opinion on mike flanagan’s carrie?
It's kind of a mixed bag for me. I wish they were going more with an accurate casting (ie. A casting similar to the 1988 musical and 2002 adaptation)
Nothing against Summer Howell but I want an average-looking actress whose beauty shines through at the Prom: in the book, her classmates described her as 'a frog among swans' and King himself describes her as a 'chunky girl with pimples' and flat mousy blonde hair. But when Tommy first asks her to the Prom, he describes her as not bad looking if people looked past her bad posture "Her face was round rather than oval, and the eyes were so dark that they seemed to cast shadows beneath them, like bruises. Her hair was darkish blonde, slightly wiry, pulled back in a bun that was not becoming to her. The lips were full, almost lush, the teeth naturally white. Her body, for the most part, was indeterminate". And of course, when she arrives at the Prom, all dolled-up, she looks almost unrecognizable.
Angela Bettis was closest in terms of this appearance because of her messy hair, her clothing, and the worn, weary look she wore.
I hate to say this because I never want to say anything bad about anyone but Summer Howell just seems to be badly miscast...
When it comes to the positive aspects, I really want to see more development from the popular girls (in the 2013 film, according to the original script, girls like Heather, Nikki and Lizzie were supposed to get more characterization to make them better stand out and make you cheer when their deaths came, but said development was massively cut down. It's especially apparent with Heather because due to the bad editing of her scenes being cut, it seems that Heather is unaware that the prank is about to happen at first, as implied when she says at the Hair Salon that she knows Chris isn't coming to prom because she's suspended, and when she tells Sue at prom that Chris isn't there. However, judging by her reaction to the eventual prank, which is glee and laughter, it becomes blatantly obvious that she knew the whole time and lied to Sue....which makes it even more sickening because the day before Prom, when seeing Sue looks sickly---due to her pregnancy---Heather genuinely and sincerely asks Sue if she's okay...only to lie to her the next day. That's one of the many things that the petition of Carrie 2013 is said to restore.
In contrast, the popular girls in the 2002 adaptation were done far better: you have Tina who is established as Chris' right hand and gets her karma in the destruction the prank she caused, Helen Shyres who has a little character arc of her own where she starts as one of Chris and Tina's cronies but she slowly feels remorse and eventually wounds up voting for Carrie genuinely and trying to help Tommy during the chaos, and Norma who is by far one of my favorite characters in the 2002 adaptation) and apparently, Ralph White is said to be in this and given we don't know much about the man in the novel, this series can take any direction with him, especially given that Ralph White is said to have died when Carrie was a baby but here, he's around to raise Carrie with Margaret. Making that two ticking time bombs whom raise Carrie.
So....the upcoming Carrie series is a bit of a mixed bag and until I see a teaser/trailer and then the final product, we'll have to see.
