Shows Like ‘Carrie’ to Watch After Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King Series Arrives on Prime Video
‘Carrie’ premieres on Prime Video on October 7 with all eight episodes released at once. Mike Flanagan handles the writing, producing and showrunning, while Stephen King is on board as an executive producer. Summer H. Howell plays Carrie White.
Viewers searching for shows like ‘Carrie’ will find that the series sits between genres. One early review notes that it is technically horror but largely free of gore, and without its supernatural element it would still work as a poignant coming of age tragedy. The titles below borrow from both sides of that description.
‘Wednesday’
Like ‘Carrie’, ‘Wednesday’ centers on a title character, though Wednesday does not take abuse the way Carrie initially did. That reversal makes it an interesting companion piece.
Wednesday has a gift for precognition, which she uses to solve mysteries at her school, and Jenna Ortega is credited with an entertaining performance shaped by Tim Burton’s gothic style.
‘I Am Not Okay With This’
Released in 2020, the series follows Sydney Novak, a seventeen year old dealing with her father’s death, school troubles and complicated feelings for her best friend Dina. It is one of the more direct tonal cousins to ‘Carrie’.
Its vivid look gives way to blood and chaos at the homecoming dance, which echoes the final moments of ‘Carrie’.
‘Stranger Things’
After Will Byers vanishes, a telekinetic girl is discovered and it becomes clear that something supernatural is at work. That girl is Eleven, and her powers are central to the story.
Millie Bobby Brown is singled out as the standout of the cast. The series is set in the 1980s in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.
‘The Vampire Diaries’
The series blends intense fantasy with teenage drama, and a grieving girl finds hope when new student Stefan Salvatore arrives at Mystic Falls High School. It is a more romantic path into dark teen television.
Fans who want supernatural stakes inside a school setting will find the premise familiar, even if the tone is lighter than ‘Carrie’.
‘The Midnight Club’
Flanagan’s series combines scares with emotional weight in a story about eight terminally ill young patients at a hospice. It is based on Christopher Pike’s 1994 young adult novel of the same name.
Rotten Tomatoes’ first reviews place ‘Carrie’ above both ‘The Midnight Club’ and ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’ among Flanagan’s work. That makes it a useful point of comparison.
‘The Haunting of Hill House’
One writer says ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ is the first Flanagan series they recommend to anyone. It adapts Shirley Jackson’s novel.
Reviewers suggest that anyone hoping for the gothic atmosphere of ‘Hill House’ and ‘Midnight Mass’ may find ‘Carrie’ underwhelming. For that audience, the older series is the obvious next step.
‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’
‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’ is part of Netflix’s ‘The Haunting’ anthology and was the next series Flanagan created after ‘Hill House’. It was based on Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw.
It suits viewers who want Flanagan’s patient, character driven approach to ghost stories.
‘Midnight Mass’
One reviewer praises ‘Midnight Mass’ for combining many aspects of horror, including familiar monsters such as vampires and demons. It is an original limited series, though it wears its King influence openly.
For readers drawn to ‘Carrie’ because of Stephen King, that shared DNA makes it an easy recommendation.
‘The Fall of the House of Usher’
The eight episode limited series draws on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. It follows the ruthless siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher, who built Fortunato Pharmaceuticals into an empire until their heirs begin dying at the hands of a mysterious woman from their youth.
Samantha Sloyan is among the actors who worked with Flanagan before, and she now plays Margaret, Carrie’s protective mother.
‘Channel Zero’
The Syfy horror anthology presents six episode seasons, each based on a creepypasta. Summer H. Howell appears in the cast listing, which gives it a small link to ‘Carrie’.
One critic called it a more reliable anthology than ‘American Horror Story’. Now that Howell has stepped into the role of Carrie White, which of these series do you think comes closest to the heartbreak and dread of her story, and where would you tell a newcomer to begin in the comments.
