PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Good ol’ 1999, the golden days of bullying. Nowadays, bullying is dealt with the strictest of penalties and taken very seriously. A kid can’t even fart in the general direction of another student without the student’s mother going on social media to whine about it. The kid in question, due to the raging mob, is immediately expelled and sent to a stockade where tomatoes are hurled in his direction. Not only that, but the teacher and the principal that allowed the bullying are forced to resign and also sent to the stockade.
Back in 1999, things were very, very different. Physical and verbal bullying was not only tolerated among students, but the faculty either didn’t do much about it or outright ignored it. It wasn’t until April 20, 1999, when a pair of disgruntled students in Columbine, Colorado shot up their high school, killing thirteen people, that bullying was FINALLY being dealt with. One month earlier, on March 12, 1999, a different group of bullies got their comeuppance on the big screen when The Rage: Carrie 2 was released to the public, showing that there are very serious consequences to bullying.
In 1974, Stephen King published his first novel, Carrie. A sheltered small town girl with an overbearing religious zealot of a mother is bullied relentlessly by her fellow high school students. What the students don’t know is Carrie White has telekinetic powers that she unleashes in a murderous rampage on prom night. The book was a smashing success, and two years later, the story hit the big screen with Sissy Spacek (Castle Rock TV series, Coal Miner’s Daughter 1980) in the leading role (despite being 30 years old at the time). The movie was a huge success and put Stephen King and his telekinetic anti-heroine into the forefront of the horror community.
In 1999, the sequel to the film, The Rage: Carrie 2, told the story of a high school girl named Rachel (Emily Bergl: Chasing Sleep 2000) who’s best friend, Lisa (Mena Suvari: American Pie 1999), commits suicide. The bullies responsible, Mark (Dylan Bruno: Saving Private Ryan 1998) and Eric (Zachery Ty Bryan: Home Improvement TV series), try to hush the situation up. Unlike Carrie White, Rachel is feisty and refuses to keep quiet about Lisa’s suicide. Mark and Eric then try to ruin Lisa’s life by getting their football teammate, Jesse (Jason London: Dazed & Confused 1993), to sleep with and then dump her. The roadblock in this plan is that Jesse actually falls for Rachel and turns against them, leading the dastardly duo to hatch a plan to ruin his life as well.
Normally, I wouldn’t tell a major plot twist, but I have to do it twice in this retro review for the sake of the point. The first is that Eric is under investigation by the local police for directly causing Lisa’s suicide… as well as her rape. Near the end of the movie, the DA throws the case out because Eric’s father is an impact player in politics, and it’s an election year. The second spoiler is that it’s revealed that Rachel is the half-sister of Carrie White, as they have the same father. Now, I won’t spoil the ending, apart from letting you know that the bullies do get their comeuppance at the hands of Rachel… quite like Carrie did to her detractors in the first movie.
Originally, The Rage: Carrie 2 did not start life as a Carrie sequel. It was going to be an original project called The Curse to be filmed in 1996. Due to production issues, the project was delayed for 2 years, and the director, Robert Mandel (Big Shots 1987), quit. Katt Shea (Dance of the Damned 1989) took over the directorial duties, and the film was touted as a sequel to Carrie instead. To tie in to the original movie, it was explained that Rachel was Carrie’s half-sister, and the sole survivor of the first movie, Sue (Amy Irving: Carrie 1976), was brought back as a guidance counselor who tries to keep Rachel from turning into Carrie. Adding some known names at the time like Zachary Ty Brian, Dylan Bruno and Jason London, The Rage: Carrie 2 had some up and coming star power in it. Ultimately, the movie bombed in the theaters, but the overall impact of the film ran much deeper than ticket sales.
Rewinding back to the rape/suicide charge on Eric in the movie, that’s where the bread and butter of bullying at the time is embodied. Nowadays, if a girl takes a swan dive off the roof of the school into the afterlife, and it’s revealed that someone led her to it, that person is essentially screwed for life. Back then, as noted by the chilling scene where Eric’s father gets him off, kids mostly got away with it. It’s damn near impossible for someone significantly older or significantly younger to understand, but anyone who went to school in 1999 will never forget how daunting that atmosphere could be.
Even though the ending would hardly be considered good, at least the bullies got theirs in The Rage: Carrie 2, even if the way it happened was strictly fantasy. As I mentioned earlier, one month after the release of the film, the Columbine Massacre changed the course of history and how bullies were looked at. It took another 15 years before social media put the kibosh on the serious bullying going on in schools, with more tragic shootings happening along the way. If you want a perfect time capsule of 1999 and the way things were for teenagers, look no further than The Rage: Carrie 2.
