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Amazon Prime's new "Carrie" miniseries has featured many changes from Stephen King's original story that have sparked discourse and outrage since the show premiered. But one of the most controversial and biggest changes from the "Carrie" novel is changing which character enacts the famous prom massacre scene. The show introduces a new character, Emaline (Thalia Dudek), who befriends Carrie (Summer H. Howell) and helps the bullied girl develop her telekinesis abilities.
In Episode 5, Emaline is revealed to be a hallucination, causing conflict between Emaline and Carrie over what action to take. But when we get to the famous prom scene, Carrie lets Emaline take over her body to murder her classmates after they humiliated her. In the final section of the season finale, the real Emaline arrives and saves Carrie, revealing that she too has supernatural powers. Emaline can astral project, which is how she was communicating with Carrie for so long. The ending opens up the world of "Carrie" and teases a future season with Carrie and Emaline riding off to take over the world together.
But some fans criticized Emaline's inclusion and the fact that Carrie isn't in control during the most crucial scene of the story, when she unleashes her rage on her peers. But "Carrie" showrunner Mike Flanagan defended the scene during a Q&A on Reddit. "It is what makes the most sense for these [particular] characters in that particular situation," Flanagan wrote. "I know it isn't 'like the book', but Jesus, we left the book behind a LONG time ago by this point in the show. (And just because Emaline might have taken the wheel, Carrie's still very much in the car. And Emaline didn't kill Tommy, Emaline didn't crush Chris and Billy...)"
Mike Flanagan says Stephen King approves of the changes
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Although the changes have sparked a lot of backlash, Stephen King appears to be on board with them. The King of Horror is listed as an executive producer on the project, which is significant since King is not a producer on any of the previous adaptations of the book. In an interview with Polygon about Mike Flanagan's latest Stephen King adaptation, Flanagan said King was integral to expanding the "Carrie" universe for the series.
"As a King purist, I'm deeply sympathetic to those reactions, but I'm also really more grateful for the larger volume of conversation I'm seeing of people who really enjoyed that and are intrigued to see where it could go," he said. "... I see so much discourse about Emaline, which was the character King had the most input into and the one he was the most excited to shape. So it's very interesting to me to watch people defend Steve from Steve."
Prime Video's "Carrie" introduces audiences to multiple women with a range of extraordinary abilities, almost turning "Carrie" into a dark horror version of a superhero TV show, like "The Umbrella Academy." Flanagan told Polygon that King had always intended for there to be other characters with abilities in the world of "Carrie" but didn't develop that idea far enough in the original novel. Now, fans get to see "Carrie" as King fully intended, and if Amazon renews the show, they'll get to see Carrie's story after prom. If Amazon doesn't renew it, you can always check out these other TV shows like "Carrie."
