How Mike Flanagan recreated the iconic ‘Carrie’ prom scene for new miniseries – and his plans for Season 2
Warning: Spoilers ahead! Do not proceed unless you’ve watched the new “Carrie” miniseries on Amazon Prime Video.
Mike Flanagan admits it was “enormously daunting” to put his own spin on the iconic bloody prom scene from the 1976 supernatural horror film “Carrie” for his new miniseries of the same name.
“That made me nauseous for a really long time,” the creator of the Amazon Prime Video series exclusively told Page Six. “If you mention the word ‘Carrie,’ everyone has the same several images that flash into their head. It’s tattooed on pop culture.”
Flanagan — who’s also created hit horror shows like “The Haunting of Hill House” and “Midnight Mass” — has based his latest project on Stephen King’s debut novel, “Carrie,” which was released in 1974 and later adapted into the famous movie starring Sissy Spacek in the titular role.
In Flanagan’s version of “Carrie,” Canadian actress Summer H. Howell takes on the role of the telepathic teen girl, with Samantha Sloyan portraying her strict mother, Margaret.
Just like in the film, Carrie is socially awkward and bullied as she enters school for the first time after being isolated for so much time as a child.
It all comes to a head at a prom, where mean girl Chris (played by Alison Thornton in Flanagan’s version) conspires to get Carrie crowned as prom queen, before dousing her in pig’s blood as a cruel prank. In response, Carrie’s powers lash out, leading to death and destruction.
According to Flanagan, they used several types of blood on set for the big moment.
“Very watery [so that] when it drops, it would drip off of her. And [blood] that would stay in place when we needed it to do that,” he explained, noting they used blood in different colors and textures.
To nail the scene, the production crew dumped a bucket of blood on the actress approximately four times during filming.
“If they got the angle wrong by two inches, they had to scrap that take, because the blood ran down her back, instead of her face,” he shared, noting that Howell had to eat lunch covered in blood because of it.
“She couldn’t sit in a chair unless we put a big plastic tarp down. It was pretty wild.”
The new series is set in the modern world, where high school cruelties happen on social media.
While King is involved as an executive producer, Flanagan told Page Six that he “didn’t need” to talk the author into any of the new show’s changes.
For example, in the new version of “Carrie,” segments at the beginning of each episode feature other women with powers, putting Carrie in the context of a wider world.
“He was very excited about that storyline involving the legacy of other powerful women,” Flanagan told us, noting that “whatever initial hesitation [King] had [about the series] was about doing it at all.”
That’s one of the main reasons why all the directors of “Carrie,” aside from Flanagan himself, were all women, including his wife, Kate Siegel, and actress Kyra Sedgwick.
“That was a deliberate choice. I thought, ‘This is a story about female empowerment, and the only thing I know less about than being a teenager is being a woman,'” he shared.
“It became essential for this story of this young woman to be told by people who did know what they were talking about.”
But Flanagan’s biggest change to the original story? In King’s grim tale, Carrie gets bloody revenge on her bullies before dying herself. In Flanagan’s version — Spoiler! — Carrie lives.
At the end of the show, following the bloody prom disaster, the mysterious new character of Emaline (Thalia Dudek) spirits Carrie away in a car to an unknown destination.
“We thought this version of Carrie really deserved to survive the story,” Flanagan explained. “We left a lot of doors open, and a lot of questions on the table that I’d love a chance to answer.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Flanagan addressed whether he has plans for a second season.
“I don’t have a plan or a map for [more seasons],” he admitted. “I just have a lot of wishes.”
“Carrie” is now streaming on Prime Video.
Conversation
Your voice matters. Discussions are moderated for civility. Read our guidelines