The Ring Two Year: 2005 Director: Hideo Nakata Written by: Ehren Kruger Threat: Ghost Weapon of Choice: Water IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
The Ring

Rish's Reviews
I've had people tell me that The Ring is the scariest movie ever made. My sister was so freaked out by the film that she'll fly into pseudo-religious rants against it that make me want to wrap her in a sheet and tell people she's a piņata. Even though my review was quite long, I don't remember it that well. Maybe it WAS that bad, I don't know. But nobody will ever talk about The Ring Two like it's the scariest movie ever.
The sequel has a fairly clever opening, beginning in the same way as did the original (if you can call a film that's a remake of a sequel "original"), with a teenager showing a classmate the cursed tape that kills you a week after you watch it. It then departs from the structure of The Ring and Ringu, and changes the rules somewhat. Usually I resent it when filmmakers change the rules set up in an earlier film, and nobody does it more often than horror movies.
Basically, Rachel (Naomi Watts) and son (David Dorfman) have moved to a new locale, but find they cannot escape the circular machinations of the cursed videotape and its master, the undead Samara. Yep, circular. Like a ring.
This was not a great movie. Not a good movie. A pretty bad movie, actually. It was yet another flick where the trailer was better than the film. But trailers are supposed to put your butt in the theatre seat, and in that, this was pretty successful.
I have a great deal of resentment for Ehren Kruger, the screenwriter, and it's probably something I need to deal with and get behind me. I only have to see his name on a poster or credits and I automatically assume the flick will be dishonest. But that's not entirely fair. Just because he's cheated on three recent films (Scream 3, Reindeer Games, and Impostor) doesn't mean I should forever mistrust him, does it? Similarly, every time I see Akiva Goldsman's name, I think of the man who wrote Batman & Robin and grit my teeth. Maybe there's some hypnotherapy I can seek to fix these biases.
Gary Cole is really good in his three minute scene (he's a real estate agent trying to unload the farmhouse where evil ole Samara used to live and cites, "There's a fun clubhouse thing in the barn" as one of the selling points). The Spooky Hollow-Eyed Psychic Kid(patent pending) annoyed and bugged me as always, though I have to acknowledge that it was on purpose this time, and they even used the fact that he calls his mother by her first name as a plotpoint. Naomi Watts is as handsome as ever, but hey. I suppose she can act, at least. Emily VanCamp, who played the would-be tape victim, but is quickly disposed of, is the kind of girl I would've mooned over in Junior High until she got her boyfriend to give me a power wedgie or drop me in a trash can. Not sure why I told you that, though.
The idea of an evil child is scary to me, and supernatural evil children never cease to give me the willies in movies. Strange, then, that Samara didn't spook me out in The Ring Two like she did in the first one. Could part of it be that she wasn't played by Daveigh Chase in the sequel? Or is it the whole Freddy Krueger overuse syndrome? I just don't get it.
The audience found one of the scares chuckle-worthy, and another out and out hilarious. It was like the zipper gag in Something About Mary, for god's sake. I know I saw it with a cynical crowd, but hey, that can't be good.
Not finding this film scary has made me re-evaluate my whole life. I know we're supposed to be afraid when Samara takes over the little boy's body, but I was scared of him when the film first began. I didn't feel they'd dare let Samara win, even though there was a rather brave solution to the problem. I guess Horror works best when you don't trust the filmmakers to take the easy way out, when you don't know what the film will throw at you next, when you're not sure who will live and who will die.
Actually, the best sequence in the film is probably the one that makes the least sense. A herd of deer go crazy, attacking our heroes' car. Then they surround it and watch them until they drive away. They were computer-generated deer, but they looked pretty good.
Though the film did well, it wasn't nearly the phenomenon the first one was. If they make a third film (or is it a seventh film, counting the Japanese ones?), I doubt they'll get me in to see it.
Best Scare: There were a couple of fairly good moments where Naomi Watts gets grabbed by Samara. They should have worked better, though.
I'd Recommend It To: Low-expectation-having mothers
Posted: June 20, 2005

The tyranist's thoughts
I can categorically state that The Ring 2 is better than Ringu 2. For the first entries in these series, I thought the opposite, but for round 2, the American version has more punch, a better story, and ultimately, was just a more enjoyable film.
It helps that Naomi Watts is eminently watchable. Of course, that David Dorfman kid gives me the willies almost as much as Samara. The rest of the cast complements them nicely. Really this was a two acto show. Even Simon Baker's part was only secondary.
There were a few decent scares in this one, although it wasn't overwhelming. I think they did a better job with the atmosphere in this one than the first one, but then, I think setting it in a smaller town helped that a lot.
The plot suffers a little from being a sequel and the resolution is a little tidy, but I found myself really enjoying the movie. It may be that it is really a good movie, or it may be that most of what I've watched lately has been truly sub-par and anything slick enough to go down easy will look good.
At any rate, if you're a fan of the series, Japanese or American, this one is worth a look. It manages to play as firmly American, but it includes a couple nods to the original Japanese film as well. I liked it, and you might too.
Posted: February 21, 2006

Total Skulls: 21

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears		Sissy Spacek, Gary Cole, Elizabeth Perkins
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?