The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Just perfect...

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999): Dir: Katt Shea / Cast: Emily Bergl, Jason London, Amy Irving, Zachary Ty Bryan, Dylan Bruno: Worthwhile sequel to Carrie dealing with inner madness opening with telekinetic Rachel witnessing her mother get institutionalized at a young age. Now in high school her best friend commits suicide. She was a pawn where a group of football buddies score each other on sexual acts. One of them had his picture taken with the victim and is under police investigation. Rachel meets Jason London after his dog is in an accident. He feels guilt after having participated in the football lunacy. Amy Irving returns as Sue Snell who learns of Rachel's powers and discovers her birthright. Stylish directing by Katt Shea who can be credited with the interesting prank subplot but its conclusion is disappointing. Emily Bergl does well as Rachel until all hell breaks loose in its duplicate conclusion. Jason London also holds strong as one of the jocks with a little more compassion. Irving unfortunately is wasted and her dismiss is pointless and pitiful. Zachary Ty Bryan plays one of the guilty football jocks in what is a more aggressive streak as compared to his stint on Home Improvement, but we know his destiny here. Other roles are more or less the subject to Carrie's rage where bad things happen. The result is a worthy sequel but hardly an improvement. Score: 6 ½ / 10

Rachel Lang is a teenager with many emotional troubles. Her Mom is a little crazy and she's ridden with telekinesis, meaning she has the uncanny ability to move things with her mind. Sue Snell (Amy Irving) witnessed the downfall of Carrie White many years ago, and wants to make sure that Rachel doesn't go through the same thing. To make matters worse, her best friend Lisa (Mena Suvari) commits suicide over a womanizer, leaving her with nothing. Things start to look up when she meets a hunk at the school (Jason London) and Rachel uncovers what happened to cause her best friend to commit suicide, but wannabe jock, Eric (Zachary Ty Bryan) will stop at nothing to make sure Rachel doesn't uncover the truth. I'm NOT a fan of the first movie or the remake. The first movie has a huge following, something I've never quite understood. It's an above average movie at best. Needless to say, my expectations for this unnecessary sequel were quite low. The original is mentioned here and there, but so much more could have been done with it. The relationships feel very cookie-cutter and forced. It's hard to commit emotionally when I felt so empty for most of the duration. The character development isn't that great, and everything felt thrown in there. The telekinesis storyline is played out as well. Emily Bergl is great as Rachel, managing to overcome a poor script. I don't get why she was such an outsider, though. She's really pretty! I had a hard time believing that she had trouble gaining friends or dates. She makes the most of it, and comes through like a champ. Jason London is solid as the love interest. Chicks will fall in love with him, and he's really likable. His chemistry with Bergl is decent, albeit unspectacular. Amy Irving cashes in a check, I'll say that. Her part wasn't much, and had the potential to be much more. Zachery Ty Bryan is a lame jock. He's rather boring, in my opinion. For those that don't know, he's mostly known for Home Improvement. Rachel Blanchard is sexy and manipulative, giving her thin part some flavor. I've been a fan of hers since Clueless. American Pie fans will rejoice at the sightings of Mena Suvari and Eddie Kaye Thomas! I know I did. Too bad their parts aren't much. A lot of the characters are unsympathetic, making it hard to care about their fates. I wouldn't call this a gore fest, but the ending is absolutely LOADED with blood! If you've seen the ending to Hellraiser 3, you'll see something very similar here. It gets really nasty! Fun with CD's, glass, spears, and much more! They try to recreate the emotional impact from the ending of the first one to no avail.The last 20 minutes are fun! Shame about the rest of it. It's watchable, but completely uninspired in every way. If you insist on seeing it, prepare for a lot of routine drivel until the last 20 minutes! The best thing about this movie is Emily Bergl's performance. 5.1/10

It's bad enough that Carrie had its awful remakes in 2002 and 2013, but if you look at all four Carrie movies, you'll discover one of the worst movies ever. Just like the Firestarter sequel (Rekindled), this one travels way too far from the original plot, the characters are preppy high school students and the soundtrack is horrible, as is the acting.The Rage follows telekinetic outcast and killer Carrie White's half-sister, Racheal, as she discovers her own horrible powers. As a child her mom was committed to a mental hospital so now Racheal lives with her trailer-trash foster parents and her only friend has committed suicide, leaving her alone. Racheal's beloved basset hound, Walter, is squashed by a car, and afterwards Racheal begins to learn that the urban legend of Carrie White, who wrecked the town in the Seventies, was indeed a true story, and soon everyone at school is coming face-to-face with Racheal's telekinetic rage.There are so many cliché horror elements in this movie that it's not even funny. I cared nothing about what happened to any of the characters, the guys were all sleazy sex maniacs and the girls were all snotty Barbie clones or emo teens, nothing unique about anyone. For some reason Racheal has a heart-shaped tattoo, no idea why, and when she uses her powers, vines grow out of it. Why? Like I said, no idea whatsoever, just a pointless waste of the movie's budget.The only bright side to this pathetic load of garbage is that Amy Irving, who played the original Sue Snell in the 1976 Carrie, comes back to play the role of Sue Snell again as an adult. This movie reminded me more of The Haunting of Molly Hartley than it did of Carrie.My advice? Don't watch The Rage unless you're incredibly bored.

"The Rage" is a serious high school drama that includes the sub-theme of telekinesis and ends in utter, tragic horror.The basic plot is the same as Stephen King's original, albeit with a stronger person as the title character. Hence, "The Rage" is essentially a more-modern remake as much as a sequel. In fact, it's not even necessary to see the original to appreciate it.THE PLOT: A social outcast in high school slowly becomes aware that she has telekinetic abilities. These powers are unleashed with lethal fury when the popular kids pull a meanspirited prank on her.WHAT WORKS: I'm glad "The Rage" doesn't have the creepy Pharisaical mother like in the original. This is one aspect that I couldn't stand about "Carrie." It (sort of) gave the impression that anyone who takes the teachings of Christianity seriously will become a warped, hideous, deathly, abusive killjoy like Carrie's mother. Actually, although there are indeed modern-day Pharisees in Christendom, nothing could be further from the truth. Authentic Christianity gives liberty, life and joy, not the opposite (see, for example, John 8:31-32, John 10:10 and 1 Peter 1:8). Don't take me wrong here, I'm not preachin' to you.Emily Bergl plays Carrie's half-sister Rachel and she does it well. She's an outcast like Carrie but she's stronger, more confident and doesn't have a dream to fit in with the popular kids. One of the film's themes is: Does love really exist? Rachel says she doesn't believe in love. Her mother's in a mental institution. She's a foster child and her foster parents clearly only have her for the extra money, not because they love her.Any teenager or adult can readily relate to the situations/issues addressed in the film:The common cliques: the "popular" crowd, oversexed jocks, snooty cheerleaders, rich kids and their parents, nerds, outcasts, etc. - Pre-mature sexual experience and the resulting emotional turmoil. - Suicide. - the spiritual emptiness of casual sex. - First love, true love. - Being attracted to or dating someone outside your social stratum. - Football, players, fandom and hardcore coaching antics. - Friendship, rivalry, fights. - Partying."The Rage" effectively brings to life these joys and horrors of the high school experience.Jesse, played by Jason London is an interesting character. Jesse is truly attracted to Rachel, but why? It's not that she's conventionally beautiful like his ex-girlfriend, although she's not ugly either. Perhaps Jesse sees the superficiality and conformity of the spoiled "popular kids" clique and veers toward someone more humble, loving and genuine, like Rachel. Also observe that Jesse isn't a conformist, even though he's technically part of the popular kids clique: Because of his love for an outcast he fearlessly stands up to the most popular (arrogant) jock; everyone on the team gets his head shaved except Jesse, etc.It's interesting to note that, although Rachel is portrayed as a misfit who likes Marilyn Manson, she's not a rebellious, disrespectful teenager. She never "answers back" her foster 'father,' she works, she isn't promiscuous and isn't a party monger.Furthermore, "The Rage" is respectful of its source. It even brings back the lone survivor of the original, Sue Snell (Amy Irving), as a school counselor.Also, the credits features the excellent song "Crazy Little Voices" by the Egyptian band Ra, which isn't available on their proper albums.WHAT DOESN'T WORK: There's a love scene that's premature IMHO, but it can be defended on the grounds that time has to be condensed in a movie.I just saw the original "Carrie" and "The Rage" back-to-back and I liked the latter better with the exception of the original's prom scene, which is iconic with the blood-splattered Sissy and the fire in the background. Plus, the '76 version is the original version and it gets points just for that whereas "Carrie 2" loses points for just being another take on the same basic plot. I suppose you could also argue that the original has better mood, which it does.Yet I prefer the sequel because Rachel is a much more interesting character than Carrie in the original film and Jesse is really attracted to Rachel -- even loves her -- rather than Tommy just doing his girlfriend a favor and feeling sorry for Carrie in the original.Also, the thin plot of the original is clearly padded -- unimportant scenes are drawn-out to about twice the length they need to be -- and this makes the movie seem long at 98 minutes and some parts boring. "The Rage," by contrast, runs 104 minutes but it doesn't seem as long (or boring) as the original because the story and characters are more interesting and the film isn't padded. FINAL ANALYSIS: I encourage you to be openminded and allow yourself to enjoy a different take on the same basic plot of "Carrie." Both films have their strengths. In some ways "The Rage" is better than "Carrie." It's definitely not a weak or campy sequel; rather it's a strong late-90s updating and effectively showcases the joys and horrors of the high school years.The film was shot in Dallas & Charlotte, NC, and runs 104 minutes.GRADE: A