Editorials
E3 2015 Horror Game Wish List
Hide the children, it’s almost time for the latest installment in our annual celebration of all things video games and the last thing you want getting between you and the deluge of headlines we’re about to witness is a son or daughter who isn’t capable of appreciating this wondrous occasion because they’re too busy crying about how you haven’t taken them for a walk in three days, or whatever it is parents do with their kids.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo is that magical time of year when the makers, sellers and buyers of video games flee their homelands to journey to the City of Angels for four straight days of gaming goodness. Without E3, June would be the second worst month of the whole year, beaten only by the absolute worst month, which we all know is August. August sucks.
I’m sure you don’t remember my wish lists from previous E3’s — and if you do, you’re an X-Man and you should really consider finding a better use for your gift because memorizing old articles of mine is both weirdly specific and an entirely useless ability in the grand scheme of life — but for all you non-mutants, you should know that what I want rarely matches up with what we get.
Let’s see if I can keep that streak going with this year’s wish list.
These games are in no particular order, but if they were, the Friday the 13th game would likely claim the #1 spot. We’ve seen nary a screenshot or second of gameplay footage from this one, leading me to believe it won’t be hitting the October release date they originally promised.
Aside from Until Dawn, which I’m sure will be shown in some capacity, the only other slasher game I see coming this year is Slasher Vol. 1: Summer Camp, which, like F13, is an asymmetrical multiplayer game in which a player-controlled psychopath must hunt down a team of player-controlled teens.
Even more of an enigma than the F13 game is Sony Bend’s oft-rumored project. Rumor has it it’s an open-world survival horror game. It’d be great if that were true, so long as it has nothing to do with zombies. We have plenty of those to choose from now thanks to Dying Light, Resident Evil, Dead Island 2, DayZ and H1Z1, as well as at least two more Walking Dead games. I’m not tired of the undead, I’m just craving a reprieve from the constant smell of rot.
Before State of Decay even had a name — it was first announced under the code-name Class 3 — developer Undead Labs has been open about their plans to use it as the foundation for an even more ambitious open-world zombie game, code-named Class 4.
With the obligatory XBO port of State of Decay finally behind them, the studio is free to focus completely on the next big thing. I can’t imagine they’ll have anything substantial to show off in time for E3, but there’s a chance we may get a CG trailer. I’d also settle for a title.
Dead Island 2 may take the stage this month, but the smarter move would be to save the good stuff for Gamescom in September, or possibly even whatever this year’s incarnation of The Game Awards ends up being called. I can’t say that I’m looking forward to watching those for another year, even with the world premieres the show brings with it. That won’t keep me from enduring them again, because you’re worth it.
The only other high profile zombie games I’d like to hear from belong to Capcom. The focus should stay on the Resident Evil 0 remaster that’s coming later this year. However, if Capcom really wants to impress, they might mention Resident Evil 7. I assume they’ll want to follow up the success of Revelations 2 with another episodic game, which may mean more Revelations for us.
And with that, Resident Evil concludes the itchy, tasty portion of this wish list.
On the supernatural front, we have the possibility of an Alan Wake remaster, a Western release for Fatal Frame V and, if we’re lucky, we’ll hear something from Frogware’s Call of Cthulhu game. That one has been quiet for awhile. Games that are based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft have had a rough time staying out of development limbo, so even a “Yes, it’s still on the way” statement from Frogware would be fantastic.
Is Draugen a supernatural horror game? Whatever it is, it’s been quiet long enough that I’m beginning to worry about its health. Developer Red Thread Games has said they’d like to crowdfund it, potentially for a 2015 release. Mid to late 2016 is looking more likely as far as a release window, and that would give them plenty of time to raise some funds to help realize it. Until then, some new footage would be a swell way to remind us Draugen still exists.
Kodoku is one of those rare sorts of video games that can be immediately identifiable solely because of a distinctive art style. I’m not sure what the official term for it is, or if there even is a term to describe this delightfully strange-looking game. I also don’t think it’s necessary.
What’s more important is that you approach this interactive acid trip like you would a real one and make sure you have a safe place to play it in, and that you surround yourself with people you trust.
Before we go, here are a few miscellaneous things I’d also like to see at E3:
– Release dates for Predator in Mortal Kombat X, The Forest (PS4), DayZ (PS4) and Grave (XBO)
– A look at that upcoming Bloodborne expansion
– What’s next for Creative Assembly (Alien: Isolation) and Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within)
– Literally any news regarding the future of Condemned, Dead Space and Silent Hill
– For Konami to spend their entire conference apologizing to us for everything they’ve done. They can open with a heartfelt speech, followed by some crying, then Kojima needs to come on stage and kick a Konami exec in the balls, followed by even more crying. It will all end with a surprise appearance from Guillermo del Toro where he looks directly into the camera to tell me, personally, that everything is going to be okay.
– To not have to mention Left 4 Dead 3 in next year’s list.
Five decades ago, Stephen King published the story of a bullied girl with telekinetic powers and forever changed the world of horror.
Carrie follows a high school misfit who seeks revenge for a hideous prank by psychically destroying her senior prom. The name Carrie White has become synonymous with the concept of a formal dance thanks to a flawless adaptation from Brian De Palma. Now fifty years after the film’s release, Mike Flanagan is putting his own stamp on the troubling story.
Rather than a feature film, the writer/director will expand King’s relatively slim debut novel into an eight-episode miniseries for Amazon Prime set to premiere on October 7.
Flanagan is no stranger to the world of Stephen King. A long-time Constant Reader, he first made waves with his daring adaptation of Gerald’s Game (2017), a novel many fans considered un-filmable. His underrated Doctor Sleep merges the disparate plot of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining with King’s original source material, and his 2024 genre-bending tearjerker The Life of Chuck faithfully executes one of the author’s most metaphysical novellas.
He’s currently mired in pre-production for an expansive adaptation of The Dark Tower series, keystone to King’s connected universe, and Warner Bros. recently announced that Flanagan will helm a new version of The Mist, King’s 1980 novella which sees a small Maine town overrun by otherworldly monsters.
Considering the vast array of the author’s previously unadapted material, an obvious question arises. Why reimagine Carrie in 2026? Noting the timeless nature of the content, Flanagan expressed his desire to bring the story of a bullied girl into modern times, mirroring his approach to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. He explained, “The only way to approach it was to build something new out of the ingredients of Carrie. Otherwise, there’s really no purpose in trying to retread ground that’s been so beautifully walked before.”
His miniseries will maintain the novel’s bloody bookends while delivering “big surprises” along the way.
A New Prom Night Nightmare
The roughly 60-second teaser introduces Summer H. Howell as Carrie White just before the moment of catastrophe. Standing in a prom dress, she smiles at her applauding classmates with an ominous crown perched upon her head. Moments later, Carrie unleashes a rage-filled scream into the night air while promgoers rush for the exit doors. But careful examination of this scene shows Carrie wearing a different, albeit dirty dress as she seems to telekinetically punish her peers.
In an exclusive first look with Entertainment Weekly, Flanagan explains that in his version of the story, “the events of that prom are going to be completely different.” An open trunk emitting a crimson glow does hint at the pig’s blood dumped on Carrie’s head, but it’s likely Flanagan’s formal dance will be a different kind of horror altogether. Despite these changes, the series may end with the widespread destruction outlined in the source material. Unlike any previous adaptations, King’s novel ends with the near-total destruction of Chamberlain, Maine. A flaming street in Flanagan’s trailer promises similar carnage no matter what prank sparks Carrie’s deadly revenge.
The Monstrous Addition of Social Media
On the opposite end of this fiery conclusion is an extreme act of bullying that brings together the story’s main cast. King’s novel begins as Carrie gets her first period while showering in the girls’ locker room. Completely unaware of the concept of menstruation, the sheltered girl thinks she’s bleeding to death. Her classmates respond with vitriolic rage. Led by ultra-mean girl Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton), they mock the terrified teen while pelting her with tampons. Glimpses of this disturbing event reveal that Flanagan has excised the scene’s nudity while adding a seismic update. As Carrie sobs in the shower stall, Chris and her friends film the breakdown with their phones.
Other scenes note the presence of social media, bringing King’s fifty-year-old story into the digital age.
Flanagan’s adaptation promises to explore the destructive power of social media, an often invisible entity with a potential for harm rivaling Carrie’s own powers. While King’s tormented heroine suffers in front of a small group of girls, Flanagan’s version of the incident will likely become a viral video, potentially circling the globe on social media. Similar to Katt Shea’s criminally underrated The Rage: Carrie 2, which includes elements of revenge porn exploitation, Flanagan’s modern retelling will distinguish itself by exploring the nebulous cruelty of online bullying, a force ten times more powerful than the irl pranks King first envisioned.
A Completely Reimagined White Family
In addition to modernizing these canon events, Flanagan hints at updates to Carrie’s oppressive upbringing at the hands of her mother, Margaret White (Samantha Sloyan). Dead before the novel begins, we never meet Carrie’s domineering father Ralph, known to carry a bible alongside his gun. Flanagan’s White household will be an altogether different beast. In his version of the story, Carrie and her mother have been hidden away in the unassuming home, forced out of hiding by Ralph’s unexpected death. Perhaps we will finally meet this elusive man whose shadow hangs over his wife and child. Considering the White family’s fundamentalist lifestyle, this reimagining hints at tradwife culture and a home ruled by staunch patriarchal control.
Whereas King’s Carrie has been tormented by her classmates since Kindergarten, Flanagan’s Carrie will be a wide-eyed newcomer to public school, eager to make friends and engage with her peers. We glimpse Carrie cozying up to Chris and the equally popular Sue Snell (Siena Agudong) as she navigates a new social scene. Of course, we know this kindness is part of an elaborate plot designed to lull Carrie into a false sense of camaraderie, setting up an atrocious act of public humiliation. These brief moments of feigned compassion put Sue’s own complicity into question. Will Flanagan’s version of the character find the courage to defend Carrie from vicious bullies or will she succumb to peer pressure and join in the mob mentality?
Perhaps the biggest deviation from King’s original text is the relationship between Carrie and her mother. King’s Margaret White is a horrifically abusive religious zealot whose worldview has been hardened by internalized misogyny. She shames Carrie for menstruating, locks her in a closet to “pray,” and regrets not killing her child in infancy. She’s also responsible for Carrie’s social ostracization. Known to berate her neighbors for their “sins,” Margaret forces her daughter to live by an extreme code of conduct and disallows any potential friends lest they corrupt the girl with their worldly ways.
Flanagan’s version of the character is perhaps just as much a victim as Carrie herself. Also trapped inside her home, his Margaret is overly vigilant, her own trauma manifesting as strict control. Describing a more sympathetic depiction of the iconic villain, Flanagan explains, “Our Margaret White is a woman who fiercely loves her daughter and wants to protect her from this world … [She] doesn’t know how to do that and thinks the way to protect her is to close her off; not punitively, but to create this private utopia.”
Despite this potential softening, Sloyan’s Margaret may still have a sharp edge. Though she has appeared in many Flanagan projects, from Hush (2016) to The Fall of the House of Usher (2023), she is best known for her role as the abhorrent Bev Keane in the poignant saga Midnight Mass (2021). Perhaps inspired by King’s Margaret White, Bev is pious and sadistic, willing to punish anyone who does not adhere to her warped approximation of Catholicism.
Flanagan specifically wrote Margaret with Sloyan in mind, likely remembering the actress’s eerie ability to create deceptive empathy and shift our allegiances on a dime.
Expanding Stephen King’s Telekinetic Universe
While most of King’s story deals with an unthinkable prom night in Chamberlain, Maine, large sections of the semi-epistolary novel see experts debating the nature of telekinesis. Do Carrie’s frightening abilities represent a new phase in human evolution or is the prom night carnage merely a fluke? King settles the debate with a shocking denouement in which a young mother recounts her infant daughter’s ability to dangle her crib toys in midair. We’re left to wonder if she will become another tormented girl who surprises the world with metaphysical strength.
Flanagan plans to build out this brief scene while amplifying themes of female empowerment. After introducing our main cast of characters, episode two will open with an unrelated story in which we meet another girl with the TK gene. Each subsequent chapter will expand this world, building out a roster of telekinetic young women. Considering King’s fondness for stories about powerful kids, often described as possessing “the shining,” Constant Readers will no doubt have their eyes peeled for various Easter Eggs nodding to the author’s vast catalogue.
Giving Carrie Her Own Voice
Perhaps the most striking distinction in Flanagan’s new trailer is the extent to which we hear Carrie’s voice. The sneak peek is fully narrated by the titular prom queen as she demands accountability. “I want to know why,” she explains while detailing Chris’ elaborate plan. Aside from the aforementioned coda, King’s book essentially ends with the aftermath of the prom night tragedy, leaving little time for Carrie to reflect. His shifting narrative does bring the reader into her fragile mind, though not before she’s been cowed by relentless cruelty. We watch Carrie sink into bloodthirsty revenge, but never hear a considered desire for justice or repair.
Flanagan’s original monologue allows Carrie to voice her pain and mourn the life she could have had. We’re also treated to a mug shot-style photo of Chris with a bruised and bandaged face, implying that the mean girl will have to answer for her senseless sadism.
Flanagan is known for filling his series adaptations with heartwrenching speeches that cut to the heart of his thematic intentions, and this teaser seems to follow suit. After years of fans, critics, and scholars analyzing Carrie’s pain, perhaps his modern retelling will offer the titular anti-hero a chance to finally speak for herself.
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