5 Best TV Shows To Watch After Prime Video’s Carrie

Mike Flanagan’s masterful work with Stephen King continued with the arrival of “Carrie” Season 1 on Prime Video. Modernizing the author’s first book, which was also the first tale adapted for the screen in 1976 (and remains one of the best), the show earned rave reviews, scoring a commendable 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, before Prime Video greenlit a second season. With considerable staying power among the top titles on the streaming charts, the show clearly has a lot of fans who love seeing Carrietta White (Summer H. Howell) get her blood-soaked payback on prom night. Now, with Chamberlain in ruins and the future of its most powerful residents uncertain, what’s left for us to see? Are there any nail-biting, hair-raising shows that can match the high school horrors of “Carrie”? Well, you’re in luck, as we don’t just have one show to shiver your timbers — we’ve got five.

After careful consideration, we’ve picked some great titles that follow up nicely after you’ve seen Carrie shut her school down for good. From shows that show a different side of high school’s horrors to towns terrorized by ancient evils (some of which are more of King’s own making), we’ve got it all, and more. So why wait any longer? Queue up these shows to binge whenever you need to scratch that “Carrie” itch, and see why Flanagan and King are a match made in horror-story heaven.

IT: Welcome to Derry

After Andrés Muschietti’s impressive adaptation of King’s killer-clown story, “IT,” audiences were sent back 27 years before we met The Losers Club in the HBO Max prequel series, “IT: Welcome to Derry.” Tapping into the same kind of terror audiences loved in the two-part story, “Welcome to Derry” follows an older group of kids in 1962 as they take on Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) after classmates are ripped to shreds during a hellish trip to the movie theater.

While the show follows the familiar beats of getting us attached to a new group of kids as they lose their minds, “Welcome to Derry” also digs deeper into the history of the town’s most monstrous resident. That’s an impressive feat, especially since Skarsgård appears sparingly in the show, unlike in his initial big-screen outing as the killer clown.

What sets “Welcome to Derry” apart from the original movies is the addition of adult supervision, as the military tries to harness Pennywise’s power and slowly learns how terrible an idea that is. With stronger connections to other King tales (including a great performance from Chris Chalk as Dick Hallorann in “The Shining”), “Welcome to Derry” rises to the level of some of the best shows inspired by Stephen King’s work. We can only hope that the show’s second season, which is set a further 27 years before this one, is able to harness the “IT” factor just like this has.

The Outsider

Perhaps one of the most underrated entries not just on this list, but in the most recent spate of Stephen King adaptations, is “The Outsider,” another HBO Max one-and-done limited series. Produced by and starring Jason Bateman as Little League coach Terry Maitland, the show kicks off with him being charged with the murder and horrific mutilation of an 11-year-old boy. Eyewitnesses put him leaving the crime scene covered in blood, leading the local townsfolk to beg for his. Certain details, however, don’t add up, giving Detective Ralph Anderson (the consistently brilliant Ben Mendelsohn) reason to review the case from a different angle, who, with the help of King’s favorite character, Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo), learns there is a supernatural element at play.

Released during the run of Bateman’s Netflix series, “Ozark,” “The Outsider” carries the same kind of energy that fits perfectly in this King story. “The Outsider” is a cold, slow-burn show that teases its supernatural element brilliantly, leaving you to wrap your head around it at the same pace Ralph does. The result is what feels like an old-fashioned monster hunt, where, like any great horror story, the creature isn’t the only nefarious presence. Give it a watch, but don’t be too bitter that a second season never came to pass as planned.

Midnight Mass

Stephen King has said that he wrote “Salem’s Lot” because he wanted to write his own “Dracula.” “Midnight Mass” feels like Flanagan’s own “Salem’s Lot” and might even surpass the author’s beloved vampire story. The show follows another small town as a supernatural presence and mob mentality turn it upside down, with people believing it’s a blessing rather than a curse. Set on the small island of Crockett Island, the show follows Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford), who, after serving time for killing a woman in a drunken car accident, returns home to find an even greater horror disguised as a holy man. Hamish Linklater is Father Paul Hill, the island’s new priest who unites most of the island after performing a true miracle in his church. Unfortunately, Riley and a handful of other locals start to believe Hill’s sermons hide more than he’s letting on, and soon the island succumbs to a mysterious disease and a demonic presence disguised as a gift from God.

Like so many of Flanagan’s works, “Midnight Mass” focuses on faith and his fascination with what might be waiting for us when the sun finally sets. The result is a beautifully heartfelt, equally hair-raising look at faith and the grip it can have, for better or worse. To ask these questions, the show has an incredible cast that you learn to love or loathe as this town descends into madness, ending on a hopeful but equally heartbreaking note.

The Haunting of Hill House

Flanagan might’ve been an up-and-coming name by 2018, but his stop off at Hill House quickly established him as one of the greatest horror storytellers in recent years. Netflix’s limited series gave us a modern reimagining of the classic story, “The Haunting of Hill House,” which sees the estranged Crain family forced to reunite after one of their own dies, with all roads leading back to the home where the true horror began.

At this point, there’s little that can be said that hasn’t already been shouted from the rooftops of Hill House. For many, this is now a staple scare session that gets repeated viewing, and rightfully so. Easily the writer and director’s most atmospheric effort, Flanagan ensures this isn’t just a home, but a decaying maze of horrors the Crains inhabit alongside other, less welcoming occupants. It’s also perhaps Flanagan’s most creative effort next to “Doctor Sleep,” with the story switching between past and present and the timelines colliding in the masterpiece that is “Two Storms,” the show’s long-take 6th episode.

Beyond the creative creeps and ghostly extras hanging in the background, it offers what would become Flanagan’s signature heartfelt handling of struggling characters haunted by their own personal horrors. Start crying and hiding from the Bent Neck Lady, then rewatch one of the greatest limited shows ever made.

Yellowjackets

Since the show hasn’t reached its end yet, there’s no telling whether “Yellowjackets” will stick its landing after four seasons, but there’s no doubt that what we’ve been given so far pairs well with poor Carrie and her supernatural antics. Arriving in 2021, “Yellowjackets” took us back to the ’90s and dropped us in with a high school girls’ soccer team whose plane crashes in the wilderness. Naturally, things go tribal quickly as they try their best to survive, but a supernatural presence creates more problems as alliances slowly bend and break, and the Yellowjackets resort to unspeakable means to wait it out until help comes.

Taking cues from both “Lord of the Flies” and “Lost,” the nifty trick of this show is that we follow two timelines: one that shows the girls fighting to survive, and another decades later that reveals who actually did. The cast for both timelines is great, with the adults including Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, and Melanie Lynskey, who earned two Emmy nominations for her work on the show. Helping turn back the years is also a cast that has gone on to become stars, with Ella Purnell (“Fallout”), Sophie Thatcher (star of the must-watch “Companion”), and Jasmin Savoy Brown all leaving their mark. Some might argue there was a lull in the 3rd season after the first two debuted to near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes scores. Hopefully, there’s still time for the girls to go out on a high, and more importantly, get back to society without eating any more people.