The ‘90s often get a bad rap with horror fans. After the numerous successful slashers and creature effects films of ‘80s, the ‘90s offered a different variety of horror fare. Though there were plenty of hits, hidden gems, and misunderstood classics, the ‘90s usually don’t get the kind of love that other decades get when it comes to horror. It’s time to change that.
Making a sequel to a classic film is always a huge risk. It’s tough to add a new chapter to a story without feeling beholden to what came before, but also forging things ahead in a new direction. A lot of sequels opt for a simpler (and often less effective) approach: make the same movie again but change enough elements so that it feels different without actually being different.
Unfortunately, The Rage: Carrie 2 takes this route and does suffer for it. The story is centered around another socially awkward high school girl who develops telekinesis and uses it to get revenge on her fellow schoolmates during a climactic party. The main story beats are identical to Brian De Palma’s 1976 adaptation of Stephen King’s novel. It doesn’t help that The Rage: Carrie 2 inserts footage from the first film and even has Amy Irving return as Sue Snell, Carrie’s old friend and survivor of her prom night massacre. These direct connections to Carrie are easily the weakest aspects of the sequel.
But we shouldn’t judge a sequel solely on its status as a sequel. We also need to look at sequels as their own singular experiences. And on its own merits, The Rage: Carrie 2 is actually pretty damn good. Originally intended to be a non-Carrie connected story called The Curse, it was eventually rewritten to act as a follow-up to the De Palma film. Exactly what originally elements of The Curse remain in The Rage: Carrie 2 isn’t clear, but what is clear is that the story was inspired by a real-life incident involving a group of high school boys known as the Spur Posse. This group assaulted underage women and catalogued their sex acts with a points system.
The Rage: Carrie 2 uses this real world event as the driving force towards building its villains. It overwhelmingly works in making us despise these privileged football players that view women only as sexual conquests. We also see how these young men are given preferential treatment by the legal system over the women they’ve abused. It’s hard not to see parallels with our culture’s current struggles with sexual misconduct and assault, and it’s worth giving The Rage: Carrie 2 recognition for using its platform to bring these kinds of horrific events to the forefront.
Even without this political slant, The Rage: Carrie 2 is full of charms that genre and film fans should get a kick out of. Director Katt Shea — who stepped into production after Robert Mandel left the project a few weeks into shooting — has a great eye for scene transitions and an even better one when it comes to scope. Two standout shots in the film are: a crane shot that reveals the burned remains of Carrie’s high school, and a low angle trucking shot during the fiery conclusion of the film (which does feature an obvious stunt double, but it’s still a killer shot).
And the bloodbath ending delivers with a number of thoroughly enjoyable kills. We get murder by flying CDs, glasses exploding into eyes, an awesome double head impaling (which does senselessly claim the life of Sue Snell), and a castration by speargun that is one of the best gore gags ever. Watch the YouTube clip above to see some of the nutty fun this flick has to offer. Even if some folks just don’t want to get in this film’s corner, we should all be able to admit how much of a blast this finale is.
If that wasn’t enough to sway you on The Rage: Carrie 2, nothing probably will. That’s a shame because this film doesn’t deserve your ire. It’s got a righteous anger in its heart, a strong directorial eye, a killer climax, and isn’t nearly as bad as its reputation makes it out to be. And if all that doesn’t convince you to give this a chance, this is a film where two characters discuss the coolness of the band Garbage. Any ‘90s fan has to give that props.
