I'll start by saying that I saw this on TV and it was, of course, heavily edited. It impressed me enough that I'm planning to watch the uncut version.
Brian DePalma's 1976 film has been the template for countless teen horror movies. The pattern is set in stone. An outsider is humiliated and abused for the first two acts and a small portion of the third. Then the tables are turned. The victim becomes the ultimate abuser, sending jocks and sorority girls and random teens to an untimely grave.
This is the price a writer and director pay for working in this particular genre. The final rampage isn't really a surprise: it's what people bought their tickets for.
What is a surprise in CARRIE 2 is how well made it is. Surprise, surprise. It's not made in Canada or Romania or New Zealand. It's actually made in America, in North and South Carolina.
And what good actors. Jason London, 27 years old, still in high school all these years after DAZED AND CONFUSED which should have made him a major star but for some reason didn't. Rachel Blanchard, who's been acting since she was six, as the bad girl who pretends to befriend the leading lady. Mena Suvari before American BEAUTY.
The casting is good all around. These high school students actually look like they go to high school.
Here's an idea for the ultimate revenge of the teen underdog movie. The first act would be a shortened remake of THE BREAKFAST CLUB. Detention served, they would walk out the door of the school only to discover that some scourge has destroyed all other human life on the planet. After briefly reentering the building to kill Principal Vernon and the janitor the five last humans on Earth will set out to build a new society from scratch.
Brian DePalma's 1976 film has been the template for countless teen horror movies. The pattern is set in stone. An outsider is humiliated and abused for the first two acts and a small portion of the third. Then the tables are turned. The victim becomes the ultimate abuser, sending jocks and sorority girls and random teens to an untimely grave.
This is the price a writer and director pay for working in this particular genre. The final rampage isn't really a surprise: it's what people bought their tickets for.
What is a surprise in CARRIE 2 is how well made it is. Surprise, surprise. It's not made in Canada or Romania or New Zealand. It's actually made in America, in North and South Carolina.
And what good actors. Jason London, 27 years old, still in high school all these years after DAZED AND CONFUSED which should have made him a major star but for some reason didn't. Rachel Blanchard, who's been acting since she was six, as the bad girl who pretends to befriend the leading lady. Mena Suvari before American BEAUTY.
The casting is good all around. These high school students actually look like they go to high school.
Here's an idea for the ultimate revenge of the teen underdog movie. The first act would be a shortened remake of THE BREAKFAST CLUB. Detention served, they would walk out the door of the school only to discover that some scourge has destroyed all other human life on the planet. After briefly reentering the building to kill Principal Vernon and the janitor the five last humans on Earth will set out to build a new society from scratch.