Every ten years or so, some director out there scrambles through their bookshelf, meekly looking for their big hit, wanting to create something “new” and “fresh” while holding onto a classic (yet so overdone) story. Stephen King’s novel Carrie always seems to catch their eye. The book was published in 1974. Then after that, a total of three other movies have blessed all of us. Oh, and a Broadway musical.
If you’re wanting to watch Carrie, do not watch this show.
The original Stephen King novel Carrie follows an outcast teen girl, routinely bullied due to her extreme religious beliefs and awkward behavior. Carrie’s bullies at school are cruel and almost comically evil towards her, while she cowers back. She doesn’t have any friends and relies on her intense religious mother for any source of information. One of the most iconic scenes is when Carrie gets her first period (at age 16) and has no idea what’s happening. Her schoolmates bully her, leading up to the later horror climax. It’s a classic horror story.
The new show, Carrie, could be a perfectly fine show. Except, it decides to use the same few iconic moments from the original, while also twisting it to have extra stories (for example, one of the main bullies has a backstory) and adding unnecessary character traits. Instead of making Carrie the school’s strange punching bag, she’s cute and naive, receiving passive aggressive jabs from her classmates, rather than blatant bullying. One of the biggest flaws in any sort of version of Carrie is that the directors are too afraid to make her be unwelcoming or unattractive (like in the original book). Of course, the kindest and prettiest people get picked on all the time, but I believe that needs its own story.
In the new show, only in the first episode it can be seen how much all characters are toned down, sure, offering a more common perspective. But I don’t believe that’s what Carrie should be. Carrie’s mother definitely encourages strong fear in her daughter, kids at school are still mean, she’s still misunderstood and scared, but it seems like a more common coming of age high school story, not Carrie. In fact, I think the show would be so much better if they didn’t use the same title of Carrie and if they were to branch away from the original story. The show could be skilled at showing perspectives from different high schoolers.
Carrie has potential as a show, keeping the actual traits of the original characters. While this new 2026 Carrie also has potential, if it were to branch away from Carrie, instead of overusing the same story.