A few months after narrowly escaping death by videotape, Rachel Keller and her son, Aiden, are settling down in a new town where Rachel has a job as a crime reporter. Then a death occurs that Rachel suspects may have links to the videotape and Samara, the girl who instigated the previous spate of deaths. When Aiden appears to have been taken over by an evil spirit, Rachel is convinced that Samara is back on their track. Can she and Aiden keep Samara at a distance or are they doomed to die as so many others already have?
I have enjoyed watching Japanese horror for some time now; the recent spate of Hollywood films based on Japanese horror clearly proves a lot of other people feel much the same way. On the whole, though, I have not been impressed by Hollywood remakes and prefer to stick to the originals. However, I did enjoy remake of The Ring, although it wasn't without its faults, and based on that, thought it was worth looking up the second one.
Naomi Watts reappears as Rachel Keller. I am always in two minds about Watts as an actress. I generally
think she's quite bland, but I thought her performance in Painted Veil more than made up for it. As Rachel, she is not quite bland - I found her extremely irritating on occasion - but I certainly didn't think she was all that brilliant. I'm not quite sure why I found her irritating - at least some of the time it was because I felt her behaviour wasn't very convincing, but that could have been more to do with the director than her acting. I haven't completely written her off as an actress, but I must admit I wouldn't go out of my way to see any of her other work after this.
David Dorfman, who played Aiden in the original remake, returns in this one. This is quite a difficult role for such a young actor, so it is perhaps not a surprise that at times I found him really unrealistic and, like his mother, incredibly annoying. The part of the film that I most liked was when he was practically catatonic. I am perhaps being unfair, but there are plenty of child actors out there that I think could have done a much better job.
Sissy Spacek appears for a few short minutes as Samara's mother. In a mental institution, she is clearly not supposed to look very well; actually the make-up department did such a good job that I didn't recognise her. Samara appears in two guises; one footage from the original film, played by Daveigh Chase, the other played by Kelly Stables. To be honest though, it could have been anyone - she appears with her black hair all over her face and has no recognisable features. That shouldn't be a problem, but I would have preferred to have a figure to identify with - as it was, she was just a thing that I found hard to either hate or feel sorry for.
I think that most people who watch The Ring Two will have already seen the first film. It is not exactly vital that you have, but I think it really helps. This second film is very much a sequel that presumes you at least vaguely know the story of Samara and the videotape; if you don't, you will probably work it out eventually - if you manage to stay interested. Unlike the first one, which had several layers to it, The Ring Two has very little depth to it, and I found that once it had been proved that Samara was back, I wasn't all that bothered about what happened next. In fact, had Rachel and Aiden pegged it, I would have been quite happy. That is not the sign of a good film.
Another annoying aspect to the film was a child abuse storyline that took over, rather than ran parallel to, the main story. Whereas I could understand why it developed, I didn't think it was at all necessary to the main plot and it just ended up being annoying padding. By the time the ending came, I breathed a sigh of relief because I was really getting bored and wanted it to end.
The film isn't all bad. There are some truly scary moments and some great special effects. I particularly liked the scene where Rachel and Aiden are set upon by killer deer - it was really unexpected and frightening. Shame they couldn't have finished them off really. Other scenes are less believable. The effects were clearly added afterwards, which may sound obvious, but other horror films have been made to much greater effect. In this one, I really noticed the fakeness, not helped by Naomi Watts' and David Dorfman's wooden acting. There is a rating of 15, which is not particularly high for a horror, but I think this is fair enough, because it is more the suspense and the possibility of what might happen that is scary rather than what is actually shown.
If you really liked the first film and want some closure, then it is probably worth watching The Ring Two. If you haven't seen the first one, or didn't like it, don't bother with this one. It is a rather disappointing sequel and although not completely dire, it certainly could have been done so much better. There was so much promise there. Not recommended.
The DVD is available from play.com for £4.99, but I'm sure it will be available from Ebay for much less.
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