The first time I saw The Rage: Carrie 2 was during an afternoon matinee. Considering how much I love Brian De Palma's original it's an understatement to tell you I was incredibly disappointed when I walked out into the early evening air. It just struck me as your typical teenage 90's horror flick that arrived in the wake of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, etc. and I had a hard time taking it for what it truly is: an entertaining sequel that has enough decent effects and moments to make you ignore the fact that it shouldn't of been made in the first place and that the scripts attempts to tie the two films together are stretching at best.

After a quick opening where a young girl's mother is painting the walls red and muttering "you can't have her" before being escorted off to the loony bin we're fast forwarded to your typical 90's high school (cue the hip soundtrack!) and meet the all-grown-up Rachel (Emily Bergl) who not only has to deal with her mother being in an asylum all this time but also the fact she has shitty foster parents and is an outcast amongst her peers.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Rachel has also been trying to hide her telekinetic abilities and soon has to deal with her best friend leaping to her death from the roof of the school after becoming a victim of the jocks and their cruel contest where they receive points for bedding female students. Cue Amy Irving reprising her role from the 1976 flick as Sue Snell who has now become a guidance counsellor and taken an interest in Rachel - of course, this also gives plentiful opportunity for flashbacks and a silly side trip to the mental hospital that offers tenuous ties to the original when we find out (not really a spoiler) that Rachel is Carrie's half-sister.

If we've learnt anything it's not to pick-on a girl with psychic powers but it doesn't take long for our asshole football players to begin harassing Rachel when she threatens to expose their little game. There's also weakly done attempts to make jock Jesse (Jason London) into a love interest as early moments of him longingly looking at her soon becomes more. However, this being a sequel to Carrie, the last 30 minutes move away from what's generally been a moderately watchable teen flick when Rachel unleashes vengeance at a house party giving us a finale that slings some impressive gore (I love the fireplace poker moment) before stumbling to a poor finish that tries to emulate De Palma's shock ending and fails badly - with terrible CG to boot.

While there's no chance that Bergl would (understandably) ever come close to Sissy Spacek's performance in the original she is pretty decent here and I was kind of rooting for her to do her worst to the jocks. London (Dazed and Confused) makes no real impression but that's probably because I didn't give a damn about Jesse and Rachel's fledging relationship or his character being the "voice of reason". It was definitely weird seeing Zachery Ty Bryan playing one of the heavily-drinking, rapey footballers considering I only remembered him as one of Tim Allen's sons on hit sitcom "Home Improvement". As for Irving, I kind of wish she wouldn't of reprised Sue.

In the hands of director Katt Shea, The Rage: Carrie 2 works a bit better than it deserves to. She uses some pretty stylish tricks to keep you involved and even has a small role as one of the District Attorneys. I found it incredibly interesting she was hired to make this in the first place considering she started her career acting in such b-movies as Barbarian Queen before directing the Stripped to Kill movies for Roger Corman. Then again, she also helmed the sleazily entertaining Poison Ivy starring Drew Barrymore in 1992.

If you can separate yourself from the original, you should have some fun with this one, as it sports decent effects/deaths, there's a completely bizarre moment where the football coach checks out the student's asses in class, and I really liked the choice of using jazz music during the montage of people getting ready for dates. I probably liked it better than the 2002 and 2013 remakes of Stephen King's novel that would follow, that from that what you will. (Chris Hartley, 7/26/15)

Directed By: Katt Shea.
Written By: Rafael Moreu.

Starring: Emily Bergl, Jason London, Dylan Bruno, J. Smith-Cameron.