#katt shea

[uspiria]

The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) dir. Katt Shea

[lobbycards]

The Rage: Carrie 2, Spanish lobby card. 1992

[whynot-movies]

Rescued by Ruby (2022)

[carygrant]

Katt Shea’s Poison Ivy (1992)

[oldfilmsflicker]

new-to-me #539 - Stripped to Kill 2: Live Girls

[oocstephenkingtv]

The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) Directed by Katt Shea / Carrie (2013) Directed by Kimberly Peirce

[dollyread]

Starr Andreeff as JODI in DANCE OF THE DAMNED (1989) dir. Katt Shea

[apicturespeaks]

The Rage: Carrie 2, Katt Shea

[jiz-henry]

[uspiria]

The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) dir. Katt Shea

[lobbycards]

The Rage: Carrie 2, Spanish lobby card. 1992

[rye-views]

The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) dir. Katt Shea. 7.4/10

I would not recommend this movie to my friends. I would not rewatch this movie.

This high school is so chaotic. These boys are so disgusting. God, these teenagers are so reckless with their lives. How is anyone alive?

Noo Walter!! Why did i have to see him roll under the car? Poor Sue.

Jesse confronting Mark in the locker room, all respect. Good work.

Yo, the glasses break to penis harpooning was kinda baller.

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

Why someone would make a sequel to 1976’s Carrie 23 years after the original, I don't know. Even if this had been released at the right time (if such a thing as a right time existed) this is a lazily-conceived, badly made film. The climax is more likely to leave you in hysterics than shivering in terror.

In 1999, outcast Rachel (Emily Bergl) hates life at home thanks to her unloving foster parents. After her best friend Lisa (Mena Suvari) commits suicide, Rachel learns a popular football jock, Eric (Zachery Ty Bryan), feigned love for the dead girl so he could sleep with and then dump her to impress his friends. All the football players are partaking in this game, even the seemingly sweet Jesse (Jason London), on whom Rachel has a crush.

I've omitted two details about this plot to show you how much of a sequel to Carrie it isn’t. The entire film could easily play out without these, leading me to believe (though I can’t prove it) it was written as some other movie and then reworked to tie into the 1976 Brian De Palma film. Technically, The Rage is a follow-up. Amy Irving returns as Sue Snell, now an adult guidance counsellor for Rachel's school. That’s a detail. The real reason this is “a sequel”? Rachel. The young woman has the the same telekinetic powers as Carrie did. With that said, I bet you can predict the entire movie now. The film’s villains are essentially the Spur Posse. Rachel’s going to fall in love with one of them, they’ll have sex, his buddies will ruin everything by telling Rachel it was all a facade, unleashing her titular rage upon them. Cue the blood bath until TRAGEDY! Turns out the love was real. Too bad loads of people are now dead. Too bad for Rachel, I mean. We couldn’t care less about the teens who bit the dust.

While it would’ve left you feeling like you just took a bath in a bucket of grease, this picture might’ve sucessfully told its revenge plot if it had played things smartly. You instantly hate the bad guys so you’re somewhat endeared to Rachel. Unfortunately, writer Rafael Moreau and director Katt Shea fumble this project. Over and over, we're shown clips of the 1976 film. What do they mean? Rachel wasn’t there. These aren’t her memories. Sue wasn’t there either - she left the deadly party before the carnage began. They're included to assure us that there will be blood later and because this film knows otherwise, everyone would leave. While we wait, the picture goes into needless details about Rachel’s powers, explaining their origin in a way that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Picture this. Rachel is going to the jock’s post-graduation party. They’re getting ready to dump this film’s equivalent of a bucket of blood on her when they broadcast the secret footage of her and Jesse having sex for everyone to see. Counsellor Sue has been picking away at this nagging feeling that something’s not right with the teenager. She’s found the girl’s insane mother, broken her out of Arkham Asylum and is bringing her to the party so Rachel can understand why she has mutant powers. As they approach the door, Rachel hurls a fire poker at a schoolmate, impaling him through the head. In the process, she kills Sue. The woman’s death is accidental so it doesn’t tell us anything about how intensely Rachel’s rage burns. Left to her own devices, mom barges into the chaotic house to explain to her daughter what’s happening. Too bad the characters haven’t spoken in 13 years. They're lucky they knew who was who! The exchange that follows means NOTHING because their connection isn't emotional, it's technical.

No fan of the original Carrie could watch The Rage and be satisfied with it. No one who hasn’t seen the original should watch this movie instead. The Rage: Carrie 2 is a picture without an audience. It’s got some unintentionally funny moments towards the end when the gore and violence are supposed to appall us but you’ll have checked out long before then. (On VHS, March 5, 2020)

[oldfilmsflicker]

new-to-me #541 - Sharing the Secret

[movie-titlecards]

Barbarian Queen (1985)

My rating: 3/10

Perhaps someday I will find a swords & sorcery movie that is not 95% rape and tedium. Today, it seems, is not that day.

[dollyread]

Starr Andreeff as JODI in DANCE OF THE DAMNED (1989) dir. Katt Shea