Liane Hentscher/ PrimeA lifelong Stephen King fanatic, Mike Flanagan has made his career out of interpreting the voluminous catalog of horror stories from his favorite author in movies like Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep. He’s also made a huge impact in the world of TV, with series like The Haunting of Hill House and the distinctly King-esque Midnight Mass. Those threads combine in Carrie, Flanagan’s upcoming TV series based on Stephen King’s 1974 novel. This is far from the first time Carrie White, played here by Summer H. Howell, has appeared on screen: Sissy Spacek, Angela Bettis, and Chloë Grace Moretz have all embodied the telekinetic teen outcast in film adaptations over the years. Aside from stretching the story out over eight episodes, one of Flanagan’s innovations in the series is bringing Carrie into the smartphone age, adding an element of social-media bullying to the abuse that poor Carrie endures from her classmates before that fateful night at the prom. Watch the new trailer for Carrie, revealed at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, below.The most radical change compared to previous interpretations of the story is in the relationship between Carrie and her mom, played here by Flanagan regular Samantha Sloyan. In the past, Margaret White has been played as an evil-witch type, and quite successfully: Piper Laurie was nominated for an Oscar for her monstrous interpretation of the character. Flanagan and Sloyan meanwhile, have much more compassion for the character, portraying her as a submissive Christian housewife (a “tradwife,” if you will) who’s forced into the real world alongside her daughter after her husband’s sudden demise at the beginning of the series. In a further nod to Trump-era evangelical culture, the Margaret of the series believes not only in “Biblical womanhood,” but also in conspiracy theories about an attack against Christianity and “family values” by the “radical left.” But the biggest changes is that this Margaret is not overtly abusive towards her daughter, simply overprotective and fearful of the outside world. “I went into this determined not to hate Margaret White,” Flanagan told Entertainment Weekly earlier this week. “I wanted to understand her. And part of the importance of that is Margaret’s not entirely wrong. There’s a lot she has to say in the show that I agree with, and that makes it even more complicated.”Not only are they going to laugh at you, they’re going to post it on social media. | Prime Compared to a feature film, the long-form format of TV allows for such novelistic nuance — and if anyone can make viewers sympathize with Margaret, it’s Flanagan. We’ll know more when Flanagan unveils Carrie as part of the Primetime section at TIFF this September. Carrie premieres on Prime Video on October 5.