Granted that The Rage: Carrie 2 was a movie that didn't need to be made and granted that The Rage: Carrie 2 is inferior to the original in every single possible way, it still isn't a horrible film. Stephen King wrote a nifty novel that really put its finger on something about teenage girls -- or rathere, more appropriately, something about why men fear teenage girls. Brian DePalma and Sissy Spacek were the perfect pair to bring his vision to the screen. But under the appropriately exploitative direction of Katt Shea, some of the basic elements of the plot remain emotionally effective.
Actually, the basic elements of the plot are strikingly similar. In fact, you kind of get the impression that writer Rafael Moreu basically rewrote the original and then had to change a few things. The prom becomes a post-football party. The boyfriend goes from the awesome William Katt and his curly waist length hair to the blandly innocuous Jason London. Instead of Betty Buckley's gym teacher trying in vain to help the telekinetic teen, we get the return of Sue Snell (Amy Irving) whose nightmare at the end of the original is one of cinema's great "gotcha" moments. But basically, Moreu respects the story arcs of the original.
Ugly-duckling Rachel Lang (newcomer Emily Bergl) has secret powers that she can't control in moments of rage. She's a bit of an outcast, but she has a couple friends, including pre-American Pie Mena Suvari and Eddie Kay Thomas. But we quickly find out that the football players at their school has a sortta "Spur Posse" thing going where they bed girls and get a seemingly arbitrary number of points for each girl. When Suvari falls victim to one of the jocks and kills herself, Rachel is alone. Oh, and did I mention that Rachel's mother is locked up and insane and that her father... Well, let's just say Rachel has some connections to that ultimate high school pariah Carrie White. Seeing the opportunity to correct history, Sue Snell tries to do for Rachel what she couldn't do for Carrie. And in the process gives an absolutely ridiculous lecture to her about telekinesis being a recessive hereditary condition... And you just know that when all the kids are talking about a big party... something bad just might happen.
On one hand, Katt Shea is the perfect person to direct this movie. Shea is a master of trash cinema (Poison Ivy and Stripped to Kill are career highlights). She milks her camera angles and swirling moves for all she's worth. Echoing and correcting DePalma's classic girl's locker room scene from the original, she manages to set three different scenes in the men's football locker room. But to keep the guys interested, she makes sure that Rachel, being taunted by evil football players, for some reason chooses to answer the door in a towel. Shea also milks the violence for all she's worth, unblinkingly depicting several versions of bloody carnage. Still, she's no DePalma. No matter how fancy her moves, she can't achieve the operatic carnage the steered the last thirty minutes of Carrie.
As our new fashion misfit, Emily Bergl is sensitive and meek in early scenes, but she's probably too attractive. The film lacks the wonderful moment of revelation where we discovered that even homely Sissy Spacek could be beautiful. Despite the fact that she was 23 when the film was made, she actually looks like a high school student. The same can't be said for Jason London, who looks every bit of thirty. Ditto Dylan Bruno who plays Rachel's principle torturer. In fact, the females all look the right age and the men all look like yuppies. It makes for a strange mix.
The film also suffers from a lack of interesting adult roles. Buckley was fine in the original, but Piper Laurie's terrifying presence is missing. You know it's missing because Laurie's famous "They're all going to laugh at you" is sampled several times in this new film.
For its first hour The Rage works by making you sympathize with Rachel. You know where the story's going, so the pathos kicks in early. Shea keeps the pace moving well during that time. But as the film approaches its big bloody climax nothing seems exactly right. You miss the endless circling of Katt and Spacek at the prom. You miss Nancy Allen's evil glee (totally lacking in Rachel Blanchard and Charlotte Ayanna in this movie). So the final result just isn't satisfying enough.
As a final note, I'd like to make a plea to all teen movie writers: That scene where the students are in English class and a blow-hard teacher is lecturing them on a book that just happens to have the same theme as the movie they're in? It's a dramatic crutch that suggests you don't have enough intelligence to make points on your own. So the teacher in The Rage is babbling about Romeo and Juliet and London and Bergl have a moment. Are we supposed to believe that they're star-crossed lovers? "She's telekinetic. He's boring. Will they find love?" That's just lame. This movie, though, isn't better than a 5/10.
Actually, the basic elements of the plot are strikingly similar. In fact, you kind of get the impression that writer Rafael Moreu basically rewrote the original and then had to change a few things. The prom becomes a post-football party. The boyfriend goes from the awesome William Katt and his curly waist length hair to the blandly innocuous Jason London. Instead of Betty Buckley's gym teacher trying in vain to help the telekinetic teen, we get the return of Sue Snell (Amy Irving) whose nightmare at the end of the original is one of cinema's great "gotcha" moments. But basically, Moreu respects the story arcs of the original.
Ugly-duckling Rachel Lang (newcomer Emily Bergl) has secret powers that she can't control in moments of rage. She's a bit of an outcast, but she has a couple friends, including pre-American Pie Mena Suvari and Eddie Kay Thomas. But we quickly find out that the football players at their school has a sortta "Spur Posse" thing going where they bed girls and get a seemingly arbitrary number of points for each girl. When Suvari falls victim to one of the jocks and kills herself, Rachel is alone. Oh, and did I mention that Rachel's mother is locked up and insane and that her father... Well, let's just say Rachel has some connections to that ultimate high school pariah Carrie White. Seeing the opportunity to correct history, Sue Snell tries to do for Rachel what she couldn't do for Carrie. And in the process gives an absolutely ridiculous lecture to her about telekinesis being a recessive hereditary condition... And you just know that when all the kids are talking about a big party... something bad just might happen.
On one hand, Katt Shea is the perfect person to direct this movie. Shea is a master of trash cinema (Poison Ivy and Stripped to Kill are career highlights). She milks her camera angles and swirling moves for all she's worth. Echoing and correcting DePalma's classic girl's locker room scene from the original, she manages to set three different scenes in the men's football locker room. But to keep the guys interested, she makes sure that Rachel, being taunted by evil football players, for some reason chooses to answer the door in a towel. Shea also milks the violence for all she's worth, unblinkingly depicting several versions of bloody carnage. Still, she's no DePalma. No matter how fancy her moves, she can't achieve the operatic carnage the steered the last thirty minutes of Carrie.
As our new fashion misfit, Emily Bergl is sensitive and meek in early scenes, but she's probably too attractive. The film lacks the wonderful moment of revelation where we discovered that even homely Sissy Spacek could be beautiful. Despite the fact that she was 23 when the film was made, she actually looks like a high school student. The same can't be said for Jason London, who looks every bit of thirty. Ditto Dylan Bruno who plays Rachel's principle torturer. In fact, the females all look the right age and the men all look like yuppies. It makes for a strange mix.
The film also suffers from a lack of interesting adult roles. Buckley was fine in the original, but Piper Laurie's terrifying presence is missing. You know it's missing because Laurie's famous "They're all going to laugh at you" is sampled several times in this new film.
For its first hour The Rage works by making you sympathize with Rachel. You know where the story's going, so the pathos kicks in early. Shea keeps the pace moving well during that time. But as the film approaches its big bloody climax nothing seems exactly right. You miss the endless circling of Katt and Spacek at the prom. You miss Nancy Allen's evil glee (totally lacking in Rachel Blanchard and Charlotte Ayanna in this movie). So the final result just isn't satisfying enough.
As a final note, I'd like to make a plea to all teen movie writers: That scene where the students are in English class and a blow-hard teacher is lecturing them on a book that just happens to have the same theme as the movie they're in? It's a dramatic crutch that suggests you don't have enough intelligence to make points on your own. So the teacher in The Rage is babbling about Romeo and Juliet and London and Bergl have a moment. Are we supposed to believe that they're star-crossed lovers? "She's telekinetic. He's boring. Will they find love?" That's just lame. This movie, though, isn't better than a 5/10.