Another Carrie Remake: Are We Tired?

Sounds | Katie Trottier

Graphic by Grace Noseworthy

Spoilers ahead!

She’s the blood-soaked prom queen, and we are her voyeurs. Again.

You may have seen that yet another Carrie adaptation has come out: one that promises fresh blood and a keen new take on the Stephen King classic. The miniseries aired October 7th on Amazon Prime, and so far, has been subjected to mixed reviews.

I have always shied away from horror, especially Stephen King’s. Watching It (2017) had me sleeping in my mom’s bed for weeks as a middle schooler. However, I’d been told the new show isn’t awfully scary, so I decided to sit down and watch the new miniseries; I am a lover of teenage trashy Amazon Prime shows before anything else. I had only known the story of Carrie second-hand due to my aversion to horror, so I went into the show mostly blind, which was probably unorthodox (I am very sorry, horror lovers and Carrie book purists). I am very sad to say that all I know about Carrie comes from the show Riverdale, which aired a musical episode in 2018 where the gang takes on the Carrie show. I also had no idea that Carrie kills basically everyone because, well, tragedy struck in the town of Riverdale before they could finish the play…

Overall, I did enjoy the show, in the same way I enjoyed The Summer I Turned Pretty. It’s got romance, conflict, and parental drama, which checks all the boxes for me. But taking a horror classic and making it an ultra-modern TV series was a risk, and I’m not entirely sure that it paid off. So much of the plot has to be worked around having a socially-stunted girl be forced into a 2026 world, where things are far more different than they were in the original plot. In the show, we see Carrie take on lockdown procedures, personal home spyware, and Instagram gossip cyberbullying pages (all things considered, she took her discovery of the internet pretty well). It adds an interesting element to her alienation, certainly, but it also gives the story new meaning. Her telekinetic power discovery is now the product of cyberbullying. Her period-blood-stained shower debacle is now the profile picture of a gossip page. It changes the heart of the story so much: who could ever imagine Margaret White setting up a ring light and posting an Instagram reel?

Additionally, are we tired of seeing teenage girls suffer yet? Are we bored of the isolated-until-now telekinetic tortured girl yet (cough cough, Stranger Things)? What does it mean that Carrie isn’t the one to kill her mother in this remake; are we trying to water Carrie down and make her nicer, more empathetic, easier to sympathize with?

And what do we really gain from another remake?

I’m really not the kind to be overly critical about new media. I’m not the kind to be enraged over the source material being altered for adaptation. There will always be things lost in the transfer from page to screen, and that’s unfortunately just the way it goes. But with over five adaptations of Carrie made for screen and a countless number of performances of the musical on and off Broadway, aren’t we tired yet? How many times can we remake the classics before we get bored? Will there always be something to add?

But, I promise, I actually liked the show. I thought it was fun and sharp and a good distraction from midterms. However, I think I felt that way because, for once, I went into a remake with no solid prior conceptions of the plot, no expectations of casting, character, or setting, and I truly did not care who lived or died—just that there was entertainment. And that, there was! I spoke to a few friends who are fans of the original Carrie, and I got pretty much the same reviews on the show: it’s good in its own right, but it doesn’t live up to the original.

Still, does anything these days? Will anything ever be good and respected if it isn’t a new, never-tried-before concept? Perhaps we are far too hard on remakes. I do not necessarily think that a viewer should have to go into a remake blind in order to enjoy it; fans of the original Carrie should be able to enjoy new adaptations of the source material without feeling like the heart of the story has been changed. However, our world is changing, and what would the point of a remake be if it was just like the original? Change is necessary. Change can be good! Adaptations are practically designed to please existing fans with fresh-but-familiar material while simultaneously drawing in new crowds with a promise of interesting, current media. Maybe this Carrie miniseries adapted Stephen King’s classic for a younger audience, in a way that was accessible and understandable to them. And maybe that’s not so bad after all.