First Things First…
Just like the original Carrie, I saw this once, about 10 years ago, after I read the book. From what I remember, I didn’t like it much, and the reviews are very negative. I don’t remember how connected to the original it is, but I’m pretty sure the main character’s name isn’t Carrie this time around.
4 Things I Like
4. Eddie Kaye Thomas
“We’re missing a real killer party.”
Arnie
Finch from American Pie is here as Arnie, a friend of Rachel. He isn’t in it much, so it’s unclear how close friends they are. But I’ve always liked him, he’s funny in his few minutes of screen time, and there isn’t much else I like about the movie, so I’m shouting him out.
3. Continuing the Fine Carrie Tradition of Closing Jump Scares
I don’t think Carrie is scary, but it’s at least creepy at times.
This sequel isn’t scary or creepy at all… except it steals from the original and has a fantastic jump scare at the end.
They fooled me, too. I actually thought Rachel was still alive, until she shatters in Jesse’s arms.
2. Evil Jocks
This might be the most loathsome group of dumb jocks ever assembled in a movie. Who knew Brad from Home Improvement could be so hate-able? His exploitation of Lisa causes her to kill herself, mere hours after she excitedly shared with Rachel that she had lost her virginity.
This is some all-time vileness from these guys, who turn their sexual “conquests” into a game, which they keep score for in a little notebook and assign points to different girls they sleep with based on attractiveness.
And if all that isn’t bad enough, they try to take their revenge on Rachel by showing a video (secretly recorded, of course) of her having sex with Jesse to a whole party and forcing her to watch.
This is why seeing Rachel get the last laugh—despite how laughable the scene is—is so satisfying.
1. Rachel
The best thing the movie has going for it is a likeable lead, making the ultimate tragedy that much more painful.
Unlike Carrie, who can barely function in society because she’s been so sheltered and abused, Rachel has friends. Sure, she’s an outcast and a misfit. And, like Carrie, she’s been through a lot. Her mother is also a religious zealot. But because her mother has been institutionalized, Rachel is in the foster care system and has been abused.
But instead of folding in on herself, Rachel is a cynical but kind goth girl who, after resisting at first, lets herself hope she can really have a future with the popular boy who falls in love with her.
Although I don’t like Jesse, it’s hard not to root for Rachel here.
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. Rachel’s TK Runs Roughshod
One change I appreciate that makes this a little different is that, unlike Carrie, who trained herself to strengthen her TK ability, Rachel’s TK is out of control, and she never gets a handle on it…
… until it’s time to kill a party full of teens, at which point she suddenly has Olympic-level skill.
Until that point, I liked that TK was a detriment to Rachel. It’s not a better or worse reaction than how Carrie reacted to hers, but it was a good way to distinguish them from one another.
But once we get to the point where she needs it but hasn’t been training to get it under control, it becomes a little harder to buy.
7 Things I Don’t Like
7. Black & White
I could never tell if there’s any rhyme or reason to the scenes that shift to black and white. They’re jarring and took me out of the movie every time.
6. Cheerleading from the Sideline
Rachel sneaks out of her house because she heard on the radio broadcast of the football game that Jesse got hurt. So what does she do when she arrives at the game?
She runs onto the sideline and watches from right next to the team as he catches the game-winning touchdown!
I like Rachel, but it’s one of the cringiest scenes I can remember. Especially when she and Jesse point to each other—her from the sideline, and him from his teammates’ shoulders as they celebrate with him.
5. Escape from Arkham
Sue Snell, of original Carrie fame, is now a high school guidance counselor. And in recognizing the signs of TK in Rachel that Carrie had, she tries to help Rachel, to no avail.
So then she goes to her mother, who’s been institutionalized (in Arkham Asylum, no less).
And because she feels maybe Rachel will listen to her own biological mother, who saw the signs when Rachel was a little girl, she actually breaks her out of the asylum and they go on the lam.
For someone who’s supposed to be a serious adult, this is absurd behavior.
4. Her Slaughter Is My Laughter
Carrie’s rampage in the original is one of the most iconic scenes in horror movie history.
This… not so much.
So many aspects of this had me howling.
There’s Rachel’s tattoo essentially coming to life and making her look like a zombie.
Rachel also uses her TK to shatter one of the mean girls’ glasses, with the glass going right into her eyes. That injury causes her to unintentionally spin with a harpoon in her hand and stab Eric right in the dick.
3. Sue’s Death Means Nothing
If you’re going to bring back Amy Irving to reprise her role as Sue Snell 22 years later and find a way to work her into the story, then it should be a big deal if you decide to kill her off. Instead, Sue just shows up at the party and gets caught in Rachel’s path of destruction. Nothing about it feels significant.
2. Not Buying Jesse
“Is that all I was to you, Jesse? Thirty points?”
Rachel Lang
I could never buy Jason London as Jesse, the one “decent” jock who breaks away from the group and falls in love with Rachel.
I don’t know if it’s because he’s just too handsome… or because they seem too mismatched…
… or maybe it’s that there’s no atonement from Jesse part for participating in their game in the first place. Does he really see the error of his ways?
Jesse comments to Mark at one point that they were never friends, they just grew up together. I could see that being the case if they were just football teammates, and maybe occasionally partied together. But to take part in this game that Mark is the ringleader of seems like there’s a real—albeit totally misguided—brotherhood. And if he never really wanted to be part of that but only did it because of peer pressure, that still doesn’t speak highly of him. His arc doesn’t feel earned.
1. Connective Tissue to Carrie
“I had a traumatic experience in high school. I tried to help someone, and it backfired horribly.”
Sue Snell
Apparently, this was originally conceived as an original story but was later repurposed as a sequel to Carrie.
I wish they would’ve stuck to the plan.
Too much of the connective tissue feels shoehorned in, makes no sense, or is just plain silly.
I mean, the idea that the ruins of the old high school that Carrie burned to the ground would still be there 20 years later like a shrine, when this is the worst thing to ever happen to the town, is ludicrous.
That being said, you’d think Carrie would be known by everyone throughout the town. And I thought that was the case when Rachel’s mom mentioned her. But later, when Sue brings Rachel to the ruins and asks her if she’s heard of Carrie, Rachel seems very fuzzy on the story.
And speaking of Sue, the idea that she’d be trying to “save” Rachel because of her role in the Carrie incident all those years ago makes some sense, but it feels very forced here. And is it even realistic that Sue would’ve stayed in town her whole life, knowing what happened and the role she played in it.
Lastly, there’s the issue of Rachel’s origin.
The big reveal is that she and Carrie are half-sisters. Her biological father, who she’s never met, is Carrie’s father, Ralph. But this is set more than 20 years after Carrie’s death, and Rachel is, at most, 18. So Ralph must’ve impregnated Rachel’s mother after Carrie died.
But wait… isn’t Ralph supposed to be long-dead?
Maybe that was only said in the book and not the movie. But even if we can get around that plot hole, wouldn’t he have been around 70 by then? And wouldn’t Rachel’s mom have been around 20? It seems like an outlandish possibility that this could’ve happened
Tim Matassa
