The Ring Two

I'm not a horror fan at all, but got invited to this screening and decided to go see what all the hoopla was about. What I got was an interesting piece which I might sooner qualify as a supernatural thriller than a horror movie (but I guess that's what J-horror movies are). Sure, it's quite gross in a couple of places and there are a few heart-stopping moments as well, but what really impressed me was that the entire movie, from the first minute to the last, is filled with this weird kind of suspenseful energy. Even when literally nothing particularly frightening in itself is going on, it still feels «off», it's still unsettling, uncomfortable, on edge. And that for me was the strength of this movie. Not having seen Hideo Nakata's previous Ringu movies, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that he seems to be a master of creating an atmosphere scarier than any special-effect driven sequence could. All the actors did a good job as well – and Sissy Spacek's cameo was a nice touch – though I would have liked to have seen a bit more background to the Max-Rachel relationship. All in all, I predict a good show at the box-office for this one!

Aidan (David Dorfman) and Rachel (Naomi Watts) have moved to a small town in Oregon. However the videotape seems to have followed them after Rachel finds another one of those strange deaths. Rachel takes the tape and burns it. Samara starts coming after Aidan, and Rachel must dig up the past to put it to rest.

The great thing about this sequel is that the actors came back to finish the story off. It's interesting to go back to the source story. However the franchise can't surprise the audience any more. It was a nice fresh idea in the first movie, but the sequel can't shock us anymore. It's a good wrap up. I hope they don't keep dragging this out like other franchises.

I liked the first movie, and actually i liked this one two. It is not that bad as a lot of people say, but it is not as good as the first one. What I liked in the first movie, that it was horror movie, and along with that something like a detective movie, Rachel was looking for information about the events happening, and in this movie, there is less of this detective stuff. Second thing I didn't like is directing, or maybe not the directing itself, but (I'm not from English speaking country, and don't know a lot about the movie terms=) the picture, the colors and effects. My taste is a bit different, the picture (I mean everything you see on the screen) was a bit ad hoc, untidy. The effects are also not that good. Despite all these minuses, the movie is still quite interesting, and if you like "The Ring" and this story and the first movie is not enough, this is better than nothing.

The Ring Two is a pretty good sequel for what it was, but it was not like the first one. I guess that is to be expected when you learn everything in the first movie, therefore it goes straight to the horror in the second movie. This was just about as creepy as the first, but the continuity between the two movies did not quite add up. For example, you do not automatically die in 7 days if you see the video but, if you can get someone else to watch it within that time, the curse is transfered over to them. Also, Samara (Kelly Stables), is not bound to the 7 days for those that have seen the tape in the original movie. She is nearly omnipotent, as the only place where you can talk and she can not hear is in your sleep. A little hard to make sense of, but the movie does a good job.

Rachel and Aidan Keller (Naomi Watts & David Dorfman) move to a small, new town to escape the horror of what they have just been through just 6 months earlier. Thinking they had destroyed the last copy of the tape and they were safe, somehow another copy has resurfaced in the small town they were in and Samara has killed yet again. When Rachel shows up at the scene and looks at the face, I assume to make sure it is the same as before, Samara had found her, and stalks her son, Aidan throughout the movie and eventually possesses him.

I can not really go too far into the story without giving a lot away, but there are many scenes which will always stand out and will no doubt be spoofed my movies like Scary Movie and others like it. Most notably, the deer scene was great. That made the movie for me, but there were others that were good, too. While I think this movie was not as good as the first, it does not make a complete mockery of itself either (like Jeepers Creepers 2). It is very good. 7.5/10

The Ring was my favourite film of 2002, the best horror film I'd seen in ages, and I subsequently saw and enjoyed (with the exception of Ring 0 - What the hell was that?) all the Japanese films as well.

So when I heard that the director of the original films was set to do the second "remake", it was suitably excited. Imagine what he could do with a bigger budget and better technology? It is however, not even close to the first, and such improvements don't surface (same CGI, C-list Hallmark Channel cast). It does manage to keep you nervous throughout, but the proper scares are too infrequent and it appears to take itself too seriously. This is all too evident when the creepiest kid in cinema is admitted to hospital and The Ring 2 turns into a child abuse drama for around twenty minutes, leaving you wondering when it'll pick up a bit again.

It's also the kind of film that demands that you re-watch the first one before you go to see it; the opening makes no sense unless you've seen "Rings" on the Collectors Edition DVD, and there's a ton of stuff that may have easily been forgotten if you saw the film three years ago.

It's alright; it's a horror sequel-remake thing, so you don't expect too much and you wont be disappointed, but you can't help but think it could have been done a bit better.