Prime Video's Carrie Echoes David Lynch's Twin Peaks In Ways You Might Not Expect

Prime Video's "Carrie" feels familiar, and not just because we know how it ends. Stephen King published his first novel — the basis for the miniseries — more than 50 years ago. Brian De Palma's movie adaptation seared the image of unlikely prom queen Carrie White (played then by Sissy Spacek) — soaked in pigs' blood and about to exact her revenge — into pop cultural mass consciousness all the way back in 1976.

In 2026's modernized "Carrie" — brought to us via prestige horror TV standard-setter Mike Flanagan — unexplained forces encroach upon life in a superficially wholesome small town. The series periodically detours into the backstories, angst, and depravities of various townsfolk — particularly the teenagers — and poses unsettling questions about the nature of both regular-schmegular American society... and reality itself. 

Basically, if we feel like we've seen "Carrie" on TV before, that's because "Carrie" has quite a lot in common with "Twin Peaks" — a show co-created, notably, by a different celebrated horror-associated storyteller from the baby boomer generation: the late David Lynch.   

Lynch and Mark Frost's cornerstone of weirdo culture was canceled in 1991 after two seasons on ABC, only to return for a third on Showtime about 25 years later. The myriad TV programs that have referenced it range from "The Simpsons" to "The Sopranos" and all the way to "Riverdale." So, while reflections of "Twin Peaks" in Prime Video's "Carrie" do not make the new series unique, they can offer perspective on Flangan's latest foray into classic scary lit.  

After years of trauma — via her deranged mom (Samantha Sloyan) and, later, at the hands of vicious-but-uncomplicated high school bullies — a uniquely cruel and unsanitary prank pushes the eponymous protagonist of Prime Video's "Carrie" (Summer H. Howell) over the edge. Chronologically, it's one the final events of the story, but Flanagan's adaptation opens with footage of Ewen High School ablaze and panicked 9-1-1 calls in the immediate aftermath of Carrie's telekinetic murder-and-mayhem spree. "Twin Peaks" begins when fishing enthusiast Pete Martell (Jack Nance) stumbles upon the body of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) "dead... wrapped in plastic" and washed up on the shore. These programs both start with the tragic and pointless annihilation of a teenage girl who is, paradoxically, the most important character in her story.

Laura and Carrie could be funhouse mirror images of each other: Laura dies; Carrie kills. Laura is a charismatic homecoming queen who dabbles in cocaine and sex work on the sly; Carrie is a cringe-inducingly awkward ex-homeschool kid whose dark side is less titillating than Laura's but much more dangerous. The townsfolk of Twin Peaks put Laura up on a pedestal, and Carrie's an outcast in her community, which means they're both singled out: Neither fits in.

In what's either a highly cunning casting choice or the most coincidental of coincidences, Matthew Lillard plays a high school principal in both Prime's "Carrie" and the 2017 "Twin Peaks" relaunch. In "Carrie," Principal Grayle spends pretty much all eight episodes struggling to maintain the status quo at an increasingly chaotic Ewen High. Meanwhile, in "Twin Peaks," William "Bill" Hastings of Buckhorn, South Dakota, plays fast and loose with the laws of space, time, and matrimonial monogamy. Lillard's "Twin Peaks" guy is much more of a disruptor than his "Carrie" guy, but they both have awful luck. 

Before "Twin Peaks," genre audiences knew Lillard primarily for obnoxious comedic characters in 1990s teen movies. Meanwhile, there's nothing particularly funny about Hastings — a troubled, pitiful, ultimately victimized figure in "Twin Peaks" lore.     

"I had a scene in that show which is the hardest scene I've ever had to do," Lillard told AVClub, reflecting on his "Twin Peaks" experience. "It's a three-page monologue and in the middle of the scene the slug line is: 'He breaks down hysterically sobbing.' ... And [at the time] the monologue is nonsense to me, because I don't see any other piece of the script, so I don't know what the character's talking about."

That scene required Lillard to get very upset — but in "Carrie," his character frequently has to stay calm while parents scream at him. So whereas Hastings is a sobbing bag of emotions, Grayle generally keeps it cool. (In other words: Lillard has range.)

Both programs make the lamentable move of criminally underutilizing "Boogie Nights" and "Drugstore Cowboy" star Heather Graham. Annie Blackburn shows up during the waning episodes of "Twin Peaks" Season 2 as a love interest for Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle Maclachlan), and in the 1991 finale, her kidnapping motivates the heroic Coop to dash into the malevolent pocket dimension known as the Black Lodge. In "Carrie," Graham plays the long-suffering mother of alpha mean girl Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton), mostly providing the audience with context for Chris' garbage behavior and personality. 

Of course, there also are plenty of differences between the two shows. A way-too-cheerful alterna-pop soundtrack routinely clashes with the tone of everything else going on in "Carrie" — it's a far cry from the indelible mood music of "Twin Peaks" composer Angelo Badalamenti. And social media has a ubiquitous role in "Carrie"; the phones that are never far from the teens' hands, along with Margaret's parroting of right-wing online talking points, firmly anchor the show in the present.

While most David Lynch projects feel untethered to the news cycles of their respective release dates, "Twin Peaks" literally occurs across a quarter century — on at least one poignant occasion, Cooper has to ask, "What year is this?"

Did "Carrie" make you think about "Twin Peaks"? Do you see similarities between it and any other series? Tell us about it in the comments!