Mike Flanagan, who made the popular movie “Doctor Sleep” in 2019, is officially turning Stephen King’s famous book Carrie into a TV show. This is exciting because Flanagan is known for making great horror TV shows.
After finishing his work with Netflix in 2023, including his hit series The Fall of the House of Usher, he is now working with Amazon. While many thought his first Amazon project would be based on another Stephen King story, The Dark Tower, Flanagan’s first show will be an eight-part Carrie series, originally written in 1974.
Mike Flanagan has worked on Stephen King’s stories before, making movies like Gerald’s Game (2017), Doctor Sleep (2019), and an upcoming film The Life of Chuck (coming in 2025). But this new Carrie show will be the first time he’s doing one of King’s stories as a TV series, which makes it even more exciting.
Advertisement Even though Carrie was already turned into a famous 1976 horror movie by Brian De Palma, some might worry about Flanagan’s version. But since he did such a great job with Doctor Sleep, another well-loved Stephen King story, many think he can handle this one too.
It was a big challenge when Mike Flanagan decided to make a movie based on Stephen King’s 2013 book Doctor Sleep. The book is a sequel to King’s famous horror story The Shining, which had a lot of fans.
But Doctor Sleep wasn’t just for the book’s fans—Flanagan also had to please people who loved King’s original The Shining book from 1976 and fans of the 1980 The Shining movie made by Stanley Kubrick, which was slightly different from the book. Even though it was tough to make everyone happy, Flanagan did a fantastic job with his Doctor Sleep movie.
Doctor Sleep showed that Mike Flanagan could successfully handle a famous Stephen King story while adding his own unique style, which is a great sign for his new Carrie show. In Doctor Sleep, Flanagan also had to recreate important scenes, characters, and moments from The Shining—both from the famous movie and the book.
He made these scenes feel like respectful tributes to the original while still adding his own twist. This same approach of blending the old with his own ideas is exactly what a new Carrie remake needs today.
Mike Flanagan’s new version of Carrie has a tough challenge because people will compare it to the super popular 1976 movie. On top of that, some people might not be excited about another Carrie remake because previous ones didn’t do so well.
While the 1976 Carrie movie has an amazing 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes, later versions didn’t impress. The 1999 sequel The Rage: Carrie 2 got only 23%, the 2002 TV movie scored 20%, and the 2013 remake got a mixed 50%. Flanagan’s version will have to work hard to win fans over.
| Carrie Adaptation | Rotten Tomatoes Score |
|---|---|
| Carrie (1976) | 94% |
| The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) | 23% |
| Carrie (2002) | 20% |
| Carrie (2013) | 50% |
People don’t expect the new Carrie show to be as good as the 1976 movie, even though a talented horror director like Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep) is in charge. Luckily, Flanagan has done a great job with other Stephen King stories, so there’s hope that this Carrie show will succeed.
Plus, with a TV series, Flanagan can explore parts of the book that the movies didn’t have time for. If he pulls it off, his version of Carrie might even be the best yet, though he still has some doubts to overcome.
Source: Screenrant