31 Days of Guilty Pleasures – ‘The Rage: Carrie 2’

A few years ago I did a daily countdown to Halloween that featured some of my favorite scares from 31 different horror movies. This year I’m bringing back the feature, but this time we’re taking a look at some of my favorite guilty pleasures.

There’s no rhyme or reason to how these movies are being listed, so the placement on the countdown doesn’t denote any sort of ranking. Also, my definition of guilty pleasure is a movie that ranges from either being not very good to outright bad, but there’s something about it that still makes it endearing to watch.

If ever there was a movie that didn’t need a sequel it was probably “Carrie.”  The film wrapped itself up rather nicely with pretty much everyone ending up dead and no major plot threads being left untied up. But twenty-three years later someone cracked the code and figured out a genius way of making a sequel: give Carrie a half-sister.

In “The Rage” we learn that Carrie White’s father, Ralph White, had children with another woman and Rachel is the product of that union.  Apparently Ralph’s semen is just full of superpower energy and causes women to go crazy with religion as Rachel gets telekinetic powers like Carrie and her mother believes it’s the work of the devil. Just like Carrie’s mother!

In a lot of ways this film feels like a sequel in name only as it could easily just be a remake of the original story, but dealing with modern themes.  The main antagonists of the group are a bunch of dirtbag jocks who keep score of how many women they sleep with or what sort of sexual exploits they have.  They’re actually based on a real group from Lakewood, California that achieved infamy for doing the same thing although their actions may have included minors as well. The real life group was called “The Spur Posse” and like the group in “The Rage” they get away with a slap on the wrist.

Honestly this movie is still pretty relevant which is massively depressing.  The film does an admirable job of examining how people treat sex and use it destroy others.  In fact, the themes and acting isn’t where this movie falls part.  It’s the weird artistic choices, the cheesy implementation of Rachel’s powers, and the way it insists on injecting scenes of “Carrie.”  Take, for example, this scene.

This scene has it all.  You get a weird black and white scene of Rachel using her powers to smash a snowglobe and then a few random shots of the first “Carrie” just for good measure.

Then there’s the final which goes for insanely over the top gore to try and one up the originals chaotic finish. It’s completely bonkers.  People are being killed by CDs. It’s the most 90s way to kill a person.  Also notice in this scene they continue to use the weird effects.  It looks like something that would be in a music video, not a major motion picture.

Honestly if this didn’t have the Carrie elements this movie probably wouldn’t be so bad, but then it definitely wouldn’t be as memorable. I’ll leave you now with my favorite scene in the movie.  A scene in which someone’s eyes explode in glorious CG followed by the kid from “Home Improvement” having his penis shot off by a harpoon gun.  Classic cinema. Just like “Carrie.”