The Ring Two Movie Review:


The problem with doing a sequel to “The Ring” is that the original movie, as well as its Japanese counterpart “Ringu,” isn't really more than a well-done gimmick movie. “The Ring” starts off with its version of playing out an urban legend, then uses it as a set-up for a big payoff. The story built around that is a bit arbitrary -- it's a little less fun than the idea itself of how watching a video tape can kill you and wondering how it gets around to doing that. After that's been revealed, there's really nowhere left to go.

Since the first movie's success ordains a sequel, the makers of “The Ring Two” had to make a choice: either repeat or modify the gimmick of the first movie, or take the original story and expand on it. To their credit, they went in the latter direction. Going with the first choice would've been problematic and also would've looked lazy, so there is a fair bit of detectable sincerity in the sequel's story. One can tell they're trying to take the tale of the vengeful ghost Samara and create a plausible continuation that doesn't depend on watching videotapes.

However, it's disappointing if this is the best they could come up with. Samara's back all right, and this time it's personal. She seems to have it in for the heroine Rachel (Naomi Watts) and her son Aidan (David Dorfman), and manages to find a new way to torment them, although whatever methods she chooses don't seem to have strict rules applied to them here. And although part of me enjoyed what was basically an arranged eventual smackdown between the ghost and the heroine, the rest of me knew that the creative -- *ahem*-- well was probably running dry before the movie even began. No gimmick this time, but nothing else to focus on, either.

Meanwhile, little else helps to prop the movie up. As a modern horror movie, it has that annoying tendency of using sound effects to underline every little surprising moment (I find it creepier to notice something on your own without it drawing attention to itself). It also has a clunky script -- the situations that occur in the movie are fairly standard, such as people around the heroine thinking she's disturbed, and the dialogue arising from them comes across simply like an effort to play along (there are a couple of funny exceptions, such as when an asylum attendant talks about certain events like he's heard them a million times). The movie makes use of every chance possible to have an arm come up from somewhere and grab another person by the arm. There are some spots of creativity throughout the movie, but simply not enough to leave an impression.

Japanese-style horror continues to be an "in thing," but with “The Ring Two” we're starting to get the sense that it's already settling into the mediocre space of the American mainstream. Getting the original Japanese director of “Ringu” (and its own sequel, “Ringu 2,” unrelated to this one), Hideo Nakata, doesn't seem to help either because he probably doesn't have enough creative control to keep it from falling into Western-style pitfalls. For what it's worth, Nakata does get to make an impression with the climax, a great little piece of unnerving creepiness involving what looks almost like stop-motion, but the rest of it fails to include much personality.

Finally, although “The Ring Two” decided to go the more difficult route of expanding the storyline rather than going with another gimmick, by doing this it sadly creates a handicap for itself. In fashioning a story about Samara vs. Rachel, the inherent fear in the material doesn't transfer directly to the audience. Much of the disturbance from the first movie came from knowing everyone had a TV; viewers could take that part of the horror home with them (you don't how many people I knew who said they couldn't sleep with a TV in their bedroom after seeing “The Ring”). But this time, when Samara makes it personal, no one in the audience is worried anymore because none of us are or can be Rachel. It just becomes another story to watch, barely trying to be involving, and this time, when we leave the theater screen, it stays in the theater screen.



Jeffrey Chen

There have been a lot of great horror series in the course of Hollywood history. From Freddy’s razor sharp claws to Michael Myers’s ghostly face to blood-stained hockey mask of Jason Voorhees. Ok, all them aren’t great but the series were still a lot of fun.

When it comes to the Ring series, I may have to classify it in another horror series like “The Amityville Horror” series or dare I say “The Omen” or “The Exorcist”. “The Ring” movies are a new brand of psychological horror and like Amityville and others it probably should have stuck with just the one film.

“The Ring Two” follows Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) and her young son Aidan (David Dorfman) to a remote New England town where they hope they have finally outrun the supernatural force, Samara (Kelly Stables), who plagued them in the first film. Rachel is concerned about her son when trickles of Samara seem to be coming back through him. She confides in a co-worker Max Rourke (Simon Baker from TV’s The Guardian) and even has to face off against a psychiatrist (Elizabeth Perkins).

What does the willowy Samara want this time? How can Rachel end the cycle of the Ring for the final time? What is Aidan’s link to Samara?

Like Amityville and other psychological horror series, The Ring’s sequel seems more or less like an after thought then a continuation of the series. The film barely chugs along and has little or no punch. There are no real scares or creepiness about the film, it is just there.

What is even more maddening is the wasted use of Elizabeth Perkins, Sissy Spacek and even Simon Baker. One of the small roles I kind of liked was that of Gary Cole as the surrealistic realtor who seemed to have stepped off the bus from Hunter S. Thompson territory. He was quite a gem.

You do also have to give Naomi Watts credit, she does have the feelings terror, shock, despair, desperation and motherly concern down pact. Her performance is quite good even if it does get a little tedious in some scenes.

David Dorfman’s Aidan is sort of creepy and he does a great job playing off Watts. In a lot of the quieter scenes, and there are lots of them, all I could hear echoing in the silence was one phrase, “I see dead people”.

The core of the film seems to be a metaphor for “postpartum” depression which in a lot of ways really bugged me. I know it’s a film but when it came down to this angle it left me quite hollow inside. If we are supposed to cheer for this struggling heroine why unleash such an unforgivable angle. It seemed like an odd choice on how to carry on the series or even in the development of the Rachel character.

I was hoping for a lot of what the original contained but I think one of its biggest faults was the fact that director Gore Verbinski wasn’t back. The film really needed his panache and craziness.

Another surprising fact is that director Hideo Nakata (director of the first 2 Ringu films) is the man responsible for the success of the Japanese films directed this boring mess maybe he is just utterly bored. I am however looking forward to his next scripted horror film, “Dark Water” that is coming out later this year.

“The Ring Two” is a major disappointment when it comes to building a franchise or scaring the pants off someone.



So Says the Soothsayer.

Dean Kish

The producers intriguingly handed the reins to this sequel over to the guy who made the original Japanese film that started all these Ring movies in the first place. The result is a true blending of the two styles--a sharply thought-out script combined with a major creep-out style.

After battling the spirit of the dead girl Samara, journalist Rachel (Watts) moves to a small Oregon town with her son David (Dorfman) to start over again. But Samara tracks them down, and has an even more fiendish plan than before. This time she branches out from the VCR to start taking over David. For help this time, Rachel turns to coworker Max (Baker), a shrink (Perkins) and an extremely creepy old woman (Spacek).

Nakata's interest in cultural traditions, vengeance, water and media are all in the mix here, and the film has a remarkably intriguing look. This isn't a slasher horror film at all; it gets deep into the characters' heads and tells a story that's scary from the inside out. Visually, Nakata frequently references Hitchcock, as inventive camera work, stylish editing and a lush score all add to the sense that this is a serious movie, not some silly fright fest.

Watts pours herself into this role as if Oscar voters might take it seriously; this is a terrific performance that unpeels both Rachel's paranoia and her authentic fears. And Dorfman is superb as her son, increasingly disturbing as Samara takes over--almost as if he's aging in fast-forward. These are haunting and haunted characters that really hold the film together and draw us into the odd-ball storyline.

Nakata even has some new surprises up his sleeve for Ringu aficionados. He gets rid of that tape early on, then adds to its imagery in an intriguing way, deepening the mystery and sending Rachel back to that sinister horse ranch. As it progresses, the film gets increasingly scary and begins to feel like a particularly hellish Twilight Zone episode--and I mean that in a good way. This is one of the more insidious thrillers in recent memory.

Rich Cline

Six months after letting the tape out into the world, Rachel (Watts) and Aidan (Dorfman) try and get their lives back to normal in the small mountain town of Astoria. Rachel finds her self a new at the local paper and things start to get back to normal, until a teenage homicide with a very similar pattern occurs. When she investigates, Rachel discovers to her horror that a tape has found its way to Astoria and now Samara knows where she and Aidan are.

After the success of the American remake a sequel was inevitable but this one is different, as the director of the Japanese original is at the helm.

‘The Ring Two’ is more of a continuation than a sequel, forgoing the usual Hollywood trait of sticking to a formula and rehashing what was successful. Here we find Rachel and Aidan riddled with guilt for releasing the tape into the world to save their own lives. Aidan is finding it particularly hard, regressing into his photography for comfort and Rachel still lives in fear that it is not all over. Her fears are justified however because Samara is searching for them and a teenager, who had been experimenting with the tape with a group of friends, had brought her to Astoria. From here on in we find out Samara’s true motivations and they are just as terrifying as ever.

By continuing the story and not really rehashing old ideas, this is a sequel that works on many levels. Forgoing the main plot point of the original, the videotape, the film concentrates on Samara’s connection to Rachel and Aidan and her resulting obsession. The film also reveals more information about the character’s pasts as we learn more about Samara and Rachel. As a horror movie, the tension is also there. As with the Japanese series and the American remake, these films have never been about gore and blood but concentrating on quick shocks and the building of anxiety and fear in the audience. The sequel continues this trait, successful keeps up the notion of not knowing what is coming next.

Naomi Watts and David Dorfman return to their roles of Rachel and Aidan. Watts continues to show that she is one of the best actresses working in Hollywood today with another fine performance. Dorfman proves again that he is a child actor with talent, making Aidan completely convincing, especially when he is consumed by fear. Without the strength of these two performances the film could have been little more than a slightly over the top horror flick but they make it all the more convincing and terrifying.

Director Hideo Nakata returns to the series and gets the chance to play with all the toys Hollywood has to offer. While some may argue that he doesn’t really get to stamp his own look on the film, as it does have the same tone as Gore Verbinski’s remake, he still does enough to create a level of tension. The film major plus point is that the audience doesn’t know what is going to happen next. With the removal of the videotape plot device of the original, we are taken in a new direction. The director uses this fact well and utilises it to create some genuine scares. This difference does take away the continuing tension of the ‘seven day’ time limit of the first movie but if they had have including this element again it would have taken away any originality.

‘The Ring Two’ is a good example of how a sequel should be made. By not simply revisiting ideas from the first film and adding a new twist, this film is a continuation of the story of Rachel, Aidan and Samara. If might not have the same level of tension as the first time because of the lack of a seven day time frame but the scares are still here and the anxiety still builds up while you are watching it. Now where was the videotape someone wanted me so desperately to watch?

Jamie Kelwick

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