I viewed Mike Flanagan/Amazon Prime/MGM's eight-episode Carrie. In my estimation, it didn't eclipse the Brian De Palma adaptation of Stephen King's breakout novel, but it more than held its own with the 2002 & 2013 remakes, though in all sincerity, I like all of the Carrie incarnations, including the sisterly The Rage. I make no apologies for that.
Even so, as I stated in my precursor post for the series earlier this month, I'd have preferred a closer-to-the-literary-bone structure for this redux: a documentary style with varying fragments leading up to the fiery climax. That, of course, didn't manifest, even if a true-crime vibe prevailed. (BTW: The social-media angle didn't do much to update the somber framework. Bullying is bullying, no matter the technological context.)
I was jarred, however, by how young the kids appeared (a tad too fresh, maybe), though when one considers that the youngsters in Carrie 1976 were portrayed by those in their twenties, maybe I shouldn't knock this group's baby-faced relegation.
Now that I think of it, Summer H. Howell's uber-youthful look did make Carrie's persecution all the more austere. In other words, Howell sure captured the once home-schooled Carrie's hampering innocence, which stressed a naivety to fit in, and then, well, you know what happens. (Isn't that the way, though? One goes in with a positive glint, and lo and behold, the walls of confidence come crashing down in a big, telekinetic swoosh of flames.)
I appreciated the other lead characters and their performers, too: Samantha Sloyan as Margaret, Carrie's strident and eloquent mother, who may be ardent, but on a number of points, makes a lot of sense; Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, Carrie's school ally; Alison Thornton as Chris Hargensen, Carrie's smug tormentor, who so happens to be even more beleaguered than Carrie on the home front; Michael Trucco as Chris' narcissistic dad, who knew Carrie's defunct dad; Heather Graham as Madison, Chris' caught-in-the-middle mom; Arthur Conti as Billy Nolan, Chris' intellectual bad boy; Joel Oulette as Tommy Ross, a good-hearted kid who becomes Carrie's prom date; Thalia Dudak as Emaline West, Carrie's inscrutable, outsider compatriot; Naika Toussaint as Stella Horton, Carrie's book-sharing neighbor; Katee Sachoff as Amanda, a telekinesis expert who advices (and warns) Margaret of her daughter's powers; Kate Seigel as Adelaide, an enigmatic interviewer; Amber Midthunder as Rita Desjardon, Carrie's circumspect gym teacher; Rahul Kohli as Seth Piest, Carrie's comparable, circumspect English teacher (and an ultimate victim in his own right); Tim Bagley as Peter Morton, Carrie's mellow guidance counselor; and Matthew Lillard as the vigilant Principal Henry Grayle.
I suppose Lillard's character could have gone either way, supportive or apathetic, but that he was the former worked better than I'd have thought. I liked this guy and appreciated his concern for Carrie and all of Ewen High's students and their parents, even if his compassion proves no match for the calamity to come.
At any rate, when all was said and done, I came away satisfied with this Carrie, regardless of its carved-in-stone turns, which were all expected and essential, but I was most engaged by its new slants on clashing characters, passive-aggressive gaslighting and deep-rooted jealousies. To some, the these additives might be dismissed as too overanalytical or superfluous, but I say why not add such supplemental depth, in particular for a told-several-times-over retelling and in the form of a miniseries, no less?
Carrie White is an icon, horror's Prom Queen Joan of Arc, and open for reinterpretation, as long as the process doesn't eliminate her downtrodden creed. Like Frankenstein, Dracula, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, The Turn of the Screw, "The Colour Out of Space," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Pit and the Pendulum," her fable will be renewed and dissected many times over in the future. It's preordained. Great, horror scenarios always resurface, as do their characters. Flannagan's (re)incarnation is just another case in point.🔥
