#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

[brokehorrorfan]

Dance with Death and Dance of the Damned have been released on Blu-ray together via Scream Factory. Limited to 1,500, the double feature is available for $29.98 exclusively from Shout Factory.

Dance with Death is a 1992 serial killer thriller directed by Charles Philip Moore (Demon Wind) and written by Daryl Haney (Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood). Maxwell Caulfield, Barbara Alyn Woods, and Martin Mull star.

Dance of the Damned is a 1989 vampire film directed by Katt Shea (The Rage: Carrie 2, Poison Ivy) from a script she co-wrote with Andy Ruben (Poison Ivy). Starr Andreeff and Cyril O'Reilly star.

Dance with Death has been newly mastered in 4K from the original camera negative with DTS-HD Master Audio Mono, while Dance of the Damned has been newly scanned in 2K from the only surviving film print DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo.

Both films are executive produced by Roger Corman. The only special features are trailers.

Special features:

Dance with Death trailer

Dance of the Damned trailer

In order to investigate a serial killer stalking the dancers at a strip club, a society reporter must go to the darkest places her journalistic career has ever taken her in Dance with Death.

Dance of the Damned is a sensual and supernatural tale of a vampire drawn to Jodi, a suicidal dancer. Together, they cross the unspeakable boundaries that separate the living and the undead.

[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

[mariocki]

The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999)

"It must be nice not having to be like everybody else."

"It's not so great."

[dollyread]

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