CARRIE 2: THE RAGE

"If you’ve seen the original Carrie, the climax of this late sequel is obvious from the opening scene. And that’s the problem with this effort. We wait. And wait. We know what our protagonist will do when provoked. We know that the provocation will come in the form of taunting by ‘the cool kids’. We know that when she’s pushed to breaking point, we’ll see terrible telekinetic devastation and just wonder what the effects boffins of the nineties can do that was not possible twenty years ago. The answer is lots, but then we already knew that so really, what’s the point? Sure the original Carrie was as formulaic as this one, but it had three pretty important ingredients that this one is lacking: the fine performance of Sissy Spacek, the imaginative direction of Brian DePalma, and the assured plotting of Stephen King. Emily Bergl gives a solid performance, but she doesn’t yet have what it takes to carry (sorry) a film over bad dialogue and predictable scenes. Director Katt Shea (Poison Ivy) has given us a visual construction which is no more imaginative than that which would have been done by a high school filmmaker. Perhaps this is a clever move given the intended audience. But she did need to provide us with a much tighter narrative for the film to have any chance of surprising. That said, the film does have a very positive spin in its portrayal of the central female character. She is not a wimp. She takes responsibility for her own actions and her own life. And her behaviour is never informed by the need to have the right boy in her life. A most redeeming feature in this otherwise forgettable teen horror flick."
Lee Gough

"Two decades after Brian De Palma's chilling and visually striking Carrie, comes this inferior sequel, or rather remake. Despite the new film's tenuous links with the original, The Rage ultimately delivers more of the same: the idea of the outsider who ultimately is forced to wreak havoc on those who torment her. The film is another teen slasher film, which takes itself far too seriously. A routine script by Rafael Moreu contains some interesting thematic comments; yet again, they seem hackneyed and contrived. For those familiar with the genre, we know high school kids can be relentlessly cruel, and we hope they will be ultimately dealt with. Characterisation is a little more even-handed here than in the first movie, which does, to the film's credit, make us care more about what happens to Rachel's contemptible tormentors. But in the scheme of things, there seemed no reason to make this film, it's such an irrelevancy and insignificant. The film's fundamental mistake is showing flashbacks of the original, at which time one is reminded how superb and arresting the original film was."
Paul Fischer