The Rage: Carrie 2

The Rage: Carrie 2 - being more a remake than a sequel of the 70ies classic - is a good film for chilling out after a week of work or something like that. The creators were able to transport the basic ideas of the Stephen King novel (teenage problems)into this sequel. Only this is a reason to call this a good movie - because I think that Stephen King fans had to see much bad adaptions of the master´s work in the past. Another reason is that this movie is much better than all the other teen-horror-movies of the last years like I Know What You Did Last Summer (of course I could never say something bad about the first two Scream movies - seriously!). Carrie 2 handles teenager´s problems and conflict much better than other films and I think that it is a much better film to identificate with for young people. The "new Carrie" is - once again - a true outsider and not one of these upper class all-american teens like the ones in I Know...etc. The movie shows its sympathy for this outsider (a nice detail: in some scenes you can see the Marilyn Manson-poster at the wall of Rachel´s room - the icon of all angry outsiders). Another point: the horror violence is much harder than in the other teen movies, too. Everyone who likes gory horror should like this movie All in all, I could not say anything bad about this movie. Just take a look. 8 out of 10

Yes, you read that right.

Emily Bergl is this films greatest asset. She can actually act and looks sincere. The only problem is that she's far too good looking for the role. That may sound shallow, but throughout the movie, we're supposed to get the impression that she's "ugly" and because of that, she's an outcast. Contrast this to Sissy Spacek in the original who looked plain enough to carry out the role of "ugly duckling". It was only her talent that let Bergl carry (pun not intended) out the role convincingly.

The antoganists are unusually shallow, especially when presented against the more modern bad guys in horror films, at least where you can see the bad guy. Though at least one of the bad girls is convincing as Rachel's new friend.

Jason Landon does an amiable job as Rachel's boyfriend and lends a lot of credibility to the final scene which, I must say, is a refreshing change from the hand coming out of the ground scenes popularized by the original Carrie.

All in all, a refreshingly entertaining and, dare I say, well done show.

Admittedly, "The Rage: Carrie 2" can't equal the quality established by its predecessor. But it's better than I expected it to be. Portraying an outcast high school student (Emily Bergl) discovering that she has telekinetic powers - don't worry; it gets explained - and using them to get revenge on her tormentors, it mostly repeats everything from the original. But the good aspect comes from how they set up some scenes and shock you (I really liked the shattering ball). Finally, the party at the end just might make your blood freeze.

Overall, this is a movie worth seeing, if only once. Of course, you'll have to see the original first, so as to understand everything that happens in this one. Also starring Amy Irving and Mena Suvari (right before she played Kevin Spacey's sexual fantasy in "American Beauty").

Rachael Lang has grown up in foster care because her mother was taken to a mental institution while Rachael was still young. When Rachael's best friend kills herself after being seduced and dumped by a member of the football team, strange things happen which are noticed by the school counsellor Susan Snell – in particular it reminds her of Carrie who had the powers to move things with her mind. Snell tries to help Rachael get help before she shares Carrie's fate, but Rachael is busy falling in love with one of the football team – but is he all that he seems?

Surely this film must feature on any list of unnecessary sequels made many years after the fact. That the film bears the name `Carrie' must have made the studio hope that some of the good features of that film would be carried (sorry) over and redeem this. The plot tries to keep the essence of Carrie but it tries to mix in all the clichés of the modern teen movie as well – and the two don't mix. So for the majority of the film we have the normal `jocks bothering weird girl' plot and the odd scene of something breaking.

The problem is that suddenly the end scene happens – with little build up or trail. From a girl ignoring her powers Rachael suddenly becomes some sort of pumped killing machine in full control of her mind. The change is too sudden and is lazy writing. The actual film itself is too much an average teen movie and the ending is full of deliberate gore for the audience that measures horror in those terms. I personally found it overdone like the special effects guys were trying too hard.

The director also feels like he's working too hard. He tries to freak us out and make everything seem exciting by having tonnes of zooming cameras, changes in film stock and changes from colour to black and white. But it all felt like a gimmick because of the material. The film pales beside the original and just fails trying to steal bits from it – even the ending is spoilt because we know to expect a `shock' ending because it's trying to do a Carrie moment.

Bergl is average as Rachael – she basically plays your typical Goth stereotype from all these movies. London is OK and it's funny to see two stars of American Pie in small roles. Irving reprises her role (with a logical crowbaring of facts) but she is wasted and is only there to provide the link to the whole mind-power stuff.. Is she this desperate for work?

Overall this isn't as bad as many reviews made it sound on release. It's an average (at best) teen/horror movie. However the fact that it relates itself to Carrie makes it look worse by comparison – not helped by showing clips. I'd avoid this unless your idea of a great movie is American Pie 2 or Friday the 13th Part 6.

What 'will I ever learn'? Never judge a book by its cover, a film by its trailer, a story by the 'critics'. Well, some of them anyway.

The trailer to this movie did NOT appeal to me. Some of the critics trashed it. Even the box to the actual tape/DVD looked 'cookie-cutter' to the first Carrie. I hate redone classics, therefore, I avoided this movie like the plague for the longest time. Indeed, I ran the opposite direction when this movie came near me. Well, maybe thats going a bit far.

LOW AND BEHOLD!! Last night (7/5/2002) USA network showed this movie, and nothing else was on. I had a bottle of Jose Quervo on hand; just in case. I sat down and got ready to laugh at, tear apart and rag on this flick. After all, its my job as a film buff to see even the 'bad' films in order to better appreciate the 'good'.

I was utterly surprised by this film. There was a character played by Mena Suvari... a pleasant surprise to me- that I thought surely would be the 'new and improved Carrie'. Oops, now I've gone too far. ANYWAY! I actually enjoyed this film. I felt very bad for the character's treatment by others, as well as, herself.

That's all I'll say on the content of the movie since there may be those out there who've avoided this film like I did. DON'T!! This movie put me in my place on pre-judging films. I felt entertained and the piece was well-done. I can't think of anything wrong with this movie; right now. Perhaps, it was a bit on the teen-film stereotypical side, but I just really enjoyed watching this film. Thank you for your time o<;O) Skot