The 2026 Amazon Prime miniseries of Carrie is an important full-circle moment. It is a new adaptation of Stephen King’s first published novel releasing on the fiftieth anniversary of the first adaptation of that same novel -and the first adaptation of one of King’s works at all. It marks the longevity of both the writing career of one of the most successful novelists of all time, and how for almost as long that oeuvre has been a treasure trove for adaptation. And make no mistake, adaptations are a big part of King’s legacy. He would have been lauded as a successful writer regardless, but it’s the movie translations (and to a lesser extent TV) that have visualized his stories and made him not just a literary but pop cultural phenomenon. The iconography of such movies have become intertwined with the stories themselves, even where they have differed vastly from their source material. And there are many -including myself, admittedly- who know his work chiefly through these interpretatio...
The ‘creepy child’ trope in horror most likely originates in Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw , one of the great classic ghost stories and works of psychological horror. But it is one thing to read about the eerie behaviour of two children, it is another thing to see it in practice -hence why the novel made for a popular adaptation on stage. However it didn’t make it to the silver screen until 1961, when playwright William Archibald adapted his own version, renamed The Innocents , with Truman Capote and director Jack Clayton produced a truly haunting work. And though movies like The Bad Seed and Village of the Damned had primed the pump, what we think of when we think of creepy children as a horror movie device perhaps found its first footing here. The spectre of Damien from The Omen , the kid from Insidious , Brightburn and so many other freaky manipulative movie children can be found in little Miles, however innocent he may or may not be. That is of course the other great sourc...