Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Carrie was something I’d been really looking forward to, and I’m happy to report that it delivers. Having given us The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, Flanagan knows a thing or two about getting under your skin. But what I liked about this adaptation was how it brought Stephen King’s story into the present without making teenagers sound like 40-year-olds desperately trying to use Gen Z slang.
There are no weird, made-up apps in this show. Instead, we see how social media actually works, with anonymous pages created to gossip about and humiliate classmates. When the teaser dropped, I did wonder how the casting would work, given that Carrie’s perceived lack of conventional attractiveness is central to how she is treated. But Summer H Howell makes the role her own, and the story feels uncomfortably current.
Over the weekend, Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning got me thinking along similar lines. The film revisits Meta’s impact on its users, including concerns about Instagram and teenage body image. In one scene, Mikey Madison’s character overhears a family discussing how their child is being bullied through anonymous social media pages. Sound familiar?
Watching these two releases so close together made me wonder whether we’re equipped to deal with bullying in the form it takes today. When anonymous accounts can target a child beyond school hours, who is responsible for stepping in? Schools need clearer protocols to address cyberbullying, parents need to feel equipped to have these conversations, and social media platforms need to do more than simply take down a post once the damage is done. There’s a legislative responsibility here, too, to ensure that protections for children keep pace with the internet they’re growing up on.
