Mike Flanagan’s ‘Carrie’ Brings Buckets of Blood to Comic-Con’s Ballroom 20

If there’s one person you can trust when it comes to adapting Stephen King, it’s Mike Flanagan. The man behind Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game, and The Life of Chuck has become synonymous with his adaptations, bringing depth, character, and tragedy to the unlikeliest of stories. With so many hits under his belt, it was inevitable that he would next adapt one of King’s most beloved novels of all time: the legendary horror classic, Carrie.

I’ve been a personal fan of Flanagan’s for a very long time. His Netflix series have proven to be some of the best programs to come out since 2018, because he manages to take concepts and stories from various time periods and expertly adapts them with his voice and modern day sensibilities. The astonishing nature at which his projects pay faithful homage to their source materials while evolving into their own separate stories speaks to his talents as a creative storyteller who understands the material so well he can make it his own. As such, it’s no wonder that his next series, Carrie, was able to secure a prime spot at San Diego Comic-Con’s coveted Ballroom 20 (where Forgotten Island was earlier that week).

On stage in front of a hardcore crowd of hundreds, Flanagan was joined by the show’s cast, including stars Summer H. Howell (Carrie White), Samantha Sloyan (Margaret White), Siena Agudong (Sue Snell), Alison Thornton (Chris Hargensen), Amber Midthunder (Rita Desjardin), and the legendary Matthew Lillard (Henry Grayle). The eight-episode series, which debuts on Prime Video in October (a busy month for Flanagan, in which the DC Studios film, Clayface — which he penned — is also set to be released), promises to be something unlike anything Flanafans have ever seen.

When asked about what made his and Howell’s version of Carrie so distinct, Flanagan stated, “I think one of the things that is essential when you are revisiting any piece of material that is this iconic and has been adapted as many times as it has, or to your point, has been portrayed so iconically… the only thing you can really do is approach the character from a completely different place from the very beginning. Our Carrie starts out on the other side of the planet… where Sissy’s version of the character began and where the character exists in the book. It’s one of the reasons why I thought when we first discussed Summer’s question about ‘well, ‘Should I even go back and look at that?’… No, it was way more important to me to see what Summer was going to build without having any of that in her head. The Carrie White that Summer creates hasn’t ever existed before. Not on the page, not in any of the adaptations, the official adaptations, or even the unofficial adaptations, because I believe that Carrie White exists all over our pop culture. Whether it’s called Carrie or not. I think it’s one of she is one of the most influential characters that Stephen King ever created, and you see versions of her pop up in so many different places. So it was critical for us to be trying to approach her from a from an angle that we hadn’t seen before. And a lot of that just came down to what Summer intuitively brought to the heart of the character. We auditioned more than 1,000 actresses for this role. In my career, we have never cast a wider net trying to find a perfect actor. And what Summer brought to this was something that nobody else in all 1,000+ of those auditions was putting in the foreground. It’s such a unique and distinct approach to the character. It’s such an individual thing. I’m so excited for people to get to see what she created.”

Howell was asked what it was like to play the character of Carrie with a blank slate; truly without having visited any previous iterations in any other adaptation. “Well, it’s funny because it feels like Carrie — my Carrie — goes into this very open, and excited for the world,” Howell began. “She wants to make friends and go to school and meet people. She’s never experienced people besides her mom and her dad, who is dead. But it felt like this backwards journey because for me, I’ve gone to public school my whole life. I’ve gone to high school now, but I experienced it all. So it was just this switch of going back to how I would have reacted if I were Carrie. And I feel like I didn’t become me until 18 or 19. Like I started truly believing in myself and figuring out who I am and what I want in life and all of the above. And so it’s funny because Carrie comes in sure of herself, and then she’s beaten down by everybody and this new world; a new landscape she’s forced into. And so now she’s on the self-discovery journey, and going to try to get to where I feel I am now.”

Longtime Flanagan star, Sloyan, a staple in most of his projects, is portraying the iconic role of Margaret White, Carrie’s abusive and over-evangelical mother. She was asked to discuss her take on the role of Margaret for the adaptation. “[Margaret] loves her daughter. She’s also a fierce woman, so she’s not a big softie by any means. But I do think that her ferocity is in protecting her daughter; the thing she loves most in a world that she fears. Because just like her daughter, she’s been in this house for 15 years. And she had a life before. But if you just think about how if you missed the past 15 years and walked outside, life — the world — would be quite terrifying. Especially if you’re somebody like Margaret who doesn’t agree with the way the world runs itself. So I think, yeah, that’s where her teeth come out.”

Flanagan weighed in on his version of Margaret, which will be a bit less of an overly religious zealot, given Sloyan played a similar character in Midnight Mass. “I think the character in the book is very much this fanatical, rageful abuser. And I felt that that part had been played by extraordinary actresses. Piper Laurie, Julianne Moore… but I was very interested in ‘de-monstering’ [her]… I thought, what if this comes from a place of incredible parental anxiety? Because I feel that way when I see my kids go to school. What if I play that out to an extreme? I think that’s what the genre is, right? It takes something that we all feel, and it plays it out to an extreme. Often metaphorically. But that’s why it exists… It’s about taking these parts of ourselves, cranking them up well past 11… so that we can really look at them in a way that we can start to understand ourselves. And so with Margaret, it just created a completely different dynamic for these characters. And for Samantha, I was so interested in not watching her play a religious zealot the way she did in Midnight Mass. So I was excited to see what she did with someone who didn’t know the best place to put their love, because I think so many parents have that problem, and that it can unintentionally really hurt their kids.”

Mixed-Filipino actress, Agudong (sister of Sydney Agudong, from Lilo and Stitch), landed the iconic role of Sue Snell in the adaptation. On what it was like coming onto the project, she stated, “I also came in fresh. I read the book after I got the part, but coming into it, I only really had Mike’s words to really get an idea of what this show was going to be, and it was hard to not immerse yourself in the material with Mike’s writing, as I’m sure a lot of you know. It’s so honest and it’s so heartfelt. And I felt like playing Sue… I wanted it to come from an honest place, and taking back to what it felt like as a teenager. Seeing Summer in front of me, really, and having someone play Carrie so honestly and with so much vulnerability, I just happened to be present with her, and I feel like that’s how I found myself.”

The story of Carrie would not be complete without a cruel antagonist like Chris Hargensen — King’s ultimate mean girl. Stepping into the role of Chris is Thornton. She also went into detail about her experience joining the project. “So I was a fan of Carrie before this. I think I read the book for the first time when I was in high school, and then I read it again during COVID. And so when I got the audition, I freaked out because I’m also a huge Mike Flanagan fan. I’ve seen all of his shows, and it was just such a treat to be able to play Chris. She’s so complicated and difficult, as some of you might know. But yeah, I mean, they say don’t meet your heroes, but I think Mike is the exception.”

Midthunder, no stranger to genre after terrific turns in films like Prey and Novocaine, was asked what drew her to joining this specific adaptation of the story. “The source material is amazing. The book is incredible. The movie is a legend. But it really was Mike Flanagan who made this project interesting for me. His take on this is incredible, and I was fortunate enough to read all eight episodes before I even sat down with him. And I have to tell you — the show is so good. It is really incredible. And then getting to the privilege of sitting down with him and hearing his vision for this whole thing, and what it says, what it means to this new generation of fans, and how much care he puts into each character… His world is so intricate, and there’s not a single thing that isn’t thought of. And I was just happy to be a small part of that picture.”

A new member to the Flanagan family, Lillard, who appeared in Flanagan’s adaptation of The Life of Chuck, was asked about what it was like to reunite with the acclaimed director. “So I did Life of Chuck, and I was told that I was in the ‘Flana-fam.’ If you don’t know what that is, Mike works with a lot of the same actors time again and again. And I’m in a movie called Five Nights at Freddy’s. And I was showing Mike and his sons around the set, and I said to him, ‘Now that I’m in the Flana-fam, how does that work? Do I tell you when I’m working, or are you gonna call me?’ It was like we were dating. He’s like, ‘Well, this is how it works: I’m gonna call you, and I’m gonna want you to be in movies and/or TV shows, and you don’t have to do them. If you want to, great. If not, then I won’t take it personally.’… And I was like, ‘Great! What are we doing next?’ He’s like, ‘Funny. You should ask.’ And so he had written [Carrie]. I play Principal Grayle in the show and then that was about six months before we started to work on it. And I had an incredible time shooting it.”

Here’s a quick gallery of Flanagan and the whole Carrie gang at Ballroom 20:

Consider us completely sat for this one! The fact that Flanagan is taking the classic story of Carrie and transforming it into a commentary for cyber bullying today, in a culture dominated by Internet trolls (such as the freaking POTUS) gives the tale a relevancy we know King would be proud of. Furthermore, it looks and sounds like a truly terrifying and bloody good time! As if we would expect any less from one of the greatest masters of horror working today.

Carrie premieres on Prime Video on October 7!