A smart, realist drama -- I wouldn't be surprised if this one winds up on my 10-best list for '99.

Does what good horror movies do: It taps into the baser emotions.

Emily Bergl plays the misfit heroine -- pale Goth grrrl Rachel Lang -- with a nicely sulky empathy, equal parts hurt and hope.

Dares to take a different tack, taking its young people seriously in a more realistic context. If ever there was a director ready to graduate from genre films, it surely is Shea. [12 March, 1999, Calendar, p.F-6]

Even as you're wincing at what you thought was misguided earnestness, it's being subverted by filmmakers who've turned many of the genre's weaknesses into tiny triumphs.

Better than an opportunistic sequel has any right to be, but still pretty flawed.

Uninspired Update, Unintentional Laughs.

The original was a Midol moment, this is a Prozac exercise. [12 March 1999, Life, p.8E]

Carrie is back and she's all the rage.

It's not a cheap rip-off -- it's a credible sequel to a horror classic, and a sad reminder that some things never change.

I have never been a fan of the original Carrie, but, despite the different slant offered by The Rage, there's not enough new material here for me to like the sequel any better.

The surprise of the movie is that it actually does have a talented director and star. It doesn't begin to make up for the low quality of the story or the numerous other unfortunate elements, but it does suggest little flashes of something that, with more thought, might actually have been somewhat interesting.

The original "Carrie'' worked because it was a skillful teenage drama grafted onto a horror ending. Also, of course, because De Palma and his star, Sissy Spacek, made the story convincing. The Rage: Carrie 2 is more like a shadow.

As generic in every aspect as Brian De Palma's original was inventive.