"The Ring Two" has many of the elements of your bona-fide horror film: a dripping wet dead girl, a video tape with some eerie editing, and a couple of distorted screaming corpses.
Well, almost bona-fide. The first "Ring" movie managed to weave these elements into a creepy, inherently fear-provoking film which left many movie-goers cautiously eyeing their televisions for weeks afterwards, and "The Ring Two," directed by Hideo Nakata of the original Japanese "Ringu" series, attempts a similar feat.
Generally following the same storyline as the first, this version adds its own small plot twists along the way. But, as sequels often do, it fails to quite live up to its petrifying predecessor.
This is not to say that "The Ring Two" is not a scary movie. It retains the original essence of the first "Ring," substituting the typical scare-the-audience-with-a-loud-noise routine with a more thought out, penetrating creepiness that remains strong throughout the film.
This film begins as did its predecessor, with a couple of unaware teenagers popping in the infamous videotape, with its disturbing images of the now-familiar suicidal mother, horse gone mad, and ghastly well. One of the teens dies, one of them becomes irreparably traumatized, and the beautiful Rachel (Naomi Watts) once again ventures on a daring investigation into the life of Samara, the poor orphan girl who spent her childhood in a horse stable.
The film has no shortage of demonic Samara either, emulating the first film as it delves into her disturbing history. We meet Samara's biological mother (horror film veteran extraordinaire Sissy Spacek), and are treated to more of her motives for haunting us from her tortured afterlife.
This time, most of the film revolves around Samara's tenacious attempts to possess Rachel's young son, Aidan (David Dorfman), who has shown signs since the first "Ring" of having some sort of supernatural connection with the little girl. Aside from possessing small children and giving them hypothermia, however, Samara's main routine still consists of scaring people to death. Literally.
As any horror film aficionado will attest, things are always scarier when the character is alone; situations become more desperate, more
suspenseful, and more nerve-racking. The writers provide plenty of this particular scare-ingredient.
Rachel navigates bravely (and alone) through just about every dark and otherworldly corner of the movie as audience members silently plead for her to "get the hell out of there!" In one particularly jarring example, we watch as the reporter conducts a seemingly endless sit-down session inside an ambulance with one of Samara's victims.
Aidan also puts audiences on edge with his fair share of solo time. An especially haunting scene has him standing alone in a bathroom taking pictures of himself while the audience can clearly see Samara in the background.
While "The Ring 2" wisely incorporated the original's successful recipe for terror, it also weaves in its own, somewhat less triumphant, brand of horror - specifically a cardinal sin of sequels: excessive use of special effects.
One of the more disturbing aspects of the first "Ring" was that it left audience members to imagine much of the terror, scaring them with what they couldn't see, like the first "Jaws" movie. While "The Ring 2" does this as well, much of this technique is
overshadowed by in-your-face special effects. A few momentary images of Samara would have been infinitely more horrifying than the ghostly fashion show that we are treated to.
The plot is not without its problems as well. One terribly random scene shows a herd of crazed deer violently attacking Rachel and Aidan. The deer are painfully animated looking, and the scene only interrupts the flow of the movie.
Overall, "The Ring 2" is a good horror flick. It does lag, however, far behind the original "Ring," falling into the same pitfalls as so many other horror films these days, opting for the overly complex and flashy computer graphics and rehashed terror.
