The Rage: Carrie 2





Directed By: Katt Shea

Starring: Emily Bergl, Mena Suvari, Jason London, and Amy Irving

If the last several decades at the movies have proven anything, they've proven that there's no horror movie that Hollywood won't turn into a sequel or remake.  Whether we're talking about Norman Bates, Leatherface, or Jigsaw, we always know that they'll be back on the big screen sometime down the road once again tainting their legacy.  Of all the mass murderers to grace the big screen, I figured that Carrie White would be the most difficult to bring back to the big screen because she died pretty definitively.  Though Carrie delved into the supernatural with telekinesis, it never delved into the inexplicable with the undead.  That's how I justified that Carrie would never have a sequel in my mind.  As time would tell, however, Hollywood found a way to taint her legacy too.  Some 23 years later, the creative forces that be in Hollywood unfortunately gave creepy Carrie a little sister by the name of Rachel in the abhorrent The Rage: Carrie 2.

As a little girl, Rachel (Emily Bergl) witnesses her mother Barbara's (J. Smith-Cameron) institutionalization after painting the house with blood to protect her telekinetic daughter from demons.  This is a very traumatic experience for the young girl, and she loses control of her powers because of this.  Years later, Rachel finds herself living with foster parents and attending the high school in town.  Her best friend Lisa (Mena Suvari) loses her virginity to football player Eric (Zachery Ty Bryan) and falls hard for him.  Unfortunately for Lisa, Eric doesn't feel the same way and lets her know this in a pretty cold way.  Soon thereafter, Lisa walks to the top of the high school building and jumps to her death from the roof.  Rachel and the rest of the school discover Lisa's bloody cadaver splattered across a student's car.  Rachel once again finds herself in emotional turmoil, and she briefly loses control of her telekinetic abilities bringing down havoc upon the school.

High school guidance counselor Sue Snell (Amy Irving) takes an interest in helping Rachel overcome the tragedy of Lisa's suicide.  A survivor of Carrie White and the bloody prom night on which she sent 73 souls to meet their maker, Sue quickly discovers Rachel's telekinetic abilities and wants to prevent another tragedy like the one she endured from ever happening again.  Rachel is not terribly receptive to Sue's attempts to help her.  She goes to the institution where Rachel's mother is held to learn more about the girl.  She learns that Rachel's dad is Ralph White, the same man who fathered Carrie. Knowing of Rachel's family ties, Sue becomes even more frightened of what could happen if Rachel ever uses her abilities to harm herself or others.  Meanwhile, Rachel begins dating popular jock Jesse Ryan (Jason London), which really pisses off his ex-girlfriend Tracy Campbell (Charlotte Ayanna).  Tracy begins plotting to embarrass Rachel in a grand way at an upcoming party.

I've seen some bad horror movies in my time, but The Rage: Carrie 2 has to be one of the worst I've seen ever.  Playing on the far superior Carrie, the film completely taints the legacy of Carrie White.  The movie has a terrible screenplay fueled by this bizarre horror romance that's a misguided ode to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.  It also features horrendous performances with the cast delivering some of the cheesiest lines I've ever heard in a movie.  To make matters worse, director Katt Shea uses clips from Carrie for cheap pops.  All in all, The Rage: Carrie 2 is one of the worst examples of what happens when Hollywood tries to turn a horror icon into a cash cow.

If The Rage: Carrie 2 is a play on Romeo and Juliet, then Rachel and Jesse would be our star-crossed lovers tragically fated to never be together.  Rachel is an outcast, and Jesse is a jock.  Given the two different social camps to which they belong, they can never be together.  It's just not meant to be.  Maybe it's just me, but that sounds like utter crap.  Katt Shea should know that you don't mix this romantic nonsense with fright.  As Rachel unleashes hell on her classmates, romance shouldn't be in the air.  This is a horror movie where people get brutally murdered for our entertainment, not some warm and fuzzy romantic comedy.  The notion that Shakespeare could be blended with Stephen King is laughable.  It's just that bizarre and ridiculous.

The acting is no better.  The cast members mostly deliver rather distasteful performances.  For her part as Carrie's younger half-sister Rachel, Emily Bergl gives us less of a pariah and more of a strange cross between a hipster and a rocker chick.  She doesn't really give us a tormented soul ready to unleash her pain on the world in the most malicious way possible.  In a nutshell, Bergl is no Sissy Spacek.  For his part as her romantic interest, Jason London gives us a caricature of the typical pretty boy jock.  There's nothing remotely interesting about his character.  Reprising her role as Sue Snell, Amy Irving is once again that character trying to make things right.  She delivers a decent performance but serves as a constant reminder of the film's superior predecessor.  Lastly, we have Charlotte Ayanna as Tracy Campbell, or Chris Hargensen 2.0.  All I can say is that she is no Nancy Allen.  She brings nothing to the table as Jesse's bitter ex-girlfriend.

All in all, The Rage: Carrie 2 is one big fat reminder of why there's no need to make a sequel to a good horror movie.  Unless we're talking about undead slashers like Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers, the storyline is often too much of a stretch and just serves as the means by which legacies are tainted.  To this day, Carrie stands tall on its own in the canon of horror movies, but there will always be an asterisk next to the film noting that there was a horrendous sequel that hit theaters 23 years later.  The Rage: Carrie 2 gets a wasted rating.  Kamikaze shots should do the trick.