The Firelight Shocks DVD Review Section

Carrie 2: The Rage Distributor: MGM Region: 2 Ratio: 1:85:1 (Anamorphically enhanced) Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo

As one of the better sequels of recent times, it was sad to see Carrie 2 meet a premature death at the box office. Most of the reviews that I read had nothing horrible to say about the film, but they slammed it because it wasn't a patch on DePalma's classic original. I can sympathise with this, because we've all been disappointed by sequels which aren't really (An American Werewolf in Paris, Piranha 2, Howling 2 et al), but Carrie 2 towers above that motley crew. This belated follow-up tells of Rachel (well played by newcomer Emily Bergl), who is in actual fact Carrie White's half sister (that's the admittedly crap 'link' to the previous entry over with). She 'Carries' on (geddit?) the family tradition for telekinetic japes when her best buddy (essayed by a pre-American Beauty Mena Suvari... actually meant to be an unattractive nerd in this!) commits suicide. It turns out that Suvari was the subject of a game played by the airhead jocks who grade the women that they have slept with and generally have little respect for the opposite sex (much like a couple of cretins that I've come in contact with on horror forum boards. Virginity is a bitch innit?). Things look up a bit when kind-hearted football player Jesse (Jason London) takes a shine to Rachel, and the two have some really believable chemistry on screen. However, it's all for nothing when the two find themselves at the centre of a nasty prank at an after game party. At this point Rachel unleashes her powers and loads of nasty football Jocks and their girlfriends kick the bucket in a suitably extreme and gob-dropping finale. This is a fine film, and very entertaining. Director Katt Shea doesn't have DePalma's eye for symbolism, visual metaphors or voyeuristic nastiness but she does a good job here. It could have been a luckless job, but Carrie 2 is honestly one of the most purely enjoyable horror sequels I've seen in quite some time. Oh yeah, and Amy Irving returns from the first film, but her role is almost irrelevant, though Steven Spielberg might have been happy to see the woman who cost him fifty million smackers impaled through her eye (oops). The football Jocks are fairly apt as well. Phil and I had to share a flat on campus with a rugby Jock in first year at university and I don't mind telling you that he was a bit thick. My comment to him about jerking off over cookies never fails to amuse me, especially because he probably could have broken my neck or something. As opposed to the first Carrie, this has little religious misgivings (I thought the opening was an attack on religious abuse, but the director says otherwise on her commentary track), and you'll probably pick up the Romeo and Juliet similarities early on. I personally got the fright of my life at the end too, but then that's just me. Need I say that this is a disc worth buying?

THE DISC: Stunning picture and sound quality. A fantastic widescreen transfer, anamorphically enhanced and truly faultless. The finale looks incredible on this disc... the flames really jump out at you! Extras wise you get a fair amount of bits n' bobs. There is the original theatrical trailer and a wonderful little collector's booklet. There are some extra scenes (with or without director's commentary) which are time coded and shown in fullscreen (was this film matted into its theatrical ratio?). These scenes are alright, but it's not hard to see why they were deleted. The most interesting extra is definitely the alternative ending, which is shown before and after the digital effects (but you can't turn the directorıs commentary off!). This ending isn't a patch on the one they settled on (it's far too over the top), but it's worth seeing nonetheless. Oh yeah, and Katt Shea contributes an informative director's commentary and she just goes on and on and on, without even seeming to take a breath. She's an enthusiastic lady and, from the evidence on show here, a very promising genre director.