The automatic response to the news that a stone-cold classic of any genre is to be remade is: “Why?” In an accompanying letter to critics, the creator of the new TV series Carrie, Mike Flanagan, promises us that this was the first question he asked himself too when he was approached about the project. Why mess with perfection – in this case, the Brian De Palma horror film, based on and nearly eclipsing in terms of cultural currency Stephen King’s debut novel about a telekinetic teen, that has been gloriously shocking audiences for half a century?
But it’s a far less necessary question than usual. Why remake Carrie, a story of teenage bullying, alienation and the vengeful violence they can fuel, for the modern age? Babe, look around! We’ve got the internet now. We’ve taken teenage bullying, alienation and the fuelling of vengeful violence to levels that De Palma and King, with all their vaunted capacity for darkness, could never have imagined! We are, to use a construction popular among the very youth of whom we are speaking, Carriemaxxing these days. The question is not why remake but quite why it has taken this long.
