Published Feb 17, 2026, 6:30 PM EST
After joining Screen Rant in January 2025, Guy became a Senior Features Writer in March of the same year, and now specializes in features about classic TV shows. With several years' experience writing for and editing TV, film and music publications, his areas of expertise include a wide range of genres, from comedies, animated series, and crime dramas, to Westerns and political thrillers.
With MIke Flanagan’s highly anticipated new adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel Carrie just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to watch Gerald’s Game on Netflix. This acclaimed psychological horror movie is co-written and directed by Flanagan, who adapted it from King’s 1992 novel of the same name.
One of the defining Stephen King horror releases on Netflix, Gerald’s Game also ranks among the 21st century’s best movie adaptations of King’s work of any genre. Claustrophobic, suspenseful, and at times utterly terrifying, this film demonstrates precisely why Carrie is in safe hands with Mike Flanagan.
When drawing on his experience with both the horror genre and Stephen King adaptations for his latest project, Flanagan will have had Gerald’s Game at the forefront of his mind. Producing a Carrie TV show to rival Brian De Palma's definitive 1976 movie version is quite the challenge, but this Netflix horror feature suggests he’s more than up to it.
Netflix's Horror Movie Gerald's Game Is The Perfect Watch Before Carrie On Prime Video
Now that the release window for Mike Flanagan’s Carrie is confirmed, the countdown begins to 2026’s biggest horror release. Given that we’ve still got more than half the year to wait before the show debuts in October, it’s the ideal time to discover Gerald’s Game on Netflix.
This Flanagan adaptation of another Stephen King work of psychological horror is underpinned by the same themes of female oppression and unresolved childhood trauma as we find in Carrie. The plots of both stories trap their female protagonists within confined physical spaces, as a metaphor for the oppressive dynamics that condition their mental states.
In Gerald’s Game, the patriarchal oppression and historic abuse suffered by Jessie Burlingame is more direct and literal. In Carrie, meanwhile, they’re broader and more systemic and institutionalized, which reflects in the title character’s supernatural response to it.
Gerald's Game Is One Of The Best Stephen King Adaptations Of All Time
When it comes to ranking Stephen King movies, Gerald’s Game is up there with the very best as a work of searing power, with horror elements worthy of comparison with Mike Flanagan’s finest work. Watching this film, it’s no surprise that King himself is such a fan of Flanagan.
The subtlety and precision with which the director employs his trump cards to build suspense and transfix us in terror is unparalleled in modern horror. He’s steeped in the traditions of genre classics, and never goes for easy or gimmicky ways to scare us. The resulting work of cinema is a genuinely frightening, ceaselessly unsettling watch.
Mike Flanagan Is The Writer-Director Behind Both Gerald's Game & Prime Video's Carrie
Mike Flanagan is a real auteur of his craft, who has complete creative control over virtually every horror production he undertakes. He’s written and directed all of both Gerald’s Game and Carrie. In the case of the latter release, Flanagan’s different approach to Stephen King’s Carrie explains why it makes sense for him to remake the classic film version.
He’s going all-out to produce a work that both honors King’s original novel and puts his own definitive stamp on the story. Just as with Gerald’s Game, there’ll be no mistaking that Prime Video’s Carrie is the work of Mike Flanagan.
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Carrie
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Summer H. Howell
Carrie White
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Matthew Lillard
Principal Grayle
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Samantha Sloyan
Margaret White
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English (US) ·