The Rage: Carrie 2 movie review

The Rage: Carrie 2 came out in theaters in 1999, around the same time as many other teen horror movies, and teen movies in general seemed to be all the rage. This movie kinda blended in with all of the other teen movies of the time, and was really either forgotten about or just ignored at the time. The Rage: Carrie 2 is a direct sequel to the original movie, and even has some clips from the original. The movie stars the extremely beautiful Emily Bergl as Rachel, who is supposed to be Carrie White's half sister, same dad, different mother. Now this concept of the psychokinesis ability being passed down in the genes on the father's side is a concept that was actually introduced in Stephen King's novel, so I like that it pulls inspiration from the original source material, while at the same time being its own work. Additionally tying this movie to the original the character Sue, who felt remorese for bullying Carrie in the original and who talked her boyfriend into taking her to the prom to make up for it, is in this movie as well as the school counselor (played by Amy Irving, the same actress that played her in the original. The movie tells the story of Rachel, Carrie's half-sister, who is an outcast at school, and whose best friend kills herself early in the movie. She uncovers that her best friend killed herself because she was a victim of this plot by the football players to sleep with girls for "points" in a game that they are playing (this is actually based on real events that happened in 1993). Then one of the jocks actually falls for Rachel, and they end up dating (yes, I know we have seen this trope so many times in teen movies, where the popular jock dates the "loser" girl, and she has this transformation, and then it turns out that he was using her, then it turns out that he REALLY did fall for her). But the jocks who are being exposed and investigated by the cops, were going to go down, and they viewed Rachel to be to blame for it, so they set her up to get revenge on her...but we know how that turned out in Carrie. Okay, so this movie is just another teen movie, and feels uninspired and unoriginal. The movie is kind of a boring rehashing of the same general theme of the original. The actors all honestly seem boring stereotypes and basically the same looking characters as in all of these teen movies that came out during this time period. I mean for example you have two characters from American Pie in this movie Mina Suvari who plays Lisa, Rachel's best friend, and Eddie Kaye Thomas (who you would know as Finch from American Pie) as Rachel's friend Arnold another "loser" stereotype in the movie. Then you have this Brendan Frasier lookalike (Jason London) who played Jesse, the jock who fell in love with Rachel. And then the other generic looking jocks featuring Zachery Ty Bryan who was famous for being a kid in the television show Home Improvement, and a group of other generic jocks, one who looks like a Mark McGrath knock off. The thing is all of these characters are generic characters, there is nothing to make them unique or even to make them stand out from the characters in EVERY teen movie of the late 90s. The special effects, look cheesy at best, and honestly the practical effects of the original movie looked better and stand up better to the test of time. There is actually nothing really great about this movie. That being said this isn't actually a bad movie, it is just not great, and it is easily forgettable, and suffered from being too similar to every other teen movie of the era. It is almost like if The Faculty and American Pie had a child, it would be this. Oh bonus bit of info, John Doe from the legendary punk band X does play Rachel's abusive foster father, and honestly he does a damn good job at the role, and is kind of perfectly cast for it, not sure if that is redeeming the movie or not, but for fans of pun rock that is kinda cool! Also while talking about music, the sound track is kind of a fun trip through late 90's nu-metal, if that is your thing, and even a great ska song thrown in their for fun. Would I recommend this movie? Sure why not, it isn't bad, and it's cheesy quality is kinda fun to watch. I think that this movie can still be enjoyable, and can be a fun trip back in late 90's nostalgia. Also I gotta to admit I love seeing Emily Bergl as Rachel, I would be lying if I were to say I didn't have a huge crush on her when I first saw this movie, she looks so stunningly beautiful as an angsty goth girl, who has Marilyn Manson and White Zombie posters on her wall. If she went to my school I would have totally had a huge crush on her. But yeah, not a great movie, but also totally watchable, if not even a little fun to revisit from time to time.