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Every Carrie Adaptation in Order: The Book, the Films, the Musical, and the 2026 Series
Stephen King’s Carrie has been adapted more times, and in more forms, than almost any other horror novel — and the list is genuinely confusing. There is a famous film, a less famous remake, a television movie people forget was ever made, a Broadway musical that ran for less than a week, and a 1999 movie with “Carrie” in the title that is not an adaptation at all.
With Prime Video’s eight-episode series arriving October 7, 2026, here is the whole lineage in order, with the distinctions that keep getting blurred kept intact.
The short version
| Year | What it was | The one-line |
|---|---|---|
| 1974 | The novel, Doubleday | King’s debut, told through documents |
| 1976 | Feature film, dir. Brian De Palma | Two Oscar nominations, no wins — the version everyone pictures |
| 1988 | Broadway musical | Closed after five performances |
| 1999 | The Rage: Carrie 2 | A sequel, not an adaptation |
| 2002 | NBC television movie, dir. David Carson | A backdoor pilot for a series that was never ordered |
| 2013 | Feature film, dir. Kimberly Peirce | Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore |
| 2026 | Prime Video series, 8 episodes | The first-ever series adaptation |
1974 — the novel
Stephen King’s official site lists Carrie as released April 5, 1974, published by Doubleday. It was his first published novel, and it is still one of his shortest.
The thing most screen versions quietly drop is its form. Carrie is epistolary — assembled out of news clippings, scientific papers, excerpts from books written after the fact, and testimony given to an official inquiry. You learn early that something catastrophic happened at a high school in Chamberlain, Maine, and the novel spends its length reconstructing how. That structure does two things a film struggles to: it removes suspense about whether, replacing it with dread about how, and it makes the reader an investigator sifting through documents rather than a spectator.
The plot itself is brutally simple. Carrie White, a bullied high-school girl raised by a mother whose religion has curdled into abuse at home, discovers she can move objects with her mind. A cruel prank at the school prom is the hinge, and the town does not survive the night intact.
Amazon notes the novel spent 14 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into more than 35 languages. King’s books have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide across his career. The novel is easy to find in paperback and ebook. (Affiliate link — we may earn a small commission at no cost to you.)
1976 — Brian De Palma’s film
Released two years after the book, De Palma’s feature for United Artists is the version living in most people’s heads — the prom, the bucket, the split screen, the last-shot jolt. It earned two Academy Award nominations at the 49th Academy Awards: Sissy Spacek for Lead Actress and Piper Laurie for Supporting Actress. Neither won.
Two acting nominations for a horror film in 1977 was, and remains, unusual, and it is the concrete reason this adaptation carries the cultural weight it does. Amazon notes 2026 marks the film’s 50th anniversary — which makes the timing of a first-ever series in the same year either a nice coincidence or a deliberate one.
What it changes from the book: the documentary frame is gone entirely. De Palma trades King’s reconstructed-inquiry structure for straight chronology and pure cinematic suspense.
1988 — the Broadway musical
Yes, really. Carrie opened on Broadway in 1988 and closed after five performances. It is one of the most cited flops in Broadway history, expensive and short-lived enough that the title became shorthand for a particular kind of musical disaster.
It has had an afterlife — revised and revived off-Broadway and in regional and school productions since — which is its own small vindication. But the 1988 original run is five performances long, and that is the fact.
1999 — The Rage: Carrie 2 (the one that isn’t an adaptation)
This is the entry that breaks every list, so let us be exact about it: The Rage: Carrie 2 is a sequel, not an adaptation. It does not retell King’s novel. It is an original story set after the events of the 1976 film, about a different young woman.
If you are counting “how many times has Carrie been adapted,” this one does not count. If you are counting “how many Carrie movies exist,” it does. Nearly every disagreement about the number comes down to which question is being answered.
2002 — the NBC television movie
The one people forget. NBC aired a Carrie television movie in 2002, directed by David Carson, written by Bryan Fuller (later of Hannibal and Pushing Daisies), with Angela Bettis as Carrie.
Two things make it more interesting than its reputation. First, it restored elements of King’s documentary structure that De Palma dropped, using an investigation-and-interviews frame closer to the novel. Second, and more consequentially, it was built as a backdoor pilot: the ending was changed specifically so that the story could continue into a weekly series. NBC never ordered that series.
That unordered pilot is the exact reason the 2026 claim is worded the way it is. Television has adapted this novel before. What it has never done until now is turn it into a series.
2013 — Kimberly Peirce’s film
A theatrical remake directed by Kimberly Peirce, with Chloë Grace Moretz as Carrie and Julianne Moore as Margaret White. It updated the setting to the camera-phone era — the prank circulating as video is central to it — which makes it the most direct point of comparison for what Prime Video says it is doing in 2026.
2026 — the Prime Video series
Eight episodes, all released October 7, 2026, in over 240 countries and territories, from Amazon MGM Studios. Mike Flanagan is showrunner, writer and executive producer, and directs four of the eight episodes — not all of them, despite how often you will read otherwise. Stephen King is an executive producer. Summer H. Howell plays Carrie White, cast after more than 1,000 actors read for the part.
Amazon’s official synopsis puts the story in the social-media age, with Carrie navigating a viral bullying scandal alongside the awakening of her telekinesis. That is the studio’s framing, quoted, not our assessment.
And here is the line we will not cross: this series has not aired. Nothing about its quality, its faithfulness to the novel, the performances, or how it handles the ending can be stated by anyone yet, including us. When it is out, we will compare it to the book properly.
The full confirmed cast, the trailer details and the release specifics are in our guide to Mike Flanagan’s Carrie series.
Ranking the ones you can actually watch
Clearly labelled opinion, and only for the released adaptations. The 2026 series is not on this list and cannot be — it does not exist to watch yet, so ranking it would be inventing a verdict.
- 1976, De Palma. Two Oscar-nominated performances and a visual grammar half of horror still borrows from. It abandons the book’s structure completely, and it is still the best film made from this novel.
- 2002, NBC. Underrated. Closer to King’s documentary frame than anything else on screen, and Bettis plays Carrie as genuinely strange rather than conventionally shy. The changed ending is a real cost.
- 2013, Peirce. Two excellent leads in a film that mostly re-stages 1976 with phones. The camera-phone update is its best idea and it does not push it far enough.
The musical and The Rage: Carrie 2 sit outside the ranking — one is a different medium, the other a different story.
Where to start if you have never touched any of it
- Read the novel first. It is short, it is structurally unlike the films, and every screen version is in conversation with it.
- Then watch 1976. It is the cultural reference point; the rest of the lineage assumes you know it.
- Then 2002, if the book’s structure is what grabbed you. It is the version that tried hardest to keep it.
- Then October 7. Eight episodes is the most room any adaptation has ever had.
More King ahead of the premiere? Our Stephen King books in order guide runs the whole bibliography chronologically, the best Stephen King books of all time picks by quality instead, and we keep a collection of Stephen King quotes on writing and fear.
A note on the subject matter
Carrie is about bullying, religious abuse inside a home, and a night of mass violence at a school. We describe those plainly because they are the plot of a novel and its adaptations. We do not dramatise the violence, and we do not frame this story against real events.
Sources
- StephenKing.com — Carrie, released April 5, 1974, publisher Doubleday.
- Amazon, updated September 9, 2026 — the 2026 series details, the official synopsis, the NYT bestseller weeks, the 35+ languages, the 350 million career sales, and the 1976 film’s 50th anniversary.
- Academy Awards records, 49th ceremony — Sissy Spacek (Lead Actress) and Piper Laurie (Supporting Actress) nominated for the 1976 film; neither won.
- Production and broadcast records for Carrie (1988 Broadway musical), The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), Carrie (NBC, 2002, dir. David Carson, writ. Bryan Fuller) and Carrie (2013, dir. Kimberly Peirce), cross-checked against two independent sources each.
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