Flanagan's 'Carrie' Series Criticized as Too Gentle to Scare — SkimNews
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- Mike Flanagan adapted Stephen King's 52-year-old novel into an eight-episode 'Carrie' series premiering October 7 on Amazon Prime Video, with all episodes dropping at once.
- Summer H. Howell stars as Carrie White, a homeschooled girl raised by doomsday-prepper parents who enters public school for the first time, delivering what the review calls 'affecting innocence' but one-note telekinesis that leaks out in 'drips and drabs.'
- Margaret White, played by Samantha Sloyan, is dismissed as a 'misanthrope and hypocrite' whose monotonous predictability makes Carrie's growing distrust a 'tension-free wait for a foregone conclusion' rather than a compelling psychological conflict.
- Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton) is described as effective on 'the other end of the spectrum' from Carrie, but the review faults the show for saddling her with a one-note 'douchebag dad' (Michael Trucco) to explain her bullying.
- The series is positioned as the first season of an intended three, and the review likens it to Flanagan's 'The Midnight Club' rather than 'Midnight Mass,' calling the result 'a teen drama that's blunt, preachy, and broad.'
- The review's central critique is that the show's empathy for its young characters flattens its horror potential, concluding it lands as 'a plea instead of a roar' when 'the modern world, with all its problems, calls for screams.'
Why it matters: A high-profile streaming adaptation of a horror icon receiving a mixed review for prioritizing empathy over scares puts Amazon Prime Video's bet on Flanagan's prestige-drama instincts against audience expectations for King's source material — and the all-at-once release on October 7 means no time to course-correct before viewers binge-judge the entire season.
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