Meet the new Carrie: Manitoba’s Summer H. Howell won horror role over 1,400 others

She’s not your parents’ Carrie.

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Summer H. Howell, who lives with her family in the small community of St. Andrews just north of Winnipeg, is a distinct screen presence compared to Sissy Spacek, who created the role of telekinetic teen Carrie White 50 years ago for director Brian De Palma. She is likewise different from Chloe Grace Moretz’s angel of vengeance in the 2013 remake by Kimberley Peirce.

In the new miniseries, adapted by horror maestro Mike Flanagan, Howell’s character is, while still socially awkward, a more gracious Carrie, even if her bubbling telekinetic power rocks her core of kindness. Flanagan says Howell won the part over some 1400 contenders.

“She immediately brought something I’d never seen in any of the other 1400 candidates, which is just something that Summer Howell has in her bones, which is an earnestness and empathy and a kindness that doesn’t feel naive. And that defined the character for me,” Flanagan says.

Though only 22, Howell has a number of horror projects under her belt, starting with the Curse of Chucky, (2013), director Don Mancini’s continuation of the venerable killer doll series he started as a screenwriter in 1988 with Child’s Play.

“Even then, it was obvious she was very talented, intelligent and delightful,” Mancini said of Howell.

Howell gravitated to horror repeatedly, with credits in Shawn Linden’s harrowing 2020 thriller Hunter Hunter, and the 2023 possession thriller All Fun and Games. Earlier this year, she shot the horror thriller Sundown, in Winnipeg, with director Rebekah McKendry, which premiered last week at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles and is headed for a streaming berth on Shudder.

But Howell knows she has her most important, high-profile role yet as Carrie White.

Interviewed via Zoom from Toronto, Howell says the fact she still lives with her family in St. Andrews, helped her slide into the role of Carrie, who, at the series’ beginning, has a loving relationship with her mother Margaret (Samantha Sloyan), in contrast to past iterations of the relationship, in which Margaret (played by both Piper Laurie and Julianne Moore), is portrayed as more of a hardcore religious fanatic.

“It definitely helps in ways, still being at home with my parents and having that family dynamic, especially because I love them so much,” Howell says. “My Carrie is different from the past Carries because her family is built from love. So a lot of the division that comes with the story and the issues between her and her mom are after she’s been out of the house and in school, seeing how other people are treated and how her upbringing has been different.

“But it all comes from love,” Howell says. “Margaret is fearful for her daughter and the world and just wants to protect her so bad that it pushes her to places she probably shouldn’t go.”

Even at this early stage of her career, the role feels like a kind of culmination for Howell, she says.

“I feel like I’ve been working toward it my whole life and just slowly pulling it toward me,” she says.

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