Review: In 'Carrie', Mike Flanagan swaps prom nostalgia for metal detectors, turns Margaret into a victim — and spills the blood one episode early

Mike Flanagan makes his Prime Video debut, after years of horror at Netflix, with the fourth adaptation of 'Carrie', Stephen King's first novel. All eight episodes dropped on Wednesday (Oct. 7) and bring Carrie White (Summer H. Howell) into the present: after her father dies in a construction-site accident, the girl raised in isolation by her mother, Margaret (Samantha Sloyan), is thrust into a public school in the small town of Ewen, where phones, social media and active-shooter drills are part of daily life — and where her telekinetic powers begin to awaken.

The update goes beyond adding smartphones. As TheWrap, which called the show a 'resounding success', pointed out, school becomes a place of everyday trauma, with metal detectors and adults numbed by gun violence. Flanagan also gives the whole town an inner life: Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton) gets a troubled home that explains, without excusing, her cruelty; Sue Snell (Siena Agudong) becomes more morally ambiguous; and the faculty, with Matthew Lillard as the principal, Amber Midthunder as young teacher Rita Desjardin and Tim Bagley as the guidance counselor, carries much of the drama. The boldest twist is Margaret: instead of the usual fanatical monster, Sloyan, a regular Flanagan collaborator, delivers an overprotective, wounded mother, which makes her abuse even more unsettling.

Summer H. Howell anchors the show with a sweeter, more outgoing Carrie than past versions, and that is precisely where one of the critics' complaints lies. Bloody Disgusting (2.5 out of 5) sees a more passive protagonist, almost a puppet of the plot, and telekinesis kept in the background until the last two episodes. Gizmodo agrees the ending feels rushed: the vignettes about other women with powers feel tacked on, and prom, now in the penultimate chapter, plays almost anticlimactic after so much buildup.

On balance, 'Carrie' works better as a teen drama about institutions failing their students than as a horror series — the fear here is more existential than jump-out-of-your-seat. The careful direction, the restrained Newton Brothers score and nods like a Brian De Palma retrospective marquee show a filmmaker in form, but the ending, which trades catharsis for open questions aimed at a possible continuation, leaves the feeling of a story cut short. Score: 7/10