Editorials
‘The Rage: Carrie 2’ Twenty Five Years Later – A Feminist Retelling of a Horror Classic
If there’s ever been a classic horror film that doesn’t need a sequel, it’s Carrie. Stephen King’s debut novel was masterfully adapted into a 1976 film by Brian De Palma and quickly became a runaway hit. In fact it’s likely because of the film’s success that the prolific author so quickly became a household name. Published in 1974, the semi-epistolary novel follows Carrie White, a high school senior who’s spent her life taking abuse from her ultra-religious mother and savage classmates. Finally pushed too far, Carrie unleashes her telekinetic power with a fiery vengeance that lays waste to the cruel and kind alike. De Palma faithfully adapted King’s original novel to create a terrifying exploration of long-term abuse and self-defense gone terribly wrong. The image of Carrie (Sissy Spacek) covered in blood as she walks through a burning prom has become an indelible image in our collective consciousness and a prime example of Good For Her horror.
In the nearly fifty years since Carrie’s publication, King has become a prolific author with more than 70 books–and counting–to his name, but he’s never revisited his first tragic hero. De Palma’s film ends with a grotesque reminder that “Carrie White burns in hell,” but King concludes his novel with an ominous warning. A young Appalachian mother writes to her sister about her daughter’s strange habit of moving the toys in her crib just by looking at them, a hint that Carrie may not be the only one with this deadly gift. Twenty-five years later, director Katt Shea picked up the thread of this coda with the 1999 sequel The Rage: Carrie 2. King’s telekinetic heroine may be a distant memory for the next generation of Bates High School students, but the power she once used to kill her fellow classmates is about to erupt from another bullied girl.
Rachel (Emily Bergl) is a high school outcast living with a neglectful foster family while her mother receives residential treatment for schizophrenia. Her only friends in the world are a fellow loser named Lisa (Mena Suvari) and Walter, her beloved basset hound. When Lisa dies by suicide after horrific treatment from a popular jock named Eric (Zachery Ty Bryan), Rachel works with Ms. Snell (Amy Irving), the school’s guidance counselor, to find the reason for her tragic choice. A former classmate of Carrie White’s, Sue Snell recognizes telekinetic abilities in Rachel and worries that history might be destined to repeat itself. While grieving for her friend, Rachel sets her sights on revenge while reluctantly falling for a popular football player named Jesse (Jason London). But the jock’s callous friends won’t tolerate this divergence from social norms and vow to make Rachel their next target.
Perhaps it was inevitable that the decade that gave us teen meta slashers would also see a return to the most iconic high school horror film of all time. Fresh from directing the Drew Barrymore shocker Poison Ivy, Katt Shea (hurriedly replacing Afterschool Special veteran Robert Mandel) seemed like the perfect voice to bring the story to life. Nods to Wes Craven’s Scream, one-hour photo booths, Structure sweaters, and painful ska music playing on the quad immediately position this film as a late-90s time capsule. Jason London, then best known for his turn as Randall “Pink” Floyd in period classic Dazed and Confused, once again plays a conflicted football player, bridging the gap between 1976 and late 90s high school life.
The Rage: Carrie 2 released just five weeks before the Columbine High School massacre, a shocking tragedy that forever changed our understanding of high school violence. In the immediate aftermath of this horrific event, false rumors began to swirl about murderous outcasts targeting their popular bullies. The shooters’ true motive turned out to be much more random and broad, but it’s possible Shea’s film was still lurking in the zeitgeist as damaging narratives were taking shape. The similarly themed Idle Hands released just ten days after the notorious school shooting to dismal box office returns. This understandably poor showing combined with Shea’s fiery teen massacre to essentially end the late 90s cycle of teen horror films.
In addition to this devastating tragedy, The Rage: Carrie 2 represents the best and the worst of the decade. The teen angst is palpable and it’s refreshing to see issues like sexual harassment, statutory rape, and toxic masculinity treated with the seriousness they deserve. But homophobic language and a clumsy treatment of mental illness balance out the good and remind us how far we’ve come since this decade of bubblegum progressiveness. The film also has the effect of a feature length music video with bizarre black and white sequences appearing out of nowhere. Perhaps meant to be an edgy display of Rachel’s awesome powers, these segments feel like amateur experimentation and detract from what is otherwise a solidly composed film. Shea is also a bit too beholden to De Palma’s film and shoe-horns in a connection with Rachel’s mother (played by a pre-Succession J. Smith-Cameron). These tacked-on references feel awkward and forced, distracting us from Rachel’s relationships with Jesse and Sue.
The sequel also features a classic King villain reminiscent of Henry Bowers and Ace Merrill. Jesse’s best friend Mark (Dylan Bruno) has devised a point system he uses to chart his friends’ sexual conquests. Lisa was an early victim of this dehumanizing hobby and jumped off the school’s roof when she realized she was just another girl on Eric’s list. Though Mark is a villain through and through, Shea includes a scene in which an aggressive football coach orders him to strip in front of the team. This public shaming does not excuse any of his abhorrent behavior, but Shea implies a cycle of abuse and victimization dating back generations. Along with mean girl cheerleader Tracy (Charlotte Ayanna), Mark leads the bullying charge and inadvertently sparks Rachel’s deadly rage like Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen) did two decades before.
Unlike King’s original novel, a genuine love story takes center stage in this modern interpretation. Jesse becomes an updated version of both Sue and her boyfriend Tommy Ross (William Katt) who once sacrificed their own romantic evening to give Carrie the date of her dreams. Like Sue before him, this popular athlete also becomes disillusioned with his friends’ malevolent pranks, but has difficulty breaking away from a firmly established social hierarchy. Though eventually revealed to be Carrie’s half-sister, Rachel begins the film with more agency. She may have come from a troubled past, but unlike her unfortunate predecessor, Rachel’s life is not filled with abject misery. While Carrie is the story of an ugly duckling longing for acceptance, its sequel follows a confident but guarded girl struggling to trust anyone with her heart.
Shea’s film also marks the return of Amy Irving as Sue Snell. When last we saw the grieving senior she was clutching her mother in the aftermath of a brutal nightmare. Sue mentions spending time in the same mental health institution as Carrie’s mother, letting us know that the years since prom night have not been kind. A friend asks if her dedication to Rachel masks a need to save a girl that died twenty years ago and flashbacks to De Palma’s film reveal a woman still tormented with guilt. Sue takes Rachel to the burned out husk of the original school as a warning of what could happen if Rachel doesn’t seek help. Though Sue clearly fears Rachel’s power, she never blames Carrie for the tragedy. As both a counselor and a witness, she knows that Carrie was first a victim of extreme bullying and only lashed out with violence when she was pushed over the edge. Unfortunately, Sue gets sidetracked by a silly plot involving Carrie’s mother and is summarily discarded with a grisly and gratuitous death, an egregious waste of one of King’s most fascinating characters.
Though the film uses scenes from De Palma’s movie, the story is heavily indebted to King’s original novel. In addition to blatant Easter eggs–Jesse attends King’s University and Rachel chats with a nerd named Arnie (Eddie Kaye Thomas)–many sequences directly parallel moments from the book. Jesse has a revealing conversation about popularity moments after having sex in a car, mirroring a young Sue’s own ruminations over her part in the locker room prank. Like his literary counterpart, Jesse also questions his place in the social hierarchy and the self-loathing that accompanies being part of the popular crowd. Another scene feels like an echo of the tense standoff between Chris Hargensen’s father and Vice-Principal Morton. Unfortunately the modern version of this battle for accountability ends in disappointment. Facing charges of statutory rape, Eric and his father threaten to expose a number of the town’s prominent sons and succeed in getting all charges dismissed. The teen’s smirk when he realizes he’s going to get away scot-free makes us want to light our own worlds on fire.
This scene ends with the District Attorney prioritizing Eric’s bright future over the safety of the town’s young women–a disturbing precursor to the 2016 People v. Turner case and similar instances of campus sexual assault. It’s also an early example of revenge porn as Mark and his friends make a surreptitious sex tape they use to humiliate Rachel. In another unfortunate parallel, the dehumanizing game that sends Lisa to her death was inspired by a real incident from 1993. A group of athletes from Lakewood, CA, dubbed the “Spur Posse,” logged similar points for sexual conquests and terrorized their classmates and neighbors with harassment and assault. While De Palma’s bullies are extremely cruel, Shea updates the story to show the many ways women are victimized by a patriarchal society.
Though readily available on streaming platforms, The Rage: Carrie 2 has essentially been forgotten. Likely swallowed by standout genre entries of the era and an unprecedented tragedy in Colorado, it now exists as a lesser-known bookend to the 90s teen horror cycle. But the story doesn’t just stand on its own, it becomes more and more relevant as the years go by. Though dated on its surface and known for its glorious Death by CD kill, Shea’s film explores the ways young women suffer in an abusive system and the toxic masculinity that warps the minds of high school boys–problems we’re still facing twenty-five years later. Much more than a silly sequel to a legendary film, The Rage: Carrie 2 is a feminist retelling of one of the greatest revenge stories of all time.
Listen to Jenn discuss The Rage: Carrie 2 further on The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast:
Soon after the New Hollywood generation took over the entertainment industry, they started having children. And more than any filmmakers that came before—they were terrified. Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), The Omen (1976), Eraserhead (1977), The Brood (1979), The Shining (1980), Possession (1981), and many others all deal, at least in part, with the fears of becoming or being a parent. What if my child turns out to be a monster? is corrupted by some evil force? or turns out to be the fucking Antichrist? What if I screw them up somehow, or can’t help them, or even go insane and try to kill them? Horror has always been at its best when exploring relatable fears through extreme circumstances. A prime example of this is Larry Cohen’s 1974 monster-baby movie It’s Alive, which explores the not only the rollercoaster of emotions that any parent experiences when confronted with the difficulties of raising a child, but long-standing questions of who or what is at fault when something goes horribly wrong.
Cohen begins making his underlying points early in the film as Frank Davis (John P. Ryan) discusses the state of the world with a group of expectant fathers in a hospital waiting room. They discuss the “overabundance of lead” in foods and the environment, smog, and pesticides that only serve to produce roaches that are “bigger, stronger, and harder to kill.” Frank comments that this is “quite a world to bring a kid into.” This has long been a discussion point among people when trying to decide whether to have kids or not. I’ve had many conversations with friends who have said they feel it’s irresponsible to bring children into such a violent, broken, and dangerous world, and I certainly don’t begrudge them this. My wife and I did decide to have children but that doesn’t mean that it’s been easy.
Immediately following this scene comes It’s Alive’s most famous sequence in which Frank’s wife Lenore (Sharon Farrell) is the only person left alive in her delivery room, the doctors clawed and bitten to death by her mutant baby, which has escaped. “What does my baby look like!? What’s wrong with my baby!?” she screams as nurses wheel her frantically into a recovery room. The evening that had begun with such joy and excitement at the birth of their second child turned into a nightmare. This is tough for me to write, but on some level, I can relate to this whiplash of emotion. When my second child was born, they came about five weeks early. I’ll use the pronouns “they/them” for privacy reasons when referring to my kids. Our oldest was still very young and went to stay with my parents and we sped off to the hospital where my wife was taken into an operating room for an emergency c-section. I was able to carry our newborn into the NICU (natal intensive care unit) where I was assured that this was routine for all premature births. The nurses assured me there was nothing to worry about and the baby looked big and healthy. I headed to where my wife was taken to recover to grab a few winks assuming that everything was fine. Well, when I awoke, I headed back over to the NICU to find that my child was not where I left them. The nurse found me and told me that the baby’s lungs were underdeveloped, and they had to put them in a special room connected to oxygen tubes and wires to monitor their vitals.
It’s difficult to express the fear that overwhelmed me in those moments. Everything turned out okay, but it took a while and I’m convinced to this day that their anxiety struggles spring from these first weeks of life. As our children grew, we learned that two of the three were on the spectrum and that anxiety, depression, ADHD, and OCD were also playing a part in their lives. Parents, at least speaking for myself, can’t help but blame themselves for the struggles their children face. The “if only” questions creep in and easily overcome the voices that assure us that it really has nothing to do with us. In the film, Lenore says, “maybe it’s all the pills I’ve been taking that brought this on.” Frank muses aloud about how he used to think that Frankenstein was the monster, but when he got older realized he was the one that made the monster. The aptly named Frank is wondering if his baby’s mutation is his fault, if he created the monster that is terrorizing Los Angeles. I have made plenty of “if only” statements about myself over the years. “If only I hadn’t had to work so much, if only I had been around more when they were little.” Mothers may ask themselves, “did I have a drink, too much coffee, or a cigarette before I knew I was pregnant? Was I too stressed out during the pregnancy?” In other words, most parents can’t help but wonder if it’s all their fault.
At one point in the film, Frank goes to the elementary school where his baby has been sighted and is escorted through the halls by police. He overhears someone comment about “screwed up genes,” which brings about age-old questions of nature vs. nurture. Despite the voices around him from doctors and detectives that say, “we know this isn’t your fault,” Frank can’t help but think it is, and that the people who try to tell him it isn’t really think it’s his fault too. There is no doubt that there is a hereditary element to the kinds of mental illness struggles that my children and I deal with. But, and it’s a bit but, good parenting goes a long way in helping children deal with these struggles. Kids need to know they’re not alone, a good parent can provide that, perhaps especially parents that can relate to the same kinds of struggles. The question of nature vs. nurture will likely never be entirely answered but I think there’s more than a good chance that “both/and” is the case. Around the midpoint of the film, Frank agrees to disown the child and sign it over for medical experimentation if caught or killed. Lenore and the older son Chris (Daniel Holzman) seek to nurture and teach the baby, feeling that it is not a monster, but a member of the family.
It’s Alive takes these ideas to an even greater degree in the fact that the Davis Baby really is a monster, a mutant with claws and fangs that murders and eats people. The late ’60s and early ’70s also saw the rise in mass murderers and serial killers which heightened the nature vs. nurture debate. Obviously, these people were not literal monsters but human beings that came from human parents, but something had gone horribly wrong. Often the upbringing of these killers clearly led in part to their antisocial behavior, but this isn’t always the case. It’s Alive asks “what if a ‘monster’ comes from a good home?” In this case is it society, environmental factors, or is it the lead, smog, and pesticides? It is almost impossible to know, but the ending of the film underscores an uncomfortable truth—even monsters have parents.
As the film enters its third act, Frank joins the hunt for his child through the Los Angeles sewers and into the L.A. River. He is armed with a rifle and ready to kill on sight, having divorced himself from any relationship to the child. Then Frank finds his baby crying in the sewers and his fatherly instincts take over. With tears in his eyes, he speaks words of comfort and wraps his son in his coat. He holds him close, pats and rocks him, and whispers that everything is going to be okay. People often wonder how the parents of those who perform heinous acts can sit in court, shed tears, and defend them. I think it’s a complex issue. I’m sure that these parents know that their child has done something evil, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are still their baby. Your child is a piece of yourself formed into a whole new human being. Disowning them would be like cutting off a limb, no matter what they may have done. It doesn’t erase an evil act, far from it, but I can understand the pain of a parent in that situation. I think It’s Alive does an exceptional job placing its audience in that situation.
Despite the serious issues and ideas being examined in the film, It’s Alive is far from a dour affair. At heart, it is still a monster movie and filled with a sense of fun and a great deal of pitch-black humor. In one of its more memorable moments, a milkman is sucked into the rear compartment of his truck as red blood mingles with the white milk from smashed bottles leaking out the back of the truck and streaming down the street. Just after Frank agrees to join the hunt for his baby, the film cuts to the back of an ice cream truck with the words “STOP CHILDREN” emblazoned on it. It’s a movie filled with great kills, a mutant baby—created by make-up effects master Rick Baker early in his career, and plenty of action—and all in a PG rated movie! I’m telling you, the ’70s were wild. It just also happens to have some thoughtful ideas behind it as well.
Which was Larry Cohen’s specialty. Cohen made all kinds of movies, but his most enduring have been his horror films and all of them tackle the social issues and fears of the time they were made. God Told Me To (1976), Q: The Winged Serpent (1982), and The Stuff (1985) are all great examples of his socially aware, low-budget, exploitation filmmaking with a brain and It’s Alive certainly fits right in with that group. Cohen would go on to write and direct two sequels, It Lives Again (aka It’s Alive 2) in 1978 and It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive in 1987 and is credited as a co-writer on the 2008 remake. All these films explore the ideas of parental responsibility in light of the various concerns of the times they were made including abortion rights and AIDS.
Fifty years after It’s Alive was initially released, it has only become more relevant in the ensuing years. Fears surrounding parenthood have been with us since the beginning of time but as the years pass the reasons for these fears only seem to become more and more profound. In today’s world the conversation of the fathers in the waiting room could be expanded to hormones and genetic modifications in food, terrorism, climate change, school and other mass shootings, and other threats that were unknown or at least less of a concern fifty years ago. Perhaps the fearmongering conspiracy theories about chemtrails and vaccines would be mentioned as well, though in a more satirical fashion, as fears some expectant parents encounter while endlessly doomscrolling Facebook or Twitter. Speaking for myself, despite the struggles, the fears, and the sadness that sometimes comes with having children, it’s been worth it. The joys ultimately outweigh all of that, but I understand the terror too. Becoming a parent is no easy choice, nor should it be. But as I look back, I can say that I’m glad we made the choice we did.
I wonder if Frank and Lenore can say the same thing.
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