Compared to his extensive body of work, Stephen King’s Carrie is largely devoid of Easter eggs. Perhaps this seems obvious considering the 1974 novel was the Master of Horror’s literary debut, but in the fifty years of publication that followed, King has continued to revisit his small Maine towns and characters introduced in earlier texts.
Rarely does he mention Chamberlain, Maine, or those touched by the dreaded “Black Prom.” Carrie exists in a fairly closed loop, a singular nightmare of telekinesis gone wrong.
By now we all know the story of Carrie White. Continuously bullied for most of her life, the quiet teen’s rage finally explodes after a prank sees her elected Prom Queen then “crowned” with a bucket of pig’s blood. Drenched in the disgusting liquid, Carrie responds by using her powers to destroy the school’s gymnasium, killing most of the senior class. Her rage then spreads throughout the small town as she walks home to confront her abusive mother, Margaret.
Fifty years after Brian De Palma first brought Carrie to the screen, Mike Flanagan has reimagined the harrowing story, updating it for the modern age. In eight episodes, the writer/director substitutes social media for 70s-era bullying while exploring the ecosystem of a 21st-century high school. While much of this modern iteration differs from its source material, Flanagan does follow King’s lead in avoiding major Easter eggs. However, there are a few cheeky references hidden within the teenage angst, some that nod to King himself and others that point to the wider genre.
Mike Flanagan Regulars Return For Carrie
After eight films and five miniseries, Flanagan has built a crew of faithful collaborators, those adept at capturing his signature blend of empathy and terror. One of these familiar faces is Samantha Sloyan, who stars in Carrie as Margaret White. In 2016, the veteran actress made a brief appearance in Flanagan’s third feature, Hush, as an ill-fated neighbor to the film’s tormented heroine. In the last decade, she has starred in many of Flanagan’s genre projects, including memorable roles in The Haunting of Hill House, The Life of Chuck, and The Fall of the House of Usher.
But perhaps her most powerful performance is as the villainous Bev Keane in the 2021 miniseries Midnight Mass. A devout catholic, Bev dooms her tiny island congregation by blindly following a careless priest. In many ways, Bev could be seen as a precursor to Sloyan’s Margaret White. Both women hide their close-minded cruelty behind a thin veil of good intentions.
While Carrie’s teen cast are newcomers to the director’s cinematic universe, Michael Trucco, Katee Sackhoff, Rahul Kohli, and Ruth Codd are Flanagan regulars, appearing in a number of projects from Oculus and The Midnight Club to The Fall of the House of Usher and The Haunting of Bly Manor. The show’s most exciting casting is Matthew Lillard as Principal Grayle. The seasoned Scream King first collaborated with Flanagan for a brief but memorable role in his 2024 tearjerker (and King adaptation) The Life of Chuck.
This casting feels particularly exciting considering Lillard’s breakout role as Stu Macher in Wes Craven’s meta-slasher Scream. Remembering that Stu kills his own principal, it’s particularly exciting to see Lillard play Grayle as a compassionate if toothless administrator.
Careful listeners may also recognize the voice of Flanagan’s most trusted collaborator. Mirroring the novel’s semi-epistolary structure, an unseen narrator can be heard previewing prom night’s destructive arc while detailing historical examples of the TK phenomenon. In episode eight, this voice is revealed to be Kate Siegel, Flanagan’s wife and frequent creative partner. Siegel plays a silent yet terrifying ghost in Flanagan’s sophomore film Oculus before going on to star in Hush. Also credited as a co-writer, the couple mapped out the largely dialogue-free film by blocking scenes in their own home.
Since then, Siegel has been featured in most of Flanagan’s projects with surprising appearances in Gerald’s Game and The Haunting of Bly Manor and an emotional turn in Midnight Mass. Should Carrie continue in future seasons, it’s likely Siegel will lead the adult cast.
Stephen King Character Referenecs and Adaptation Veterans Hidden Throughout
Other characters reunite us with alumni from additional King adaptations. Heather Graham adds a bit of rationality to the story’s chaos as the estranged mother of bully Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton). While not particularly known for horror, Graham appeared as troubled survivor Rita Blakemoor in the 2020 adaptation of King’s The Stand. Though desperate to save her flailing daughter, Mrs. Hargensen has recently left her husband John (Trucco) and moved in with another man.
Gil Bellows plays Chris’ would-be stepfather three decades after his shocking appearance in Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption. As Tommy, he arrives at the titular prison with proof that Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is innocent.
Several other names found throughout the series may be familiar to Constant Readers. The social worker who first helps Carrie register for school is named Ms. Piper, honoring the late Piper Laurie who terrified audiences with her operatic performance as Margaret White in De Palma’s 1976 adaptation.
Flanagan’s Carrie (Summer H. Howell) is also assisted by Officer Irving (Jason Tremblay) and Officer Katt (Camille Atebe), nodding to Amy Irving and William Katt, De Palma’s original Tommy and Sue. We also see that as Carrie is exploring her powers, she unknowingly causes a bunch of mailboxes to open on their own, one of them labeled Robinson. Though they do not appear in the series, perhaps this is the home of Jerome Robinson or his sister Barbara, recurring characters in King’s Hodges Trilogy and subsequent Holly novels.
Arguably most exciting is a younger Snell sibling named Tabby (Ashley Cartwright). This familiar nickname references King’s own wife, Tabitha, a fellow writer and savior of Carrie herself. King has candidly admitted to throwing out his first draft of the 1974 novel, daunted by the story’s spiraling length and complex female characters. It was Tabitha who found the pages in the wastebasket, dusted them off, and started to read. She became interested in the burgeoning story and urged her husband to continue writing, promising to help him write this heavily female world.
The rest is history! Carrie would spark King’s breakout success and the beginning of an unparalleled career.
Mike Flanagan’s Hidden Callbacks to His Own Films and De Palma’s Carrie
Other landmarks in Flanagan’s Chamberlain, Maine reference his own cinematic world and additional King collaborators. As Carrie walks down Maine Street, we see her pass the Hush Day Spa, nodding to Flanagan’s 2016 home invasion film. Months later, Carrie dances amidst the flames of her destruction in front of the tiny town’s movie theater. The marquee advertises a film festival honoring De Palma titled Retrospective in 35 MM. The doors are flanked by classic posters from the director’s impressive career, highlighting Blow Out and Dressed to Kill. The blood Chris pours on Carrie’s head comes from Sombra Pig Farm, referencing the sinister Sombra Corporation, a conglomerate headed by the Crimson King.
Alongside the Ewen High seniors, a pair of surprising chaperones can be found in the crowd on prom night. Bryan Fuller may now be known for Hannibal, but before reimagining the iconic cannibal, he rebooted King’s original source material. In 2002, Fuller penned David Carson’s Carrie, a two-part special for NBC starring Angela Bettis and Patricia Clarkson. Flanagan’s own version mirrors the writer/director’s shocking conclusion, which sees Carrie escape the fiery prom and drive off into the wider world.
Known for creating the Child’s Play franchise, Don Mancini has no official ties to the King universe, but is a champion of the author’s work. He frequently names Carrie as his favorite film and took inspiration from King’s catalogue when creating Chucky season 3.
Well before Carrie destroys the gym, another fun Easter egg can be found lining its walls. As Chris and her friends run endless line drills — punishment for their locker room prank — we notice a trio of banners commemorating Ewen High’s successful basketball run throughout the 1970s. It seems the team won the state championship in 1973, ‘75, and ‘77. Missing are the years 1974 (the year King’s Carrie was first published) and 1976 (the year De Palma’s film premiered). Considering the high school burns down in both versions, a basketball championship would be highly unlikely.
Stephen King Easter Eggs You Might Have Missed
Other references are deeper cuts and thematic nods to King’s catalogue. Episode one sees Carrie experience her first active shooter drill, an unfortunately common occurrence in modern high schools. However, they were virtually unheard of in 1977 when King — writing as Richard Bachman — published the novel Rage. The story follows a troubled teen named Charlie Decker who uses a firearm to hold his class hostage.
While King’s story in no way glorifies Charlie’s actions, copies of the disturbing novel were found in the possession of several subsequent school shooters. After a Kentucky assailant was found with Rage in his locker, King decided to pull it from publication. He would go on to write about this decision in his 2013 essay “Guns.” However, this plotline feels like Flanagan’s own statement on the heartbreaking topic. Shocked by Carrie’s experience, Margaret rushes into the principal’s office and questions this disturbing practice. Though she will emerge as the story’s central antagonist, in this moment she makes a good point.
Much of Margaret’s story is informed by the death of her husband Ralph White (Tahmoh Penikett). Though deceased before Carrie’s birth in the source material, Flanagan begins the series with his death, which leads to the discovery of his daughter’s existence. While grieving this tremendous loss, Carrie begins seeing visions of her late father, often lurking in the shadows of her darkened room.
These visions resemble another shadowy figure in Flanagan’s filmography. His 2017 adaptation Gerald’s Game sees the story’s heroine tormented by the Moonlight Man (Carel Struycken), a monstrous figure who watches the trapped woman from the corner of her own bedroom. Helplessly handcuffed to the bed, Jessie (Carla Gugino) cannot tell whether he is an actual intruder or a harbinger of her approaching death. Ralph serves a similar function here. Are these visions remnants of a troubled relationship or a warning of the horrors to come?
In a similar moment of foreshadowing, Chris and her new blended family discuss the second half of her senior year, referring to the spring semester as “back half.” While possibly a casual term, “back half” brings to mind another group of King’s powerful kids. The 2019 novel The Institute, and Jack Bender’s series adaptation, see a group of children with psychic powers kidnapped by a covert government agency. Held in a cruel hybrid of hospital and prison, the kids are eventually taken to the ward known as Back Half, where unthinkable torture truly begins. Chris seems to be entering a similar stage of pain, and the “back half” of her own senior year will conclude with a grisly burst of telekinesis.
Could These Easter Eggs Set Up ‘Carrie’ Season 2?
Frustrated with her crumbling life, Chris takes her rage out on Carrie and Margaret. Along with her delinquent boyfriend Billy (Arthur Conti), she breaks into the White’s house intending to turn picture frames upside down, break small objects, and spit in their mugs. An expert in this type of misdemeanor, Billy first attacks a knick knack shelf. He redirects an elephant figurine but ignores the tiny bird to its right.
This tense moment will likely remind King devotees of a terrifying sequence in Rob Reiner’s Misery. Having escaped his guest room prison, writer Paul Sheldon (James Caan) wheels himself around the deserted parlor of his captor Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), inadvertently knocking over a ceramic penguin. It’s this telltale bird that alerts Annie to Paul’s subterfuge, leading to the film’s notorious Hobbling scene.
In addition to Carrie’s supernatural gifts, Flanagan introduces us to a wider network of telekinetic girls. In her aforementioned narration, Siegel mentions a young woman gifted with pyrokinesis, the ability to start fires with her mind. Constant Readers will no doubt be reminded of Charlie McGee, the protagonist of King’s 1980 novel Firestarter.
Clearly the leader of this shadowy collective, Seigel’s character demonstrates powers of mental domination previously wielded by Charlie’s father. Could Siegel be playing another survivor of The Shop, the government agency responsible for Charlie’s gifts? Should Carrie return for season two, this strange coda promises additional connections to King’s larger world and most memorable characters.
