Editorials
Watch 10 First Films by Great Horror Directors (Part 2)
When directors are asked for advice on how to break into the industry by aspiring filmmakers, their answer is in variably some version of, “Get a camera and make something.” And as unhelpful as that sounds on the surface, even the most successful directors got their start by doing just that: making something. Even if it was imperfect or flawed.
So, in what I will be an ongoing series, I’ve compiled the first endeavors of some of our favourite horror directors as a means to inspire anyone who might be facing some kind of creative paralysis. Because, as you’ll see, while many of these films do give hints of the great heights these directors would climb, they are all scrappy, rough around the edges and full of wonderful flaws.
Be sure to check out part one of this ongoing series.
James Wan (“Saw” 2003)
The reigning king of horror, James Wan has three bonafide franchises under his belt in Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring series. Add to that his work on blockbusters like the Fast and Furious and his move into the DCU and Wan starts to look like one of the most successful filmmakers working today.
But it all started with this nine-and-a-half-minute short he co-wrote with Leigh Whannell. Filmed in his native Australia, this rough version of “Saw” was originally used to pitch the full-length feature film to Lionsgate who picked the feature up. Saw would go on to become hugely influential to the genre and the most lucrative horror franchise of all time.
Jaume Balagueró (“Alicia” 1994)
It’s hard to explain the excitement surrounding Jaume Balaguero’s & Paco Plaza’s original [REC] to anyone who wasn’t tapped into the horror movie scene ten years ago. The anticipation for a foreign zombie movie was something rarely seen and found footage was still something of a novelty. Zombie media wasn’t nearly as mainstream as it is now, so in 2007 [REC] seemed immediately fresh and aesthetically exciting. And man, did it deliver. [REC] was so well received it spawned three sequels and an American adaption in Quarantine.
Balaguero’s first directorial effort is a decidedly NSFW experimental short called Alicia and while it’s the furthest thing from a found footage film, it’s guaranteed to get a reaction out of any viewer.
Greg Nicotero (“United Monster Talent Agency” 2010)
After the run he’s had on The Walking Dead recently, directing some of the show’s best and provocative episodes, not to mention his history as a visual FX artist, I simply had to include Greg Nicotero on this list. Plus, as you’ll see below, his first work as a director is an amusing retro ode to the famous monsters of old Hollywood that should be seen by all.
Mary Lambert (“Rapid Eye Movement” 1977)
There’s no question that Mary Lambert’s Pet Sematary I & II were instrumental in forming my relationship with both Stephen King and horror movies. The first film was one of the first scary movies that truly terrified me and it’s also one of the first time I realized movies were based on books. Stephen King, I thought, must be a one scary dude.
Lambert’s first film is also super eerie, but for completely different reasons. An animated experimental narrative about people in a casino, the film’s style will likely remind viewers of popular animator at the time, Ralph Bakshi.
J.A. Bayona (“Mis Vacaciones” 1999)
Looking at Bayona’s first short film, Mis Vacaciones, it’s easy to see why A Monster Calls is getting such praise. Even as this early stage, the Spanish director of The Orphanage was well attuned to the whimsy and melancholy of coming of age storytelling.
David Cronenberg (“Transfer” 1966)
It’s taken years for Canada’s David Cronenberg to shake the reputation of being strictly a body horror director, but his early career certainly yielded some of the ickiest and most explosive examples of the sub genre. From Scanners to The Fly and even my personal favorite, Videodrome, his best work is both visually and thematically uncompromising.
His first film, Transfer, is a surreal tale of two people – a psychiatrist and his patient – at a table set for dinner in the middle of a field covered in snow.
David Slade (“Do Geese See God?” 2004)
Before helming 30 Days of Night, director David Slade’s first short film was the third in a series of five shorts released by Amazon as part of an “Amazon Theater” experiment.
In the film, which takes its name from a well known palindrome, actor Blair Underwood is beset by modern anxiety.
Sam Raimi (“Within the Woods” 1978)
Within the Woods is not Sam Raimi’s first short film, but it’s probably his most important early film as it stars Bruce Campbell and is now considered the progenitor of the Evil Dead series.
Like many first films, Within the Woods was made out of passion, but also to drum up interest and investment in a larger project.
Axelle Carolyn (“The Last Post” 2011)
Axelle Carolyn hails from the world of horror film journalism, having covered the genre for Fangoria and others before moving into acting and directing. The mind behind last year’s Tale of Halloween anthology as well as the stylish haunter, Soulmate, Carolyn’s debut was The Last Post, a short film about an aging woman reconnecting with her past through (perhaps) supernatural means.
Nimród Antal (“Insurance” 1999)
Before helming pulse-pounders like Vacancy and Predators, Nimrod Antal was studied film in Hungry where he made international waves with the stylish thriller Kontrol. Prior to that however, he put together this fascinating film called Insurance that remains a must see for fans of European cinema.
Stay tuned for part 3!
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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