Over the past decade, Mike Flanagan has proven himself to be Stephen King’s biggest fan, directing three feature films — Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and The Life of Chuck — based on the world-famous horror author’s work. He’s also made a name for himself in the TV world, with buzzy adaptations and original series like The Haunting of Bly Manor and the very Stephen King-esque Midnight Mass. That makes him the ideal person to adapt a Stephen King novel for television, if such a thing must be done.
Historically, Stephen King TV adaptations have been more of a miniseries thing. Here, Flanagan, his writers, and his co-directors — including Kate Siegel and Kyra Sedgwick, who helm one episode each — stretch the story out over eight episodes, each just under an hour long. As we mentioned in our first-look review from Fantastic Fest, this necessitates certain changes to the story, for a handful of reasons. One of them is to explore the characters in more depth, which leads to more nuance. This is very successful. The other is to add new story elements, which is where Flanagan’s Carrie goes wrong.
