# Rage: Carrie 2, The (1999)

### reviewed by
Michael Redman

    Now why does this film seem familiar?

    The Rage: Carrie 2
    A Film Review By Michael Redman
    Copyright 1999 By Michael Redman

    *1/2 (Out of ****)

"There's nothing new under the sun" is a phrase often used when the speaker actually means "Let's find something to copy."

Of course there are very few completely original ideas. Even earth-shattering concepts are built upon the vast body of human experience. There is, after all, no need to re-invent the wheel time after time.

Recently it seems that Hollywood doesn't feel the need to even re-write the script.

My understanding of the word "sequel" is a continuation of the story. The film industry has defined the word to mean reshooting the original with minor changes.

Have an overwhelming desire to see an inferior version of Brian DePalma's adaptation of the Steven King novel? This is your dream come true.

Rachel (Emily Bergl), a high school outcast, is beginning to notice weird things happening around her. Doors slam shut by themselves. Glass globes blow up.

Her mother has severe mental problems and her father is absent. A popular boy unexpectedly asks her out. The in-crowd conspires to embarrass her at a public event.

    Any of this sound familiar?

Once the audience catches on that this is the same story as "Carrie", there's little to do but wait for the inevitable ending. The effects are a bit better this time around, but the film doesn't work nearly as well.

There are a couple of minor plot differences. Rachel lives with foster parents because her mother is institutionalized. The boys at her school are portrayed as even more evil than in the original. They keep score of their scoring with points given for each conquest. And, uh, there must be other story changes but none stand out.

One nice touch is the casting of Amy Irving again as Sue Snell. Over 20 years ago she was the one girl who tried to help Carrie. Now a high school counselor, she befriends Rachel, but her character's potential is squandered.

There's too much about Sue that doesn't make sense. After the slaughter when Carrie kills most of her classmates, Sue is driven mad and spends time in the institution that Rachel's mother is in. Still living in the same small town, the woman with a well-known history of mental problems is hired as a high school counselor?

Sue tells Rachel that her telekinesis is a genetic disease. This may be the one original idea in the film, but the reasoning behind describing psychic powers as a "disease" is never explained.

Sue's eventual fate is an admission by director Katt Shea and writer Rafael Moreu that they had an interesting character but couldn't figure out what to do with her. Blink and you'll miss it.

Some of the events are filmed in black and white, but the rationale for this is unknown. It doesn't add anything and the choice of scenes appears somewhat random.

"The Rage" retains some of the trappings of "Carrie" without the meaning. In the first film the color red was a motif connected to Carrie's onset of powers at the same time she began menstruating. Here there's an abundance of red, but for no apparent purpose.

The casting of high school jocks and cheerleaders as villains is beginning to wear thin. One might be lead to suspect that most filmmakers were unpopular in school and the history of teenage films is an extended cinematic revenge of the nerds.

The biggest mistake the film makes is including clips of the original. Seeing Sissy Spacek on the screen only points to the quality of that film - and the flaws in this one.

(Michael Redman has written this column since "Carrie" was released and thought about just re-writing his review of it for "The Rage". Email copies of old letters to Redman@indepen.com.)

[This appeared in the 3/18/99 "Bloomington Independent", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at Redman@indepen.com.]

-- mailto:redman@indepen.com This week's film review: http://www.indepen.com/ Film reviews archive: http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman Y2K articles: http://www.indepen.com/

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