What To Know
- Mike Flanagan is directing a modern reimagining of Stephen King’s Carrie for Prime Video.
- Summer H. Howell was chosen for the lead role after an extensive search.
- Howell describes her version of Carrie as a character on a journey of self-discovery.
Horror master Mike Flanagan will be working his magic on a new version of Carrie for Prime Video, reimagining Stephen King‘s original 1974 story for a modern-day audience with the blessing of the prolific author himself.
The original 1976 film was a milestone in both horror and filmmaking, with Sissy Spacek leaving an indelible mark as Carrie White, the painfully naive teenager pushed to her breaking point by a cruel mother (played by Piper Laurie) and relentless bullying, forcing her to use powers she barely understands to seek revenge. Her haunting performance earned Spacek an Academy Award nomination and helped turn Carrie into one of horror’s most recognizable icons.
Nearly 50 years later, finding someone capable of stepping into a role so closely associated with Spacek was no small task. For Flanagan, bringing Carrie into the modern era meant first finding a new actress who could capture the character’s vulnerability, isolation, and simmering rage without simply trying to recreate what came before.
That search ultimately led him to Summer H. Howell.
Prime Video
After looking “at thousands” of potential Carries before landing on Howell, Flanagan encouraged his new star to make the iconic role entirely her own.
“It’s such big shoes to step into,” Howell told the “Meet the New Class of Carrie” panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, July 25, held in Ballroom 20. “Sissy is amazing. I didn’t watch the original or read the book before I got the part. And I asked Mike when I got it, ‘Do you want me to do some research or try to be like the past?’ And we agreed it was best that I make my own version. And that’s what I did.”
Making Carrie her own meant approaching the character from the opposite end of her own teenage experience, imagining what it would be like to enter the world without the social experiences most teenagers take for granted.
“It feels like Carrie, my Carrie, goes into this very open and exciting world, and 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 pubic school my whole life — I’m done with school now — but I experienced it all, so it’s just this switch of going back to how would I have reacted if I were Carrie,” said Howell. “I feel I didn’t become me until 18, or 19, when I started to truly believing in myself and figuring out who I am and what I want in life…all of the above!”
“It’s funny because Carrie, she becomes sure of herself, then she is beaten down by everybody in this new world and new landscape she is forced into,” explained Howell. “Now, she is on a self-discovery journey.”
Carrie, Series Premiere, Wednesday, October 7, Prime Video