As a horror show lover, I've watched certain adaptations over the years that have stood the test of time. This also goes for movies. One film that I always loved was Carrie, based on the Stephen King novel, so when I found out that there was going to be a television adaptation, I was a little wary — just because I didn’t think you could improve much on the original.
The moment I saw that Mike Flanagan was involved, I got excited. He was the creative force behind the adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House and several other great horror TV shows, so I was eager to see what he had in the tank.
Now, Carrie is almost here, and the full trailer has finally been released. It looks incredible!
And honestly, I am loving this. Just from this trailer, I think there’s a lot you can do with this adaptation, more than ever before. But there’s one little aspect I am totally obsessed with.
Carrie doesn't really learn to use her powers in the original film
Something that was always iffy for me about the original film was that Carrie (Sissy Spacek) was just sort of weak, and I mean that in the best way possible. I understand that she was bullied so much and that she came from a very sheltered life growing up. It would make sense that she’d be afraid most of the time.
Spacek played her well, but Carrie in the book isn't really the same as in the film. Carrie in the film discovers she has powers and looks into it, but we don’t really see her practice or use them in any scary way before prom. If anything, it digs deeper into the idea that Carrie just snaps when the pig's blood is tossed on her, which leads to her killing everyone.
And it’s not like I don’t understand it. She felt she was finally accepted, and then it turned out it was all a prank. I’m sure anyone in that state of mind would snap.
The book Carrie is far different. It’s why it’s a literary horror classic. We see her learn to use her powers and do scary things that make her snapping at the prom feel even more real. It’s that slow descent into anger and vengefulness that finally makes her pull the mental trigger to end everyone at the prom. She was scary sometimes in the novel.
Does this make her necessarily a bad person? No. Carrie did do horrible things at the end, but it all began because she was a victim of what was happening to her and finally had a way to fight back. It didn’t end the way it should have, but at the same time, she didn't have much choice in how her mother treated her or how the rest of the world treated her.
I love that Mike Flanagan expanded on Carrie learning her powers
That’s what we see more of in the trailer, and I love that. We see Carrie (Summer H. Howell) practice with bottles, trying to get better, and use her powers in certain ways — like breaking Chris's (Alison Thornton) nose. That is such a great depiction of the book Carrie, and I love it.
This, in and of itself, is a great way to expand on the story. It honestly lines up with what Flanagan said during a panel at San Diego Comic Con (via People) as to why Stephen King even approved the adaptation in the first place: he’s taking the parts everyone knows and growing them into something better:
“That’s how we were approaching Carrie,” Flanagan said. “That’s what got Stephen King very excited about this adaptation."
Flanagan ended his comments by teasing how excited he is for fans to see the series.
"I think a lot of people think they know what the show is. The biggest thing I’m excited about today is just knowing what a big surprise our Carrie is going to be. It certainly was for me.”
To be honest, the best part isn’t even that they’re building on the powers, but that there’s so much more involved. Carrie is the kind of novel that could be used for any generation, and in our world where bullying is so easy thanks to social media, it’s not that surprising that they’re moving in that direction as well, as we can see from the trailer. It’s such a brilliant way to keep this fresh while still telling the same cautionary tale of bullying.
And that makes me so excited.
You can stream all eight episodes of Carrie on Prime Video on Oct. 7, 2026.
Add us as a preferred source on Google