"The Ring Two"

Reviewed by Chris Cappola
Starring Naomi Watts, David Dorfman, Simon Baker, Sissy Spacek, Gary Cole and Elizabeth Perkins. Directed by Hideo Nakata. (2005, DreamWorks)

Here we go again. The latest victim of the sequel curse sweeping Hollywood is this surprisingly mediocre follow-up to one of the stronger horror films of the new millennium. 'The Ring 2' isn't disastrous - it's just disappointing and very, very average. It's atmospheric, has some genuine scares and is earnestly played by Naomi Watts, but ultimately nothing interesting happens and the ultimate mystery is forced and unconvincing.

The sequel follows up from the original where reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) and her son Aidan (David Dorfman) have relocated to a small coastal town to get away from the horror of their past, but as we all know with sequels you can never hide from your past. Although deliberately confusing and a little illogical, 'The Ring' remains one of the scariest horror films of the last few years with a script that toyed with its audience. It was a neat package - it tied up the mystery and that was that. 'The Ring 2' is trying to come up with an extension to that mystery and in a way throws out the essence of the original by trying to convince the audience of this tacked on additional arc to the mystery. It simply doesn't work and is too obviously forced to milk the idea for what it's worth. Just like every sequel these days, it ruins the credibility and charisma of its predecessor.

The most surprising aspect of it all is that it comes from Hideo Nakata, who was the original director of the Japanese version that inspired it all. He has already made this film in Japan so one wonders why he couldn't translate it to this version. This marks his first English-speaking film and perhaps he was having teething problems adapting to the culture differences. He surely has an atmospheric visual style and technically, the film is well-done. But, it's awfully choppy and uneven and isn't scary, inventive or original - necessities vital to a great horror film. The script too doesn't explain much and throws Naomi Watts' character into the mystery without her even thinking twice about it - she is a modern day Angela Lansbury. Like an episode of 'Murder, She Wrote', she seems one step ahead of the "mystery" always finding herself in the right time when disaster strikes or always stumbling upon vital facts to crack the case, even though none of this was represented in the original, which is the same story to begin with. Recent horror pic 'The Grudge' also suffered this problem - the plot was anchored by coincidences and conveniences and everything that happens only does so to further the plot and doesn't make any sense. Horror films aren't known for being the smartest genre, but 'The Ring 2' takes its audience for a ride to nowhere and the ending is far from satisfying and one can't help but wonder it's all a "cliffhanger" to a third instalment.

On the performances front, everyone tries hard but ultimately everyone but Naomi Watts is severely wasted in thankless roles. Naomi Watts is excellent in a role that requires her to rehash her role from the original, but she does a good job especially in some ludicrously unrealistic scenes. David Dorfman is overly creepy as her son. He's good, but after a while he's a little too eerie and it's a distraction to the story. The newcomers to the sequel - Simon Baker as a potential love interest that goes nowhere; Elizabeth Perkins as a doomed psychiatrist; Sissy Spacek in a 2-minute role and Gary Cole in an even smaller role are great actors wasted in badly-written roles. There inclusion is unnecessary detractors to the plot and the roles are razor thin.

So why is 'The Ring 2' so dull? The film is full of lapses in boredom, slowly plotted and contains a mystery that doesn't have a ring of truth to it whilst most importantly doesn't have the same scare-factor as the original. It should have been scarier, it should have been more original and it should have been more logical, but it just disappoints in convincing us the necessity of the sequel. Ultimately, it's a moody horror film with sporadic moments of interest boggled down in lazy direction, a wasted cast and a script that tarnishes the credibility of the original's story. Disappointingly, it's just yet another sequel that should have never been.
out of 10
- Chris Cappola's Reviews

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