Rachael Lang has grown up in foster care because her mother was taken to a mental institution while Rachael was still young. When Rachael's best friend kills herself after being seduced and dumped by a member of the football team, strange things happen which are noticed by the school counsellor Susan Snell in particular it reminds her of Carrie who had the powers to move things with her mind. Snell tries to help Rachael get help before she shares Carrie's fate, but Rachael is busy falling in love with one of the football team but is he all that he seems?
Surely this film must feature on any list of unnecessary sequels made many years after the fact. That the film bears the name `Carrie' must have made the studio hope that some of the good features of that film would be carried (sorry) over and redeem this. The plot tries to keep the essence of Carrie but it tries to mix in all the clichés of the modern teen movie as well and the two don't mix. So for the majority of the film we have the normal `jocks bothering weird girl' plot and the odd scene of something breaking.
The problem is that suddenly the end scene happens with little build up or trail. From a girl ignoring her powers Rachael suddenly becomes some sort of pumped killing machine in full control of her mind. The change is too sudden and is lazy writing. The actual film itself is too much an average teen movie and the ending is full of deliberate gore for the audience that measures horror in those terms. I personally found it overdone like the special effects guys were trying too hard.
The director also feels like he's working too hard. He tries to freak us out and make everything seem exciting by having tonnes of zooming cameras, changes in film stock and changes from colour to black and white. But it all felt like a gimmick because of the material. The film pales beside the original and just fails trying to steal bits from it even the ending is spoilt because we know to expect a `shock' ending because it's trying to do a Carrie moment.
Bergl is average as Rachael she basically plays your typical Goth stereotype from all these movies. London is OK and it's funny to see two stars of American Pie in small roles. Irving reprises her role (with a logical crowbaring of facts) but she is wasted and is only there to provide the link to the whole mind-power stuff.. Is she this desperate for work?
Overall this isn't as bad as many reviews made it sound on release. It's an average (at best) teen/horror movie. However the fact that it relates itself to Carrie makes it look worse by comparison not helped by showing clips. I'd avoid this unless your idea of a great movie is American Pie 2 or Friday the 13th Part 6.
