" there's nothing new under the sun " is a phrase often used when the speaker actually means " let's find something to copy . " of course there are very few completely original ideas . even earth-shattering concepts are built upon the vast body of human experience . there is , after all , no need to re-invent the wheel time after time . recently it seems that hollywood doesn't feel the need to even re-write the script . my understanding of the word " sequel " is a continuation of the story . the film industry has defined the word to mean reshooting the original with minor changes . have an overwhelming desire to see an inferior version of brian depalma's adaptation of the steven king novel ? this is your dream come true . rachel ( emily bergl ) , a high school outcast , is beginning to notice weird things happening around her . doors slam shut by themselves . glass globes blow up . her mother has severe mental problems and her father is absent . a popular boy unexpectedly asks her out . the in-crowd conspires to embarrass her at a public event . any of this sound familiar ? once the audience catches on that this is the same story as " carrie " , there's little to do but wait for the inevitable ending . the effects are a bit better this time around , but the film doesn't work nearly as well . there are a couple of minor plot differences . rachel lives with foster parents because her mother is institutionalized . the boys at her school are portrayed as even more evil than in the original . they keep score of their scoring with points given for each conquest . and , uh , there must be other story changes but none stand out . one nice touch is the casting of amy irving again as sue snell . over 20 years ago she was the one girl who tried to help carrie . now a high school counselor , she befriends rachel , but her character's potential is squandered . there's too much about sue that doesn't make sense . after the slaughter when carrie kills most of her classmates , sue is driven mad and spends time in the institution that rachel's mother is in . still living in the same small town , the woman with a well-known history of mental problems is hired as a high school counselor ? sue tells rachel that her telekinesis is a genetic disease . this may be the one original idea in the film , but the reasoning behind describing psychic powers as a " disease " is never explained . sue's eventual fate is an admission by director katt shea and writer rafael moreu that they had an interesting character but couldn't figure out what to do with her . blink and you'll miss it . some of the events are filmed in black and white , but the rationale for this is unknown . it doesn't add anything and the choice of scenes appears somewhat random . " the rage " retains some of the trappings of " carrie " without the meaning . in the first film the color red was a motif connected to carrie's onset of powers at the same time she began menstruating . here there's an abundance of red , but for no apparent purpose . the casting of high school jocks and cheerleaders as villains is beginning to wear thin . one might be lead to suspect that most filmmakers were unpopular in school and the history of teenage films is an extended cinematic revenge of the nerds . the biggest mistake the film makes is including clips of the original . seeing sissy spacek on the screen only points to the quality of that film - and the flaws in this one .
