Emily Bergl is no Sissy Spacek.

Katt Shea is no Brian De Palma.

And "The Rage: Carrie 2" is no "Carrie."

"The Rage: Carrie 2" has a tremendous amount of baggage to contend with, so perhaps it's inevitable that it sinks under its own weight. When De Palma's "Carrie" hit movie screens in 1976, it was a revelation. Not only did it announce Spacek's arrival in a big way, it also was genuinely scary (De Palma's rarely been better), and its theme of what a hellhole high school can be struck more than a few responsive chords.

Twenty-three years later, that theme has been played (pardon the expression) to death. Which makes it unfortunate that the filmmakers here decided to build a sequel by simply copying what "Carrie" did so well, from centering the picture on a high school wallflower who's the victim of a nasty trick to giving our heroine one heckuva stage on which to enact her revenge.

Newcomer Bergl plays Carrie 1999 (her character's name is Rachel Lang), a teen-ager who's spent years convincing herself she doesn't have the ability to move things with her mind (that nasty telekinesis) and avoiding human contact whenever possible.

Rachel's road to doom begins with two unfortunate twists.

First, a jock (Jason London) actually falls for her, transforming her from an object of indifference for the high-school "in" crowd to an object of scorn -- How dare she date one of us? they scowl.

And the school counselor, one of the few survivors of the original Carrie's pyrotechnic rage (Amy Irving, reprising her Sue Snell character), realizes Rachel really can make the Earth move.

If you've seen "Carrie," you know where this is headed; if you haven't, you can probably guess.

The saddest part of "The Rage: Carrie 2" is that, when the film isn't doing its best to replicate the original, it threatens to be pretty good. Rafael Moreu's script has a nicely wicked bent, and the central relationship between Bergl and London is quite touching.

In fact, Bergl is such a proficient scowler that, when she does finally break into a smile, your heart can't help but go out to her. And while director Katt Shea, a graduate of the Roger Corman school of filmmaking whose movies have included "Poison Ivy" and "Stripped to Kill," doesn't wring much horror from the proceedings, she does have a good eye for the visual.

This would have been a much better film if its title had ended with "The Rage." But insisting it double as "Carrie 2" only makes it derivative and disposable.

The Rage: Carrie 2

Starring Emily Bergl, Jason London and Amy Irving

Directed by Katt Shea

Released by United Artists

Rated R (strong graphic horror, violence and gore, brief sexuality and language)

Running time: 104 minutes

Sun score: **

Pub Date: 3/12/99