Considering that videotape is so passé nowadays -- what with DVD and Tivo-type devices all but making the once groundbreaking home video format obsolete -- I guess it's appropriate that the signature element found in the 2002 horror flick "The Ring" is only briefly present in the 2005 sequel before being destroyed.
In the original film -- itself a remake of the Japanese film "Ringu" -- that videotape had a nasty way of killing people seven days after they watched it (and no, that wasn't from their heads imploding from unsuccessfully trying to set the VCR clock). Faced with the pending doom-line, star Naomi Watt's resourceful, investigative reporter character got to the bottom of the story and seemingly lifted the curse.
Yet, in true horror franchise fashion, the filmmakers left the backdoor open for a sequel and thus we have the imaginatively titled, "The Ring Two." For better or worse, the follow-up doesn't simply regurgitate the material from its predecessor. In fact, after the opening scene makes it seem like it will, director Hideo Nakata (who directed "Ringu" and its sequel) and returning screenwriter Ehren Kruger ('Impostor") ceremoniously burn the tape and take the film in a new direction.
While they continue and delve deeper into the back-story from the first picture (with Watts' character doing more field research), they turn the story into a possession by spirit sort of tale. It's not of the head-spinning, projectile vomiting, rosary beads and holy water variety like "The Exorcist," but the creepy kid element is certainly present.
As are various scenes and the return of the dead girl's ghost, whose herky-jerky moves would have suited her well in the old Michael Jackson music video for "Thriller." Yes, there are some creepy and spooky moments, including a return to the water well from the first film (and an edge-of-your-seat, race-to-the-top sequence).
Unfortunately, what's missing is a decent script, not to mention an obvious lack of novelty. Part of the "fun" of the original effort was two-fold. First, there was the mystery needing to be solved element regarding the videotape, its origins and the overall back-story behind it that turned the film into a supernatural detective story.
Then there was the seven day countdown angle that obviously added a temporal catalyst to figure things out. While the latter could have been milked more efficiently in the first film, such urgency is all but missing her, save for that opening sequence. After that, the filmmakers seem content with letting the story unfold at its own pace which is leisurely at best.
In the place of temporal urgency, they've inserted parental quandaries in the theme of "to save your child (from the possession), you must kill him." While that's disturbing in theory, a related scene featuring a mother, her boy and a filled bathtub isn't as unsettling or powerful as it could and should have been.
While watching it, all I could think about was how more disturbing the drowning sequence in "The Abyss" was (where you felt the characters' angst of being pinned with their backs to the wall and no other way out than intentional drowning).
Here, and notwithstanding similar real life incidents, I didn't experience that gut-wrenching feeling of desperation, fear and hope that the plan would work. It simply feels like a cheap and manipulative ploy designed just to unsettle viewers. I'm sure it will have that effect on some, but the scene feels just as artificial and forced as most of the rest of the offering.
Trapped in a well-motivated but poorly written character who'd get "worst mother of the year" honors for some of her actions, Watts ("I Heart Huckabees," "The Assassination of Richard Nixon") simply can't do much with her part. David Dorfman ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Bounce"), who seemingly hasn't changed that much since the first film, creates a decent creepy kid effect, but it never goes much beyond that. The same holds true for Kelly Stables ("Bring It On Again") who takes on the role of the dead ghost girl.
New parts are played by the likes of Simon Baker ("The Affair of the Necklace," "Red Planet"), Elizabeth Perkins ("Cats & Dogs," "28 Days"), and even Sissy Spacek ("Tuck Everlasting," "In the Bedroom") and Gary Cole ("One Hour Photo," "Office Space") in very small roles, but they're similarly limited by the script.
With the novelty and mystery story elements used up in the first film, there just isn't much of anywhere for the filmmakers to take this one or generate much interest in exploring even more of the back-story. While there are some spooky moments, they stand apart from what's otherwise a mediocre and pretty much unnecessary sequel to a decently spooky original film. "The Ring Two" rates as a 3.5 out of 10.
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