Mike Flanagan Invited Real High Schoolers Into the Writers’ Room for ‘Carrie’ Cyberbullying Storyline
Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Carrie will bring the classic horror tale into the modern age.
Flanagan’s latest series is an updated take on Stephen King’s novel about a shy, sheltered teenager with telekinetic powers. The 1974 book was famously adapted by Brian De Palma into a 1976 movie starring Sissy Spacek.
Both the book and the movie version of Carrie feature troubling instances of cruel teenage bullying, most notably a prom night prank involving a bucket of blood, which triggers a terrifying bloodbath. Unfortunately, bullying hasn’t gone away in the decades since Carrie was published. But new technologies mean that it’s taken fresh forms. To make his Prime Video adaptation feel true to modern life, Flanagan turned to actual teens for insight on their experiences with bullying.
‘Bullying has changed a lot,’ Mike Flanagan said
“I think bullying has changed a lot in the 50 years since this novel was written,” Flanagan said during a panel discussion at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year (via TV Insider). “The other thing, though, is our understanding of the cycles that create that kind of behavior has also evolved quite a bit.”
“I do think that, though, that bullying can take many, many forms,” The Haunting of Hill House creator continued. “We brought several high school students into the writers’ room to ask if they would share their experiences and the things that they dealt with in these shocking one-off situations, or just the constant kind of treatment, microaggressions that don’t necessarily immediately present themselves as the kind of targeted harassment as they really are.”
Flanagan specifically called out social media and the internet, which has “encouraged that kind of cruelty — rewards it, celebrates it, amplifies it — and lets it hide behind anonymity.”
That bullying has real-world consequences, added Flanagan, who said he “learned so much about it in the writer’s room … as a parent.”
“Look at what that kind of cruelty has sculpted out of the world in the last couple of decades,” he said. “Look at social media, the internet, and our disconnection from each other – ironically, as we have all been so connected – and how that has changed the shape of the world we live in.”
The new ‘Carrie’ is different from previous versions
Flanagan has explained that he wanted to create a version of Carrie that stood on its own merits, rather than a retread of De Palma’s acclaimed adaptation. His take is more sympathetic to characters who have been cast as villains in other versions of the story. (Other movie versions were released in 2002 and 2013.) And as for the famous ending? Flanagan has said that even if you’re familiar with the source material, you’re not prepared.
“I will say that we go to the prom because of course we do, but it’s a version of the prom no one’s ever seen,” Flanagan told ComicBook.com. “Our prom takes us out of the gym, of course, but also takes us out into a much bigger world that I don’t think Stephen King certainly hadn’t laid the groundwork for back in the 70s. And I think that DePalma never would have imagined for his adaptation. So it’s really exciting.”
Carrie premieres October 7 on Prime Video.
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