The Rage: Carrie 2 (Film Review)

1999 United Artists
Directed by:Katt Shea; Written by: Rafael Moreu
Starring: Emily Bergl, Jason London, Dylan Bruno, J. Smith-Cameron, Zachery Tyler Bryan, and Amy Irving
MPAA Rating: R; Runtime: 105 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 3/10

When she's just a little girl, Rachel witnesses her mother have a mental breakdown and get dragged off to an asylum. Her mom claims, screaming as she's dragged into the paddywagon (if I'm Irish, is it okay to say "paddywagon?") that Rachel has telekinetic powers and is possessed. Rachel bounces around from crappy foster home to crappy foster home for a while, and now she's in high school, surrounded by the most awful kids on the planet. The guys are almost all the most evil dumb jock stereotypes imaginable, and the girls almost all evil...is there a nicer word for "bitches?" If not, then they're almost all bitches. The girls are almost all bitches. Anyway, Rachel's friend, Lisa, is one of the few students to not be a self-absorbed psycho, until she sleeps with one of the dumb evil jocks, is mocked by the dumb evil jock, and then jumps off the school to her death. Now, Lisa is alone, at least until she meets Jesse. Jesse is one of the jocks--maybe the only jock to not seem dumb and evil. But is Jesse genuine? Whatever the case, it's a good thing that he finds the ending of Romeo and Juliet to be a triumph and not a tragedy. And what about the rumors of Lisa's half-sister...I can't remember her name...what is it...I think it rhymes with Larry?
After watching 1999's The Rage: Carrie 2, all I can think is, This movie had more than a $20 million budget?! From the Lifetime movie keyboard musical score, to the Lifetime movie production values, to the fact that the only recognizable stars are Mena Suvari for five minutes, one of the kids from Home Improvement, Steven Spielberg's ex-wife, and for maybe two minutes, that kid from American Pie who had sex with Stifler's mom. I don't understand where the money went. There had to have been some laundering going on here. Other than a gore overload in the last ten minutes--the only reason to watch this--this is your average made for television film. Director, Katt Shea, was brought in very late to this project, so it's understandable that the film is not great, but some of Shea's choices here are baffling. From the artless way certain moments are shot, to the weird and unsatisfactory way she switches to black-and-white sometimes when Rachel exhibits her supernatural powers, Shea feels out of her depth.
Of course, there's not much Shea can do with the goofy script, which was mandated to loop in the 1976 Carrie film in a way that brings in a tone of direct-to-VHS sequel to the television film vibes. Again, this is a $20 million plus budgeted feature film that played in movie theaters worldwide. However, The Rage: Carrie 2 does have a few positive attributes. 

In the central role, Emily Bergl is excellent. While not conventionally attractive enough to become a major star (in the way the vast majority of people on Earth aren't conventionally attractive enough to become a major star), Bergl's vulnerable, likeable performance here obviously caught some eyes, as she's worked consistently ever since. As her star-crossed lover, Jason London isn't quite on Bergl's level, but he's still quite good in the film. However, the main reason to ever watch The Rage: Carrie 2 is the climax, which finally acts upon the title of the film. It is shot a bit clumsily in places (especially when Shea goes to the black-and-white), but Richard Nord, who edited 1993's The Fugitive, does solid work cutting everything together, and there are some fairly insane kills here, including a late scene double-kill that's one of the gnarliest I've ever seen. If you don't mind the low production values and lousy script, The Rage is worth watching just for Bergl and the film-ending carnage.