The Rage: Carrie 2

You might think using clips from the original Carrie would add a postmodern tremor to this sequel. Wrong. In this latest outing, set 20 years on, secretly romantic Goth Rachel (Bergl) meets sensitive jock Jessie (London), whose friends take the piss, then pretend to accept her, inviting her to a booby-trapped party. There is something to engage the brain, however. And it's not just astonishment that Irving's career is in such a bad way that she's agreed to reprise her role as Sue Snell (still traumatised by her part in Carrie's death, she's become a caring, sharing teacher). Rachel's friend Lisa (Suvari) sets the horror rolling by sleeping with Jessie's bullish friend Mark. When he dumps her, she kills herself, and as part of her newfound altruism, Snell tries to get him arrested for statutory rape. Setting aside the issue of why an intelligent Shirley Manson clone would fall for a cleancut idiot, this also raises ethical questions, in taking desire and individual responsibility right out of the equation. The film-makers obviously decided the original Carrie lacked riot grrrl oomph. Paradoxically, in Lisa, they've created a far more dubious sacrificial lamb. A stinker - but as a gender-studies footnote, it's a must-see.