity to tackle one of the author’s most famous stories in a format we haven’t seen before.

Rather than simply retelling the familiar material, this version appears interested in asking what Carrie White’s experience would look like for a teenager growing up right now.

King calling the result "brilliant" is already a pretty strong endorsement.

Carrie arrives in full on Prime Video on October 9, putting the eight-episode horror series right in the middle of Halloween season.