Adaptations, remakes and reboots are all the rage right now, and there’s often one question that crops up - why? See also "what's the point?" and "do we need another one?" whenever a story is resurrected from the past. Carrie, Prime Video's new TV series based on Stephen King's debut novel, has been no exception.
It's not the first time the tale of high school bullies and supernatural powers has been adapted for the screen. Director Brian de Palma's 1976 movie version is a horror classic, with some of its most famous scenes and imagery widely considered iconic within the genre. But the cast and creator of the latest version, which drags Carrie's story forward 50 years into a world of social media, have been telling BBC Newsbeat why they believe it's still relevant in 2026.
Fans of the novel have been quick to complain the new version of Carrie is not "book accurate", pointing out that she was originally an abrasive, even unlikeable character. In the TV adaptation, Carrie has been raised behind closed doors by her paranoid father and deeply religious mother, and only enters school after a tragedy reveals her existence to authorities. Audiences see a different version of the character in the show - one who's naive, but open and eager to learn new things.
"There's a lot of opinions, and I purposely avoided the original movie and and the book before filming because I hadn't seen it or read it," Summer H Howell, who plays Carrie, tells Newsbeat. "And I wanted to create this new, light version of Carrie that was excited to get out of her house and just curious about the world and people." However, the 22-year-old actress says the journey her character goes on is not so different, and argues it's still relevant today. "It's the story of an outsider, and bullying has not gone away in 50 years," she says.
"If anything, it's just gotten worse with social media." Social media plays a huge part in the adaptation by horror director Mike Flanagan, who's best known for series such as The Haunting of Hill House. In his version of Carrie, some of the most famous scenes, including the dramatic prom moment, are adapted to a world where everything is filmed and shared online. Alison Thornton, who plays chief bully Chris Hargensen, says social media "is kind of a villain in the show".
"You can post something, or someone will take a video of something, and the fact that it can be permanently online is actually quite terrifying," she says. Thornton says the adaptation aims to show how online posts can have "repercussions in real life". Showrunner Flanagan tells Newsbeat it would have been "impossible to ignore the impact social media has had in changing the way we see each other".
Extract — continue reading at the source.
