Meet the modern Carrie White. Mike Flanagan‘s brand-new Prime Video TV show, simply titled Carrie, reintroduces us to the telekinetic teenager, whose image of her pig blood-stained face at the prom has been ingrained into horror since the Sissy Spacek film came out in 1976.
Now, starring Summer H. Howell as the high school pariah, the series takes place today — smack in the middle of the digital era. Per its official synopsis, Carrie “has spent her life hidden away inside the walls of her home with her fiercely protective mother, Margaret (Samantha Sloyan).
“After her father’s sudden, untimely death thrusts her into the unforgiving ecosystem of public high school, Carrie is forced to navigate a viral bullying scandal that tears through her community, the relentless pressure and casual cruelty of the social‑media age, and the awakening of mysterious telekinetic powers that rise alongside her adolescence,” the rest of the synopsis reads.
Here are the main differences between the brand-new Carrie series, the original film and its story by Stephen King. (Warning: spoilers are ahead on the new Carrie series)
Social Media & Cellphones
The most obvious difference between the Prime Video series and King’s book and the 1976 film is the use of cellphones and social media. Horror fans and readers recognize Carrie’s traumatizing “Plug it up” scene, when she is bullied and humiliated over her first period in a gym locker room shower. In the film, Carrie is pelted with tampons by her classmates. In the TV show, the scene is heightened with the use of phones, as bullies record Carrie on the ground, screaming and bleeding.
Flanagan spoke with TotalFilm about the choice to add phones to the period scene, noting the creative team wanted to display the “normalization of cruelty” in today’s digital society.
“Yeah, we talked a lot about how it changed when there were phones in people’s hands, that scene especially. And in every other version, that’s the first scene,” the executive producer explained. “And so one of the first things we kind of started to play with was, I think that’s the end of the pilot, and I think we’re gonna walk us into that. It’s so tough to even imagine doing any story, any serious story about the modern teenage experience without engaging with the topic of social media because it is so ingrained in their day-to-day lives.”
He continued, “And the normalization of cruelty that comes with that was something that we really, really felt like we needed to talk about. But yeah, it broke open a lot of things for us. I think that’s one of the things I’m so impressed with about today’s teenagers: I wouldn’t have had the fortitude to survive. I barely survived high school as it was. That was in the ’90s.”
But Carrie’s menstrual trauma isn’t the only scene where social media comes into play. The series features Chris (Alison Thornton) creating an entire Instagram page titled “Carrie Red” with memes to bully other classmates, all while using a screenshot of Carrie’s tortured expression while getting her first period in the gym shower.
The main aspect that didn’t change between King’s book, the 1976 film and the 2026 series is Chris’ level of brutality.
Carrie’s Friendship With Tommy
Carrie’s budding friendship with Sue’s boyfriend, Tommy, in the Prime Video series is much simpler. Instead of Tommy falling for Carrie like in King’s book, Flanagan maintained what the original ’76 film featured: Tommy’s growing appreciation for Carrie as a friend.
Additionally, in comparison to the film, the TV show’s iteration of Tommy (Joel Oulette) asks Carrie to the prom as a buddy — not as a favor to Sue (Siena Agudong). In fact, in the series, Sue and Tommy break up before the prom.
In the film, however, Sue recruits her boyfriend to take Carrie to the prom.
Sue & Tommy’s Breakup
In the Prime Video show, Sue and Tommy break up, but not for a particularly dramatic reason. Their romance just fades, with Sue realizing that she wants to focus on her future.
In both the book and the ’76 film, Sue and Tommy are still together.
The Survivor
The Prime Video series maintains the same amount of blood and deaths as shown in the Spacek film and King’s book. However, one important character survives: Carrie. She seemingly does not survive in the book or in the movie, but Flanagan’s series features the telekinetic teen being rescued by her so-called imaginary friend — who turns out to be real — Emaline (Thalia Dudek). Emaline saves Carrie and takes her on the road to hone her powers and live freely.
