Carrie (2026) | Episode 1: First Period

Kris 0:02

Taking on a Stephen King adaptation usually means figuring out what to cut. But when Mike Flanagan set out to turn one of King's shortest novels into eight episodes of television, he faced the opposite problem. What do you possibly add? With an iconic film and multiple adaptations already out there, he wanted to give us a reason to experience the story again. And his approach starts with a sheltered teenager who spent her life at home with a mother determined to protect her from the world. And when her father's death forces her into public school for the first time, she arrives curious, eager, and ready to see the good in people. Unfortunately, high school has a way of testing that optimism, and she's beginning to discover abilities that can make this adjustment complicated for everyone. We'll dig into this new take on a familiar story, unpack its mother darling dynamic, and decide whether the premiere gives us a reason to even keep watching. This week we're talking about the first episode of Mike Flanagan's Carrie series, first period. Spooky season greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. My name is Chris. I am your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. And this week I'm joined by the classic horror connoisseur Sean.

Sean 1:16

You need to shut up and listen to your mother.

Kris 1:18

Our normal paramour, Binx. Why am I bleeding? I think a fair place for us to start is to just lay the groundwork here. We've reviewed Carrie on our podcast in the past. We did both the original De Palma film and the remake. But I think this is a good moment for us to pause and consider what is even our connection to Carrie? How much do we know about Carrie? Binks, I know that you're particularly passionate about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Sure am. I sure am. I have quite the memorabilia. I love Carrie. I remember vividly like being a kid, going to school, thinking that I had the shine and I was like some kind of witch that could like move things around because I wanted to be Carrie so bad. So I've just been really excited about this show in particular because I also, as everyone that listens to the pod knows, am a huge fan of Mike Flanagan. So this is like both worlds colliding, which is really exciting. Could it be literally any better for you? No, it really couldn't. It really couldn't. And here's the thing: I also feel passionately about this because Mike Flanagan, much like we talked about in Resident Evil with Kregger and his love for Resident Evil, right? Mike Flanagan loves Stephen King and Stephen King loves Mike Flanagan. And it's not that Mike Flanagan has done a lot of adaptations, but he's done some pretty important ones. Doctor Sleep is not just anything that he would give to anyone, right? And kind of exploring the shining as a whole and that franchise, but I think that Mike Flanagan has a particular vision and way to tap into some of the harder parts of the human experience, but also knows how to kind of like have this ability to tap into the youth's experience, right? Because Carrie is, I mean, a high school story. And it's been decades since we've been in high school. Sorry to say it. I mean, I even me thinking about it makes me want to throw up a little bit, but it's like, I don't know what it's like to be in high school anymore. It's been a long ass time, but he just knows how to kind of tell these more YA stories. He did it with Midnight Club. And so I don't know. I feel like this is the perfect mix for me. And I'm really excited to see like where he goes with this rest of the story.

Sean 3:25

Yeah, it's pretty, that's pretty spot on. I think he does a really good job at giving you depth and character that you maybe sometimes don't get in certain aspects of people telling stories and even trying to reimagine or you know adapt a story into your own. So I think, yes, I think he there's there's a lot that I think Mike Flanagan can bring to this story, and he's done a lot of really great work. He's even done some Stephen King stuff, right? So like I think that there is probably some kind of a really deep appreciation for Stephen King, which I think is always really, really good. I definitely was kind of excited for this one because it's not that like I'm in love with Carrie as a story, but I've definitely read the book. I definitely have watched the earlier films, right? And I think that this is a very it's a very interesting story, and I'm really was really just kind of going into this one, really excited to see how you can bring a different perspective to this story, how can you make this not the same Carrie, you know what I mean? That we have seen over and over again.

Kris 4:30

Yeah, Sissy Sissy SpaceX has made Carrie absolutely iconic, and I haven't read the book, so I think even some of the things that we're bound to talk about, even just in this first episode, reveals a lot of surprises for me for from what actually stems from the book itself. But man, this wasn't even on my radar until it just like suddenly dropped. I don't know why I wasn't thinking about this. I think I've been distracted with Halloween and thinking about the Crystal Lake series coming out. But when I saw that Mike Flanagan was at the helm, I'm like, oh, this makes so much sense because I did not like The Shining. I spent a lot of my life not liking The Shining. I still don't care for Stanley Cupic films. I know, I know, but I didn't love it. And what Mike Flanagan did with Doctor Sleep was enough for me to give it a second chance. And then I listened to the audiobook and I'm like, oh my god, this story is actually fucking incredible. I've just been not even giving it a fair shake because I didn't care for the movie. And then I started exploring even like tele the television adaptation of The Shining. So the this whole concept in Stephen King's broader universe is something that I'm not an expert in by any means, but I am excited and curious to meet and explore over time because of how Mike Flanagan put a different spin on it for me. So going into this, I was curious and optimistic. And I'm actually excited that even with the first moments that we get from this series, holy crap, I I find that a good story, and not even just a good story, but a lot of stories, will end and begin the same way. And what I appreciated about this, and then I was like, damn, I guess this isn't even unique to my clan again. I didn't realize that we would be getting the narrative structure that we get. And I think it's really important to pause for a moment here. We're talking about the first episode, and this discussion really hinges upon whether or not you have seen the first episode in its entirety. Sure, we might give some broad strokes, but we're gonna be freely discussing things in a way that our traditional movie review episodes that are spoiler-free and spoiler-heavy, is not going to allow for here. So this is your moment to bow out. But Banks, I would love for you to just share a little bit more about how this episode even kicks off and how it mirrors the book.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Yeah, so right off the bat, I was elated to see that we are structuring the pilot in a way that mirrors the book in terms of the interviews that are conducted, the even radio story and like the conspiracy theory in the background, these are the things that you'll see as you read the book where they're sprinkled in. You'll notice that there are moments where we are talking about more kind of like research, government conspiracy, or even talking about other people that have telekinetic abilities per se. Like again, all of these theories that I love in the book because tell me that isn't a small town in the 70s, you know, like everybody has these theories and wondering, oh, does this girl do this? Or, you know, like everyone's suspicious of everything. The gossip is rampant. And so I really enjoyed seeing that because we haven't seen that in the previous adaptations of Carrie, that structure specifically. So that was really refreshing. And moving forward, I honestly was really impressed by the fact that Flanagan did exactly what I expected and hoped. We have Carrie in the modern day, right? But we also have Carrie as someone who is excited to explore the world. She's actually been holed up in her house this whole time. And all of these things I say because I was really hoping, like you said, Sean earlier, like I wanted to see a new version of Carrie. And I know that a lot of people are very protective of Carrie. Trust me, I completely get it. But tell me that the world right now and our youth don't need a story like Carrie, right? It they really and desperately need the story of Carrie and they need it told in a way that they can relate to. Like I said earlier, we haven't been in high school in for fucking decades, Christ. I hate that.

Sean 8:50

This kind of makes you feel like, oh my God, if this is what high school's, I mean, now it's I mean, it's not that much different, I guess, than what high school is like.

Kris 8:58

We just didn't have social media as much, but yeah, social media, and then even from what we see in a little bit that I'm sure we'll discuss, like in the active shooter drills, these are things that we all have grown up with as drills and training in our workplaces versus the the the trauma-inducing uh moments that they can this can be to make you so numb to it as a kid, but I mean listen, the combination of of Carrie and Flanagan's take on c carry in this specific adaptation, coupled with how we open this up knowing how it ends, and looking at the the introduction to this story through the lens of interviews and discussion. And yeah, okay, we have the radio story, we have some snippets of the 911 calls. The biggest sensation that I had in the first opening moments of this is oh my god, this feels like a school shooting documentary. This feels like the unraveling of a tragedy in real time, and you're looking back on it versus any version I've ever seen of Carrie is just you're watching everything happen in order sequentially from start to finish. But this I think weaponizes uh its its story by making you see exactly where it's gonna end up, and I'm sure there's twists along the way, but it shows you how it's gonna end up, which uh really underscores Carrie as a character and makes you feel so much more fucking sad for her.

Sean 10:28

Yeah, I think it's a really interesting point. So, like we're we're I think aligned in the fact that it oh the way that they open this series up with this pilot episode, with the narrative of the interviews and the 911 calls, and like it's basically it's it's starting at a point where it's kind of giving you what you already know is happening, which I think is smart. Like one, yes, it's thematically correct with the with how the the novel might open, but what I think is really great is that it's it's also it's also allowing people that have been in this story for a long time, have read the book, have seen the previous adaptations and films, they know where the story is going. So it's not we don't need the buildup of surprise. Like this is a very clever way to introduce the series because it's actually acknowledging that we already know what's happening and it opens with the aftermath of that future disaster that happens rather than pretending that we don't know what's going on. Because even if you don't know much about Carrie, you kind of know what happens in Carrie. Everyone kind of does, and so we know how it ends, and now it's making you care about how we get there, which I think is really clever.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Absolutely. And I think a lot of that also has to do again. I want to talk about Carrie specifically and how she's portrayed here because the actress that plays Carrie, my God, don't you want to put her in your pocket and keep her safe forever? She is so sweet, oh, so adorable. But that's also something that I found very interesting because I want to go back to this is the Carrie that we've got here, a Carrie that is going into the world curious and optimistic. And that is a Carrie that we have not seen in previous adaptations. True. Carrie in the previous adaptations has been going to school, has been a part of the community growing up. But I think by the conscious choice of having her be someone who's been secluded and kind of stuck in this environment of her home, right? This doomsday mentality, very restrictive, suffocating, even. She comes out of into this world expecting such curiosity and open doors and just like positivity. And it reminded me a lot of like how children really are coming into this world. And this whole idea of like, are people taught bad and evil, right? Or we come into this world with kindness, with wanting to share. I love seeing like kids in the playground having a good time with one another. We don't know prejudices, we don't know all of these concepts. They're taught to us. And to see that that's Carrie, someone who's going into high school, still pure in that way, it makes me literally so devastated because I know the story of Carrie. I know where this is going. And as the pilot continues, it's like this isn't stuff that's happening to someone who's had to endure it all their life. It's someone that went into this world thinking that everyone would be like a good person and just really excited. And it's her being smothered instantly.

Kris 13:32

So much of that is strongly framed through how she engages with her family. And it's interesting because I've never seen or really known a Carrie property where we get to see so much of a fatherly presence. Like it's always just been Carrie and her mom. And obviously, there isn't a a really presence here. This episode begins not only with just the tragedy of what happens, but it's also her father, Ralph, dying. And then you learn that they've just been this secret, they've been holed up in this house. They are, as they are described, a cult of three. And so you get these photos of what seems to be like happier times, and it's just a such a conflicting experience with what I knew of Carrie and her relationship with her mom to be. Like, yes, we still get the prayer closet, we still get the penance, we still get the sternness, but there's also a moment here, and and I think a dynamic between the three of them that we see in memory, and then what we see with Carrie and her mom now, where to your point being to talk about how good she is and how she expects good from others, it shows you that this is her nature. And if you've seen the original Carrie properties but not read the book, maybe you might expect how the fuck can this be her nature when she's been nurtured by such a firm and stern presence. So I'm excited to see as this series continues, and I'm hoping that we get more of it, just what life was before we're introduced to Carrie and her mom in the immediate aftermath of her father dying.

Sean 15:15

Yeah, it is it is a very interesting way to to to bring these characters to life, and I think that's like one of the things that Flanagan does really well. Like it's gonna be really interesting to see how the series progresses with Carrie and her and her mom and all of that, because you're right, like Carrie isn't just like this socially awkward character anymore. Like Carrie is is is introduced as somebody that that is just sheltered, coming out into the world for the first time, super naive, just thinking everything is happy go lucky, and then the smallest things that to us are like okay, yeah, that's just normal, to her is like absolutely confusing, frightening, terrifying, whatever, right? And so it's um it it immediately gives you more sympathy for a character that you you don't always you know didn't necessarily always have, I feel like it wasn't always the exact same feeling, and I think also that translates even to a small degree, even her mother, right? Which is also something that we're not used to in this story.

Kris 16:17

Yeah. I I'm not expecting to really give a damn about Margaret White, but I think again, even just with the way that they introduce both of them hiding in this closet, and then to see not only how Carrie's having to adjust to the world, but also having to see how Margaret is adjusting to the world. What a wild concept, what a wild moment this is. And it really makes you pause and think, like, damn, this was really ripe for a remake. And again, not on my radar, right? This is such a pleasant surprise because think of like even trad wife discourse and religious zealots and just fanaticism and parental rights groups, and just thinking about people who are so deeply concerned with their perspective on agendas and what children are taught or not taught in public school, and even how our education system has changed since the 70s. This is the moment where I am sitting back in my chair and I'm like, I am excited to see where this goes because the modernization of this story has so much more to offer than I would have expected beyond, okay, Carrie is tormented, Carrie is bullied. The scale of that will obviously increase because there's technology, because there's social media. But there's so much more to the scale of the story beyond social media.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Yes, yes, and yes. I've had a few conversations with other people that are like die hard fans like me, and it's interesting how upon first hearing that Carrie is being remade, as I said earlier, the initial response may be like, why are we remaking something that doesn't need to be remade? We already had the 2013 Chloe Grace Mortz version, we didn't like that or whatever, right? Whatever people's thoughts are on that movie. But I recall that a lot of people maybe weren't feeling it. And they just don't want a third iteration of this. But to them, I continue to have to say, Carrie is more than just a girl that sets everyone on fire at a prom night. The story of Carrie is more than just the bullying that she experiences. So if we really blow this up at a bigger scale, knowing that Flanagan, as you mentioned earlier, Sean, Flanagan loves to explore characters individually and like really get to the root of them. And maybe people aren't gonna love this, but he does humanize even the worst kinds of people to provide you some understanding and empathy that I think we all kind of need to have to some degree. We need to understand why people do the things that they do, what gets them there? And for maybe us as adults, we have the ability and the context to have the answer to that question. But today's youth do not. And that's why to me, I am okay with all the differences that Carrie may offer, this show may offer, because it's not really for us. We have our carry. I want a carry that my daughter can watch, right, and understand and relate to. I want a carry that my friends' kids in high school right now can relate to. And it's not just the social media, but it's the nuances between that, right? We've talked a bit about like, you know, how Margaret White is experiencing this world as she comes out. Margaret White is typically someone who is like a huge villain in Carrie. But what if we kind of took a moment to understand how did Margaret White get here? The impacts of her having been in that house as well. What would Margaret White do in a modern day, right? Would she really be that same kind of villain or would that helicopter parenting, maybe for lack of another word, what would that look like when she had access to education or Google at this point, something that she was not allowed to have?

Kris 20:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

I don't know. I think that people might feel some type of way as the show continues on and certainly off this pilot be a little shocked by some of these differences. But I find it to be really exciting. And again, if you really wanted the same kind of carry that you're used to, watch Brian's Palmas. It's a work of art. It's literally the best. And by all means, go for it. But if you really had a conversation with some of today's youth, I think you'd be pleasantly surprised by their response if they were to watch that carry. They wouldn't be able to relate to a lot of the things that are depicted there.

Sean 20:34

It's an interesting point to just simmer on because having the carry version that maybe a new generation can relate to, I think, is important. We always talk about like horror movies. Now we're getting a lot more horror series. So like we even you can include series and movies, but horror in general is is something that will depict the times. And I think that this generation of youth has grown up in a time when there's a lot of horrific shit happening. It's a lot different than it was 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. Like there's there's a lot more, and they were exposed to a lot more, and you've got social media that's exposing you to a lot more. There's all kinds of stuff happening, right? Like when I was a kid, I'd have to like try to go on like faces of death and see some weird shit, right? Now you can fucking see that just flipping through your social media. Like it's just crazy. So I think that you need to tell this story in a different way. I think you need to incorporate some of the modern things that this youth is experiencing to kind of get them to, like you said, Binks relate. So I think it's very smart to kind of introduce this. Now we'll see where the series goes, right? Like, are they gonna do some twists that everyone is a fan of? Maybe not. Maybe they go too far in some areas. We'll see. Um, but I think I think definitely uh it's a very exciting and refreshing. Take so far.

Kris 22:01

I think also part of that is because we get to spend so much more time with people. Like you're even talking about Margaret White. We've talked a lot about Carrie so far. I want to also consider the angle of the lessons that this show can teach, specifically two kids, in these moments where we see even Sue Snell's conflict. In the movie, we know that Sue feels badly about her part in either her active participation or her silence in bullying Carrie. And so she approaches her with a lot of sympathy as opposed to like a true sense of like obligation and a true desire to help in a different way that maybe atones for things. It's more like, oh, I feel like I did badly, so let me just take a little pity. But the moments where we get to linger with Sue's character in this series and what I'm excited to see and how this all evolves later, you get to really spend time understanding who these people are. And even in the nuance of their eye movement when they're examining the scene. I mean, obviously in this episode, we get Harry's first period. We get the shower scene. We get this moment where these girls are throwing tampons on her, and you get to actually really linger in Sue's partness. And it's it's just such a fascinating thing to see. And I'm so excited to be able to like let these characters breathe some more.

Sean 23:29

It's intense. So, like that was like one of the things going into this, right? Is is this moment gonna still work? Right? Is this how are you gonna depict this moment and and have it still work? Because like the book is very much centered on like the humiliation, the confusion, and the terror, right? That's what you want to depict. That's those are all the things that you want to come through in some way. De Palma's was like that humiliation transformed into this cinematic nightmare. Like that was a really great depiction of that scene. The 2013 carry, uh, okay, it maybe a little bit more of like the bullying and all that stuff. But I I think that this one does a lot of what the book does and what De Palma's does. The humiliation is there, but they add the modernization of we're streaming this, you know, we're going live with this, we're putting this with our smartphones, we're putting this on social media. There's that instant viral distribution aspect that that can be really horrifying, right? And and it's also they it's done really well. Like the whole chanting, the throwing of the tampons, like it, it it was definitely, I think it was just as impactful in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

And it's interesting because even you because you bring up the 2013 one. The 2013 one also brings up the modern age, you know, like they upload the video on YouTube or whatever, you know, like it kind of explores that, but it is interesting how it didn't quite land, like the messaging didn't quite land the same as I truly believe this, or at least this pilot has, even with me, because it also is exploring the humiliation that is imposed by the adults as well. It's not even just the kids, it's the bystander behavior that is done not only by the children, but also the adults. I find that in this pilot, we are getting a little bit more of an understanding of the teachers, which I think is very cool and also kind of realistic, man. I'm listening I'm friends with some of my high school teachers, and I know that they were talking the maddest shit when we were at school. Okay. Because they were, man, sometimes I forget that at least my favorite teacher in high school was 23 years old when he was my teacher. God bless his soul and the things that we had to put him through at 23. He was over our shit, that's for sure. But you also think, like, okay, now that we are much older, I think of 23-year-olds, and I'm like, those little kids, they don't know what the hell they're doing. At 23, you're still a child. You don't even know.

Kris 26:01

One of the other things that I love though, and I really wanted to take a moment to throw my flowers at Mike Flanagan. I remember the pure hate and contempt I felt for Chris in the film. And in this series so far, we are already introduced to aspects of Chris that feel so redeeming and also does not excuse or dismiss her behavior and her cruelty. But you see every breadcrumb and every tiny little amount of snow that just continue to snowball and to make her who she is, who I presume she'll be at the end of the series. I was so struck by this because we're introduced to Chris, who is uh getting accepted to her dream school with her best friend. And you have a dad who's like, sorry, can't afford it. There is such tension in her life, and she has this like block of trying to look like she has it all together, and she's just dealing with everything, and she's not discussing it in a way that feels incredibly healthy. Again, does not excuse her behavior, but really grounds you in very real conditions, very real experiences that make me feel for her even more.

Sean 27:24

The flagan trademark. Like you get to understand people who are behaving horribly, like you get to understand even the antagonists in the story, why they may be acting that way. It just evolves Chris from being simply just the evil mean girl, and you get to get a lot more context into like what's going on in her life that is one probably and prime example, Chris, like super relatable to a lot of people, right? People have gone through a lot of shit of shit like this, whether it's just a divorce, right? Tons of people go through parents getting divorced at some point in their childhood and having to deal with that fact and that whole moment of asking her future stepsister what she had for breakfast and the whole thing and having crepes, and then that's she's realizing that she was told to eat cereal by her father because she's used to eating crepes in the morning and now her mom's doing that for someone else. That's hard. That's hard to deal with. So you have some kind of like sympathy for a character that you never had sympathy for.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Well, and I just feel like we're doing just a massive disservice if we're not being real about trying to unpack why people do what they do. We're doing a disservice to our kids, to ourselves by not being fucking honest, you know? It's it's interesting how this show comes out around the same time that East of Eden came out, like Steinbeck's novel, East of Eden, because it's a Netflix show. And that show unpacks this idea of like, are people born evil, or is it something that comes to them as a result of their environment, the things that they've been through, et cetera? That's like a massive topic about that novel and that show. And I've I'm watching both simultaneously. And it's just funny how, again, we've never seen that same conversation that's explored in such a prolific novel, right? In Carrie, where we certainly should, in a way, in these adaptations, because if this is about bullying, we need to understand how do we help our youth and get them to stop fucking bullying, or at the very least, understand our responsibility in enabling that kind of behavior. Again, these characters, Chris as an example. I'm strongly pressed to believe that she wasn't born to be a bitch. Her father, it's so interesting that we get to see her father's perspective, the family dynamic, all of these things molded Chris to be the immense, you know what? Yeah, bitch that she is in in the Carrie story. But you might feel like some type of way and be a little upset that you are like humanizing someone that does this to someone else. But the truth is, is that people in your life that have maybe done some of these things. And that's a hard pill to swallow and a terrible thing to be honest about, but it's probably the truth for a lot of people. And sometimes we just have to be honest and be like, okay, if I know that I'm capable of doing something like this or I would have back then, what can I do to then prohibit other kids from doing that?

Kris 30:17

It's very leave the world better than you found it and learning from your shit and hurt people, hurt people.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Emphasis in bold hurt people, hurt people. And there's lots of scenes in this pilot. Lots of scenes, man. There's some things that I'm like, whoa, we're already here in the pilot. This pilot is dense. There's a lot of moments here where we see that in real time. I mean, we've already talked about a lot of it. You know, we are exploring Chris as a character, Sue Snell. We've got interviews already happening. We see Carrie's dynamic, the father path. I'm like, this pilot is packed. And honestly, if we just got the pilot as a whole, is already like a ride, and there's a lot to take away from it. So I'm like, how are we even gonna, how are you, what else are we gonna get? How are we even gonna keep moving forward? I feel like I'm already, oof, I'm tuckered out. I'm already emotional from the pilot.

Sean 31:08

There is a lot that goes on in this pilot. I mean, it's even just like, you know, what we touched on earlier, the things that that these kids are experiencing in school with like the active shooter drill. Like, I know we've done drills at my workplace, but like I'm an adult and like I get it. But to have kids go through an active shooter scenario where they're actually like playing it out with somebody that is fully covered, masked with a gun, or probably not a real gun, I don't know, but hopefully not a real gun. But like shaking at the doors, yelling at the kids, threatening the kids, get teaching them to be like that's insane. That is absolutely crazy.

Kris 31:48

Okay, so the scene that we see with this school shooting reminds me so much of exercises that I was in in the fucking military. They they hearken an active shooter drill into what is the equivalent of a boot camp experience, and that is wild to me. And I mean, listen, I'm not gonna go on my my own thoughts about the state of things, but I can tell you that I I I never sleep easy. I I hate the reality that this is, but to to even see this played out in this scene and to see how normalized this is for every other kid, and then we have Carrie as this vessel of like, how many people know about this? Who knows about this?

Sean 32:36

It's crazy. I I mean, listen, I haven't been in a school in quite some time, but if this is the stuff that's going on, I feel for these kids.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

And and look, I I was just on threads this morning, and someone was talking about that scene, and they were like, is this really like how things are right now at school? And someone else mentioned, like, yeah, that's exactly in some states, that's exactly how the school shooting drill goes. Maybe some tweaks here and there in other states. That is shot for shot, almost exactly how things are depicted. I remember a few years back when I was working at the university, we had our own drill, and it looked a little bit different. There were people dressed up, but they didn't have the guns. But they even put like fake smoke in the hallways and stuff. And I was like, Jesus Christ, and that was a few years ago at a university. Yeah. Again, where we're a little bit older. We have students that maybe can still kind of grasp that this is a drill and not something real. But you throw in a kid who has never even been outside of their home in that kind of environment, no wonder she's shaken in her little boots, terrified.

Sean 33:41

First time.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

I was terrified for her. That's crazy.

Sean 33:45

Absolutely wild. I mean, yeah, like coming from a generation that only had to like file single file outside to like the to the field and just sit and get roll call and sit in the sun and be upset for like 30 minutes and then go back like this. This is a lot to take on, I think.

Kris 34:01

Or even at worst, when I lived in Texas, we lived in a section that was considered like Tornado Alley, where there's like a high uh likelihood that you were gonna get a twister or tornado. And I remember doing tornado drills, and that was terrifying as itself, especially then when you actually hear the sirens going off and you have to get in. And of course, obviously, watching Wizard of Oz and then the Seminole Hit classic film Twister did not make this a less scary experience. But my god, I longed for the days when our biggest worry was a natural disaster, right? But to see Carrie's fear here, and there was even a line where Chris sees Carrie exactly what's happening and exactly who he is, and Stella and Sue is just reiterating it's a drill, it's a drill. And Chris says something to the effect of you might as well tell her it's a rape, she doesn't know what that means, and it's just like damn, like we really say it's not real. Just say it's not real. Just say it's not real.

Sean 35:03

They said it at the end after all of it. Uh sadness. Yeah, it was definitely terrible. That was that was tough for sure. Oh man, but yeah, there's a lot of impactful stuff that happens in this movie. Just the like snippets of like what we get with the interview from like the neighbor, you know what I mean? Of just like seeing Carrie as a little girl like coming through the bushes, having questions, only of like obviously sharing, like, I only read the Bible, like it what what what kind of Bible is that? And then like going, and then her mom like dragging her back in saying you're gonna go to the closet, like that kind of stuff. Well, first of all, I don't know how that didn't get reported right off the bat. That was wild. Like, I feel like any neighbor, if somebody was dragging their kids saying you're going to the closet, whatever, someone's calling child services at some point for sure.

Kris 35:49

I would think that, but also maybe that's just code for time out. Who knows? Not my fucking business. Certainly not my business.

Sean 35:56

And some Harry Potter shit right there.

Kris 35:59

What a wild moment because when she said we don't talk to those people, and she and then her mother asked for why. I was so sure they're gonna go a different direction. And then she goes, because she's a whore. I'm like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

That was a twist. That was pretty crazy.

Kris 36:17

A welcome twist. My god, it was just so deeply panic-inducing. I'm like, oh no, but also again, the purity of Carrie and just a wholesome person with so much curiosity. And again, this is where I'm talking about. I mentioned earlier this nature versus nurture. You can see it's always been her nature to be kind, even when her nurture was not. And I just it's like the indomitable spirit of Carrie White.

Sean 36:48

100%. I think it also is very interesting. You know, the you know, when you're you watch this this first episode, we get this little hint at the end, like there's a little bit more to be had. We're traditionally just here to say like Carrie is the one that is the sole person in the story that has these telekinesis type powers, and then it it kind of hints at the fact that we got some other stuff going on in this story that I'm really interested to see where they take it and how it plays out because that concept alone could go in a couple of different directions, both positive and negative, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Look, listen, this is what fired me up. I said, wow, Flanagan is bold. He's bold on this one because okay, it's it's pretty known, Sean. I know you read a lot of the books as well. Like we know that the shine is something that is visited across a lot of Stephen King's books. It's just that they look a little bit different in each one. You know, we have um in The Shining, it looks one way, we have Firestarter, which is another, Carrie, of course. But so I feel like as a reader, we kind of know to piece some of these things. And and certainly King has some characters that visit in others, but there's nothing that's really very clear that these are all extremely connected. Stephen King just loves to kind of mix and match some of his stories. We've never seen it depicted aside from, I guess maybe Castle Rock that that showed, right? So we've never seen it with Carrie for sure.

unknown 38:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

But there are so many little Easter eggs that establish that. And that was one of the biggest ones that I agree. People are either gonna love that or they're gonna be like me, that they're like, oh wow, we're going for it. We're really going to explore the shine, or at the very least, introduce to the people that maybe don't read Stephen King books or don't know this about his world, quote unquote, right? They'll now know after watching this show that the shine is something that is across lots of his characters. Maybe it's familiar to some of them. I mean, a lot of people have seen The Shining, obviously, but I don't think they realize that that telekinetic power or the shine, as it's called, is the same thing in all of these movies. So I don't know. I'm a little nervous, I'm a little excited. That's kind of crazy to do, man. It was a crazy thing for him to do. I mean, he did do Doctor Sleep, so it's kind of like if someone knows about the shine, it's gonna be him. Oh man, but there's so many other callbacks here. Not so many, but a lot for the first pilot, I thought. There was Lamurck Industries. I'm not, I will say, I'm not super familiar with Dark Towers. That's something that my brother is more familiar with, but I know that Lamurck Industries is a company or like a metalwork company that's very prominent. I don't know if they're like the antagonists of Dark Towers or not, but I know that they're definitely in that franchise. That's where Ralph works, Ralph White works. Thought that was kind of neat.

Kris 39:43

Okay, but I have an embarrassing confession here because I saw a screenshot of like, oh, look at this Easter egg, and then I was like, well, what the fuck? Because I don't know anything about the Dark Tower. And when I saw I said La Merck Industry, I was like, oh, it's because that guy got Merck.

Sean 39:56

Jesus Christ. Oh my god.

Kris 39:58

Yeah, it is it is super stupid. It was definitely a dumb moment for me. But that's awesome. Here we are.

Sean 40:04

I love that. Yeah, it is it is interesting. Yeah, I think the the thing is that yeah, if you if you're not someone that reads a lot of Stephen King or someone that didn't read the Dark Tower any part of the series, I think that one might be maybe a tougher one to grab potentially because it is Lamurk Industries is like essentially a corporation associated with the Dark Tower series, connected to the Crimson King, I believe, and like the attempts to like destroy the Dark Tower. So it's like that it's a very interesting thing to like kind of show that Easter egg, but also I think you know, this kit this new carry is introducing the idea of more than just Carrie having these psychic telekinetic abilities, and the Dark Tower series also has an entire mythology involving breakers where people with psychic abilities. So the Lamerc reference may be more than just a cute little Easter egg for Stephen King, and it might actually be something that really ties this all together in a with the other telekinetic.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

Yeah, I see that. Well, here's another one that I thought I mean, that's passive because it is a part of the narrative structure that we've talked about with the Carrie book. But I was thinking about how all these conspiracy theories, the fact that Ralph White is so against the government, all of that, it reminded me of Firestarter because I feel like that was again, Firestarter is so much like Stranger Things, or rather, Stranger Things is a lot like Firestarter in that way, where we have these like government experiments and facilities where they're testing on these, you know, girls and such. And I just felt, okay, maybe that kind of fear of the government, right? Especially knowing that Carrie has the shine, like, damn, that's a lot like Firestarter. And again, that's not something that I I guess took away when I was reading Carrie at the time, but something that finally clicked with me now that we're seeing that component introduced in this show.

Sean 42:01

Yeah, for sure. There's a lot of really great stuff in there. One of my favorites was definitely not from Stephen King at all. It was literally the moment that we find out that Margaret is working at Smart because you know you you like to shop smart, shop S smart.

Kris 42:18

Listen, I don't I don't know shit about Dark Tower or Lamurck getting murked, but I I clocked the SMART. Shop smart shop S smart. And I was like, listen, I I just felt in my bones that Sean would be so giddy when he saw that.

Sean 42:33

I was because it's it's just fun to have a little Easter egg like that, and I think it's just it's there for the fans. I think it's there for the horror fans that Flanagan knows is watching this series, and it's just a really fun thing to throw in there. It did not have to be in there at all, but the fact that it's in there, I'm happy about it. Maybe it's a little hint at something that maybe he wants to do in the future. Maybe he wants to take on an evil dead something or other.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Don't mess with me. Don't mess with me. You know that he's he's working on the mist remake. He's obviously we've got the trailer of the new Exorcist Martyrs that's coming out today. He's booked and busy, he's got things to do, and I need him to be a little bit more booked and busy. I need more flanagan in my life, that's for sure.

Kris 43:21

What are y'all expecting is gonna happen next? I, for one, feel like we're getting big X-Men vibes from this whole situation. Uh, when we got this moment, obviously, with the first period, and we have other characters who are connected through the shine. I just thought, fuck, where is Xavier and where is his school? Because I'm sure there's gonna be a group of people coming out here somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 43:42

That's funny. I hope that it isn't too cliche X-Men, though. I'm super down for understanding that Carrie isn't the only one because I think there's layers to that as well, right? This idea that Carrie is so isolated, therefore, that's what invokes this rage, but it also makes you think when We again unpack the themes here. A lot of people have the shared experience of being bullied. And I think that that can lead to a lot of people feeling isolated, alone. But what would happen if you realized that you weren't the only one and there's strength in numbers and there is community and a place for you here? I think that that's what I'm kind of leaning towards in terms of what I hope he's doing with this, right? And then not being too, too cliche, because it certainly is a fine line. I have faith in him though. I also am super curious to see the trajectory of the character arcs of everybody else too, like Billy, Tommy. I mean, definitely Sue Snell and Chris. I certainly Chris, because we've already seen that that's going to be a big thing that's explored here already. Margaret White honestly fascinates me because I really feel like by the end of this show, we're not going to see the same kind of monster that we're so used to and it being so easy to hate her. Chris, I think we can instantly hate her. We understand why she's doing things, but we also are like that little girl, I would slap her silly, right? But but as far as Margaret White, I am just like so fascinated because by now I would have also felt like this is a very abusive mom. She is clearly a monster. She's Carrie, I mean, is getting it from both at home and at school. And I'm not, it's not that I'm not seeing that, but I have a feeling we're not going to get it in the same way that we're used to. It almost seems like Carrie's mom is someone who actually, I don't want to say loves her because duh might be a little bit more protective in a different way than we're used to. Not quite the same sense of helicopter parenting.

Sean 45:48

Yeah, I am very excited to see where the story goes. I think right now I I have this vision of this direction, only obviously only seeing the first episode so far. Really excited to dive into more tonight. But yeah, I just think this is gonna be a really fresh take with more depth and character, more depth in the story. There it I think that this could be potentially as a as a fanboy, like linking some Stephen King universes together, which I think is really a cool concept if it's done well. What I am nervous about is how that unfolds and where this story ends. And how does it handle Carrie as a character? Does this turn and twist everything we knew about Carrie upside down? Does Carrie become the victim? Does more than just the victim, but does Carrie become the victim of this other group that they're trying to hint at? Or what are the possibilities that come from this story? Like it's not just Carrie is the victim of bullying, and then this is the repercussions of her getting back at everything. This is maybe something bigger than that. So I don't know. I'm very curious to see where it goes. I'm very excited. I think it's very interesting. This pilot has me hooked for sure, so I'm definitely ready to binge the rest of the series.

Kris 47:06

Well, I can't wait to see which of our predictions turn out right and where the rest of the series takes us. But for now, there you have it, folks. We've certainly had a robust discussion here, but the conversation doesn't end here by any means.

Sean 47:18

Yeah, absolutely. If you want to keep following along with the series, you're interested in watching the episodes and talking about them with us, uh, you can hear the rest of our carry coverage by joining our new blood drive and supporting the show at patreon.com slash hackerslash.

Kris 47:33

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, you're not asking the right questions.

Sean 47:38

We were kids, just trying to do our best.