‘Carrie’ review: muted modern reboot of a savage horror classic

Brian De Palma’s 1976 film Carrie is a horror classic. Based on Stephen King’s debut novel, the brutally accurate portrayal of teenage savagery remains a cinematic touchstone to this day. De Palma underpinned the film with a love of brilliantly damaged characters but Mike Flanagan brings an entirely different tone to this modern revival series. He’s become the trustee of all things horror in recent years, entrusted with making sure the narrative legacies of Oujia, The Shining and The Exorcist live on. His ‘safe pair of hands’ energy runs through this new adaptation, swapping De Palma’s melodrama for muted-ness. READ MORE: The best TV shows of 2026… so far! Carrie herself is played by Summer H. Howell as a sweet naif. Instead of Sissy Spacek’s unsettling presence, she is perky and wholesome, so lacking in damage you half expect her to break into a verse of Moana anthem ‘How Far I’ll Go’ at any minute. More troublingly is that her legendary rage is stymied at every turn – whose decision was it to make her likeable? The changes aren’t limited to the lead either. Carrie’s mother Margaret White, so monstrously played by Piper Laurie in the original, is transformed into a misguided prote...