Mike Flanagan's Carrie Miniseries Is Here, and Critics Say It's the Best Since 1976

Carrie White is back, and this time she’s living in the age of group chats. Mike Flanagan’s eight-episode miniseries just premiered on Amazon Prime Video, pulling Stephen King’s debut novel out of the 1970s and dropping it straight into the present day. Summer H. Howell stars as Carrie, with Samantha Sloyan playing her mother Margaret.

The modernization is the whole point. In the 1976 version, the bullying happened in hallways and locker rooms. Now it follows Carrie home, lives in her phone, and never lets her sleep. Critics are calling it the most explicitly feminist adaptation of the novel ever made, and a handful are already ranking it as the second-best version of the story after Brian De Palma’s classic.

It’s not perfect. Reviewers say the middle episodes drag and there’s one bold creative choice that’s dividing audiences right now. But Flanagan, the mind behind“The Haunting of Hill House”and“Gerald’s Game,”already wants two more seasons, which says he’s just getting started.

Are you watching this weekend, or are you staying loyal to Sissy Spacek? Tell us in the comments.