Stephen King didn’t want another Carrie remake. This is what convinced him

At first glance, Summer H. Howell and Stephen King’s Carrie White have nothing in common. One is a soft-spoken 22-year-old Canadian actor. The other is a traumatised telekinetic teen who destroys her hometown in a vengeful rage.

They do, however, share one key experience: they both spent their first prom covered in blood.

Howell missed her high school dance – or “grad” as they call it in Canada – because she’d been working. Little did she know she’d stumble upon a second chance while filming the lead role in Carrie, Mike Flanagan’s TV adaptation of King’s seminal horror novel.

“I had a wonderful prom,” Howell says with fond reminiscence and a hint of trauma. “It feels like one big fever dream ... I had about 11 days covered in blood, head to toe. I did a lot of relying on other people and sitting, trying not to mess up my continuity … It was really cool to get to experience it in a way.”

The “Black Prom” is one of the most famous sequences in horror history. It began, of course, with King’s 1974 debut novel, which introduced the image of Carrie doused in pigs’ blood following a cruel prank. It’s the pivotal moment in a story about an outcast teen who faces relentless bullying by schoolmates and a fanatically religious mother before unleashing her telekinetic powers in a fit of destruction.

Equal parts horrifying and tragic, the scene has been recreated many times including in Brian De Palma’s 1976 film with Sissy Spacek and the 2013 movie starring Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore. It’s even had several incarnations in a stage musical.

In other words, the story has been told – exhaustively. So, when Amazon Prime Video pitched Flanagan the idea of adapting Carrie for the small screen, the showrunner’s first instinct was to turn it down. Not only was it not on his King adaptation wishlist, he also generally avoids remakes and sequels, opting instead for fresh source material like Gerald’s Game and The Haunting of Hill House.

Stephen King was also sceptical. The horror legend believed there was no need for more Carrie. “He said, I think it’s been done’,” Flanagan recalls. “And I said ‘I think I agree’.” The filmmaker wouldn’t proceed without King’s stamp of approval. But an idea kept niggling at him.

“Teenagers today deal with cruelty and anxiety to a degree [Stephen King] never could have contemplated 50 years ago.”

Carrie showrunner Mike Flanagan

“I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” Flanagan says. “It’s been half a century since Stephen King created that character and that story in that world, but so much of what he was talking about is more relevant today than it was when he wrote it.”

“Teenagers today deal with cruelty and anxiety to a degree Steve never could have contemplated 50 years ago – that I couldn’t contemplate when I was growing up. I never went to school afraid I could be killed there.”

When Flanagan had his “Carrie moments”, he notes that they also remained largely private. His “most vulnerable, humiliating and defining moments” weren’t preserved digitally forever, in full view on the internet. Teenagers today can’t relate.

So what would happen if Carrie were dropped in the age of TikTok and rampant school shootings?

Flanagan, who’s renowned for his emotional, character-driven horrors like The Fall of the House of Usher and Oculus, came up with what he calls the “anti-Carrie”. While De Palma’s lead character was traumatised from the moment the cameras started rolling, Flanagan’s is more of an “unspoiled heart”.

“We created a character who came into the world with trust, eagerness and openness – with a fearlessness socially and a genuine belief in the goodness of the environment around her. She then reacts to the realities we’ve all normalised in society for teenagers,” he says.

This, it turns out, was enough to convince Stephen King. But with that hurdle overcome, the next presented itself: finding the new Carrie White.

Flanagan, along with King as an executive producer, searched for someone who embodied an earnest curiosity without being naive, and a vulnerability paired with hidden strength. More than 1400 people auditioned for the role, making it the biggest casting effort of Flanagan’s career to date.

They searched tirelessly until, finally, Howell emerged. She had never read or seen previous versions of Carrie, which ironically worked in her favour. After sharing countless self-tapes, Howell was offered the role – on April Fools’ Day.

“I was just like, ‘What’s happening? What a funny joke that would be’,” she says. “I always assume with big projects that you’re up against a lot of people. But I just put it out of mind and did my own thing.”

Her reaction was a combination of shock, honour and a fair deal of intimidation. Carrie is legendary, after all. “But because I hadn’t been influenced by any other version of her, I found it to be really fun,” she says. “I just tried to have a good time with it and enjoy the ride.”

Carrie isn’t the only character to undergo a refresh. Adopting more of a YA slant, the series offers a glimpse into the home-life of other key characters, including Carrie’s mother Margaret White, famously played by Piper Laurie in the 1976 film. Here, she’s played by Samantha Sloyan and is no longer a monster. Rather, she’s a product of her own abuse.

“Where Sam [Sloyan] takes it is so heartbreaking, so beautiful and so human,” Flanagan says. “The late season scenes between her and Summer are some of my favourite I’ve ever witnessed on a set of mine in my life. I’m very interested in the cyclical nature of abuse and trauma, and the self-sustaining nature of that.”

Carrie’s main bully, Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton), is given similar treatment. She isn’t just a “mean girl monster”; she’s reacting to her own deep well of pain, largely caused by her parents’ divorce (her mother is played by Heather Graham) and money issues. This is the source of her poor choices, such as filming Carrie sobbing in the school showers after getting her first period. Instead of helping her, Hargensen chants “plug it up” and shares the footage on an anonymous account online, turning Carrie into the school’s laughingstock.

“There really are no monsters in frame, at least not in the beginning,” Flanagan says. “And if we ever meet a monster, we get to see how they’re made.”

As horrific as scenes like this sound, it’s actually not that far off the experience of many contemporary US teens. Flanagan opened his writers’ room to actual high schoolers to hear their lived experience of bullying, gun violence and social media.

Demonstrating the human side of horror is signature Flanagan. But it’s also something he picked up from King, who he describes as a “humanist and optimist”.

“Some of Stephen’s work holds our face to truths about human nature that are so uncomfortable and horrifying, but the humanity at the heart of it is always there,” Flanagan says. “That shaped what I believe the horror genre to be.”

This is actually the filmmaker’s fourth Stephen King adaptation, following Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep and The Life of Chuck. He also has The Dark Tower and The Mist in the works. And King’s humanistic approach has shaped his work in other projects too, such as Midnight Mass and his upcoming Exorcist remake starring Scarlett Johansson.

Flanagan often invites familiar faces to help tell these stories, including Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, and his wife Kate Siegel. Often referred to as his “Flana-fam”, these actors have developed a trust with Flanagan, as well as a shorthand on-set, which helps them reach such vulnerable, human depths. He also considers it an excuse to spend more time with those he loves, including his partner and three children, all of whom feature in Carrie.

Howell is now officially part of the “Flana-fam”, which she describes as a “safe space”. It was thanks to this that she was not only able to survive 11 days covered in fake blood, but actually enjoy it.

“I remember Mike taking the time to slow everybody down and just acknowledge the moment. Be grateful, look around and say: ‘We’re at Carrie White’s prom. That’s never going to happen again’. Now, that moment’s in the past, and he was so right. We cherished it, and I’m so glad we had that.”

Carrie is streaming on Amazon Prime Video from October 7.

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