Based on Stephen King's debut novel, Brian De Palma's 1976 Carrie remains a timeless classic. I must have seen the film for the first time in the early nineties, at least 15 years after its release, and it didn't feel old or in need of a remake.
Yet since then, we've had a sequel, Carrie 2 in 1999, plus three remakes: a TV movie in 2002, Kimberly Peirce's 2013 movie, and now an eight-part series released on Amazon Prime Video this week. All of them felt a bit unnecessary, but none prompted as much debate as the latest interpretation.
Warning: this article may contain spoilers for those who have not watched Carrie on Amazon Prime.
Developed by Mike Flanagan (The Life of Chuck), Amazon Prime's Carrie stars Summer H Howell as the eponymous teenage girl with telekinetic powers.
In contrast to the movies, it sticks closer to the documentary format of the novel. It also recognises the impact of the social changes that could make the story worth retelling: metal detectors in US schools, the additional harm of cyberbullying and online harassment via social media.
But it makes other changes that go far beyond merely updating the story to a different age. Carrie's personality has been changed dramatically, making her more optimistic and likeable.
For some, this reduces the concept of what defines Carrie to a series of setpiece scenes. Over on X, someone's provided a side-by-side comparison of one of the most famous: the prom scene, comparing the 1976 Carrie against Amazon's series. Opinions are not favourable to the latter.
I need people to see these two clips of Carrie (1976) and Carrie (2026) side by side to understand you are being fed slop and calling it a gourmet meal https://t.co/GRCxhSAnKoOctober 8, 2026
"The sound design. The cinematography. The lighting. The editing. The pacing. The score. The performances. How did we regress this badly?" one person asks on seeing the comparison above.
Some point to the inanity of a script that has fleeing characters redundantly explain that the doors are locked and that Carrie's coming for them. Yeah, I think we could gather that.
Others feel that the more sympathetic portrayal of Carrie lightens or even glamourises the scene, making her a heroine in a "crush the bullies" fantasy. The blood looks carefully painted, more like a Halloween costume than a revolting humiliation. Carrie looks like she's "aura farming", one person thinks.
"Carrie is not a 'girlboss moment', it's a mass killing," another person points out. "It ought to convey the horror of a school shooting, hundreds of people trapped in a burning building."
The ending is drastically different too, adding the kind of plot twist that's obligatory in any TV series that's aiming for a second season. I don't want to give too many spoilers away, but it seems to open the possibility of Carrie becoming a kind of X-men/Heroes/The Tomorrow People story.
Flanagan has said that he felt there was more of Carrie's story to tell and that he aims to bring in elements that reflect the larger world that King built through his later books like The Shining, Doctor Sleep and The Institute.
But is the series really telling more of Carrie's story of writing a completely different one that happens to have the same name?
