Prime Video's new horror series revives a 94%-rated 1976 classic – and updates it smartly
Carrie's school days don't get any easier in 2026
If you're looking for an iconic seventies horror movie to adapt, they don't much better than Carrie. Telling a story straight from the inventive, sometimes twisted mind of Stephen King, the 1976 movie is deeply influential, and some of its imagery is seared into the minds of whole generations of movie-watchers.
Now, though, Amazon Prime Video is adapting the same story and bringing it roaring into the 2020s, with Mike Flanagan (perhaps the safest pair of hands in horror right now) running the show. We have a full trailer to digest at last, and the show's now just a few weeks away – it'll premiere on 7 October.
The trailer is quite an exciting one, because it pulls back the curtain on how Flanagan has updated Carrie's story for 2026, with the behaviour of her fellow teenagers taking centre stage. Where pranks and bullying used to be generally done in-person, we all know that social media is now where much of the rot can set in for schoolkids.
True to that impression, Flanagan has turned some of Carrie's new classmates into very modern demons, as they film her every move, instantly sensing weakness in the odd, home-schooled girl. We see glimpses of Instagram posts that look extremely unpleasant, but it's also clear that the show might differ from the movie in another way.
That 1976 film rightly has a 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes to underline it status, but it doesn't go on for hugely long after the climactic prom night prank that so many people remember. This show might extend longer – we see quite a few glimpses of Carrie exploring her powers, and also a fair few moments that seem like they probably happen after she's victimised for the last time.
Whether that's me reaching or not, I'm hopeful that this could be a big hit for Prime Video – at a time when Netflix has frankly been the monarch of horror in the streaming world for quite some time. Flanagan working with Prime Video could be a big shakeup on that front, but we'll get a better sense when the show debuts in early October.
