"The Rage" is a serious high school drama that includes the sub-theme of telekinesis and ends in utter, tragic horror.

The basic plot is the same as Stephen King's original, albeit with a stronger person as the title character. Hence, "The Rage" is essentially a more-modern remake as much as a sequel. In fact, it's not even necessary to see the original to appreciate it.

THE PLOT: A social outcast in high school slowly becomes aware that she has telekinetic abilities. These powers are unleashed with lethal fury when the popular kids pull a meanspirited prank on her.

WHAT WORKS: I'm glad "The Rage" doesn't have the creepy Pharisaical mother like in the original. This is one aspect that I couldn't stand about "Carrie." It (sort of) gave the impression that anyone who takes the teachings of Christianity seriously will become a warped, hideous, deathly, abusive killjoy like Carrie's mother. Actually, although there are indeed modern-day Pharisees in Christendom, nothing could be further from the truth. Authentic Christianity gives liberty, life and joy, not the opposite (see, for example, John 8:31-32, John 10:10 and 1 Peter 1:8). Don't take me wrong here, I'm not preachin' to you.

Emily Bergl plays Carrie's half-sister Rachel and she does it well. She's an outcast like Carrie but she's stronger, more confident and doesn't have a dream to fit in with the popular kids. One of the film's themes is: Does love really exist? Rachel says she doesn't believe in love. Her mother's in a mental institution. She's a foster child and her foster parents clearly only have her for the extra money, not because they love her.

Any teenager or adult can readily relate to the situations/issues addressed in the film:

• The common cliques: the "popular" crowd, oversexed jocks, snooty cheerleaders, rich kids and their parents, nerds, outcasts, etc. - Pre-mature sexual experience and the resulting emotional turmoil. - Suicide. - the spiritual emptiness of casual sex. - First love, true love. - Being attracted to or dating someone outside your social stratum. - Football, players, fandom and hardcore coaching antics. - Friendship, rivalry, fights. - Partying.

After the suicide of her only friend, Rachel has never felt more on the outside.

The one person who reached out to her, Jessie, also happens to be part of the popular crowd that lives to torment outsiders like her.

But Rachel has something else that separates her from the rest, a secret amazing ability to move things with her mind.

Sue Snell, the only survivor of Carrie White's rampage twenty-two years ago, may hold the key to helping Rachel come to terms with her awesome, but unwanted power.

But as Rachel slowly learns to trust, a terrible trap is being laid for her. And making her angry could prove to be fatal...

Take away the flashbacks and any reference to the original, then more people would have seen this, and i think the critics would have been a little fairer, because this isn't a bad movie.

It pretty much traces the same premise of the original, but giving it an 'emo/goth/indie' edge to attract the more 'cooler' people (a lot of music is talked about in this).

And it is reminisce of the high school movies of that year (she'sall that/The Faculty) all the characters of those movies are similar, and the leading actress hides a secret, and they have a same feel to them.

Must be the lighting or the fashion.

Bergl is great as Racheal, and this leads me to say again, why was it called Carrie 2? I'm guessing Raging Racheal didn't have the same ring.

Irving pops up as the person to fill in all the plot holes and London plays the love interest.

But this wouldn't be Carrie without the film living up to it's subtitle in the final act. It's gory and very graphic, and one poor guy loses his crown jewels to great effect.

There's the token big shock scare at the end, which you can see coming, but still makes you jump, and after you have seen this, expecting dirge, you say to yourself 'that wasn't that bad actually, it was quite good'.

So not brilliant, just a pleasant surprise.

An unnecessary sequel-cum-remake to De Palma's original which gets by thanks to the quality of the scripting and acting, surprisingly enough. It must be said that this movie can barely qualify as a "horror" movie and instead works better as a "teen drama" type film. The horror content is low, there are absolutely no scary scenes in it whatsoever, instead we get in-your-face gore to make up for the lack of chills. A large part of the film concerns the developing romance between the two lead characters which is delicately handled and faintly moving. Emily Bergl is no Sissy Spacek but makes for quite a strong lead, however the scriptwriter made her far too strong a character and able to fend for herself, whereas Spacek played a mentally troubled, physically inferior girl suffering from depression and isolation. Bergl instead has friends, a close boyfriend, is attractive and disliked by only a few at school. Where's the drama in that?

Where's the reason for the gory massacre that predictably closes the movie? The plot is definitely this movie's weak point. It strictly adheres to the original CARRIE, throwing off only a few different sub-plots (the 'high school sex ring leading to suicide' is a nice idea and makes for some suitably loathsome "jock" type characters as the villains). As the movie progresses it follows the original more and more slavishly, ending in a re-run of the massacre and even a ludicrous ending involving bad CGI work (London sees Bergl in a dream, and she shatters). Amy Irving returns from the original in a thankless role, and her character is totally extraneous to the plot. Quite a few scenes are devoted to her and Rachel's real mother, who is broken out of an asylum to come and see her daughter. At the end, it turns out that whole sub-plot was a waste of time.

Jason London (JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS) has a good solid role as the jock with a heart and the various high school cliché characters are fairly solid and hateable enough. Even a pre-stardom Mena Suvari makes a brief, tragic appearance, going from her ugly duckling character here to an angelic sexual character in American Beauty. One thing I didn't like about the film was the handling of the gore content, which was over-the-top and sometimes needless. Did we need to see the dog crushed under the wheels of a moving car? These scenes are ill-judged and rather loathsome. At least the finale is entertaining enough, where the gore content is upped and we are treated to all manner of bizarre (and deserved) deaths – decapitation, impaling by CDs, drowning, blinding and my favourite, unexpected castration. Although THE RAGE: CARRIE 2 is entertaining enough, it pales as a sequel to the original classic so one best ignore the first film ever happened to get a kick out of it. Otherwise you'll sit wondering just why they bothered.