The Ring Two (Unrated Widescreen Edition)

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Product Description
Six months after the frightening rampage by samara & the cursed videotape that left so much death & terror in its wake rachel & her son start a new life in a small oregon town. But when evidence at a local crime scene includes a mysterious unmarked videotape rachel realizes the nightmare hasnt ended. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/01/2007 Starring: Naomi Watts David Dorfman Rating: Ur

Amazon.com
Most contemporary horror movies depend upon a series of sudden jolts, executed with the finesse of a cattle-prod, to keep their audiences awake. The Ring Two offers something far more interesting: A slow but relentless creepiness that might just linger in your mind when the movie is over. A few months after the events of the first Ring, journalist Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive) and her son Aidan (David Dorfman, A Wrinkle in Time) have fled to a small town on the Oregon coast to get over their awful experience with a cursed videotape. Of course, a copy of the videotape finds its way there, and soon the troubled spirit of a girl with long, face-obscuring black hair is worming her way into Rachel and Aidan's lives by worming her way into Aidan's flesh. As a story with a coherent beginning, middle, and end, The Ring Two is full of holes; but as a series of surreal and evocative images accumulating into a dislocating sense of dread, The Ring Two holds up. In fact, at one point the movie becomes so dreamlike in its flow that it verges on avant-garde. The source of this alluring eeriness is the director, Hideo Nakata, who directed the Japanese Ringu, on which The Ring was based. Also featuring Gary Cole (Office Space) and Sissy Spacek (Carrie). --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews: Read 299 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

First you see the Ring... then you see the sequel August 4, 2005
62 out of 80 found this review helpful

As a rule, sequels are terrible. And "The Ring Two" is not so much terrible as it is ordinary. It's graced with an outstanding performance by Naomi Watts and some truly creepy scenes, but it lacks the visceral direction of the first movie. In short, it's a sequel.

As the story opens, we see a slimy-looking boy tricking his girlfriend into watching (drumroll please) The Tape (anyone who saw the short film "Rings" will see the backdrop). As we know from "The Ring," if you get someone else doomed by the tape, you get to live and they die. But things don't turn out so well for the boy. Meanwhile, Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) is fleeing to a rural town with her son Aidan (David Dorfman). They thought they had managed to destroy the evil Samara's curse, but of course they were wrong.

And no sooner have they settled down, than Rachel finds signs of Samara's presence. A young boy has died inexplicably, left with a hideous facial deformity. When Rachel confirms that it was Samara who killed him, she finds that Samara is now targeting Aidan's. In a nutshell, she wants to possess him. Now Rachel must delve into Samara's past to find a possible way to stop him -- or risk losing her son to Samara.

"The Ring" revamped the modern horror genre, casting aside CGI ghosts and machete-wielding wackos in favor of subtle horror and demon-children. Not to mention getting Hollywood interested in Japanese horror movies. In short, it was a horror hit that deserved to be one. But "The Ring Two" is merely adequate, not really good.

Maybe the biggest problem of "The Ring Two" is that it has no bedrock to stand on. Author Koji Suzuki wrote a sequel called "Spiral," which was then adapted into the movie "Rasen." But "The Ring Two" has no such grounding. It's just a free-floating Hollywood sequel, to a movie which was remake of a Japanese movie adapted from a book. Given those stats, it's amazing that it's as good as it is.

Director Hideo Nakata, of the Japanese "Ringu" films, was brought in to replace Gore Verbinski. But while he does a competant job, the film lacks the quick cuts, fast-forwarding and sense of pervasive horror. Instead, we get water on the ceiling -- pretty and moderately creepy, but very obvious. The laughable deer attack was just random, especially as Samara has no connection with deer. And Samara's occasional "boo!" appearances take away from her creepiness -- whatever happened to "less is more"?

Not to say that there is no creepiness and no subtlety. Samara alone accounts for much of them -- she slinks around like a less deteriorated version of Gollum, and seeks a "mommy." Nakata does a good job with the odd symbolism injected into the film, such as the ever-present water all over the place. (Interestingly, Nakata also directed the Japanese adaptation of Suzuki's "Dark Water." A bit of seepage?)

Samara aside, much of the creepiness comes from Naomi Watts' performance -- as in the first "Ring" movie, she exudes a taut, quietly frantic demeanor, while keeping herself focused. She gives what is undoubtedly the best performance here. Sissy Spacek gives a solid if brief performance as Samara's birth mother, but Dorfman is pallid as Watts' son.

It quite obviously is leaving the way open for "Ring Three," which is either a thrill or a chill. Taken alone, "The Ring Two" isn't a bad movie, but it suffers badly when set next to its predecessor.

4 out of 5 stars

The Special Feature August 28, 2005
25 out of 34 found this review helpful

I'm not going to waste your time trashing the film of exposing plot points. Instead I hope to bridge a gap that reviews seem to be leaving out.

All the reviews of the movie center on "how bad it is," but there's a little tasty treat mixed up in the DvD that not many people are talking about. Originally released as "Rings," a gap to bridge the span between movies, there's a short tale that spans the two and tells its watcher about "Ring Groups" that begin popping up when people hear about the video. Thrill-seekers, wanting to know what they'll find, begin watching the tapes and recording everything they see, showcasing the bizarre events that everyone else experiences. As an audience we tag along with one of these groups, and their attempts to document the oddities like we've seen in the first Ring movie.
And its frightening, even if its short.

As for the movie, it has some portions of it that are enlightening, some that are disappointing, and a theme that doesn't really do the dance that the Japanese sequel offered. I didn't expect anything from it, however, and wasn't horrible disappointed in what I saw. It had a lot of "this and that's" that did make it more than the release in the theaters, making me feel better about spending my money. And I got Rings for free as a special feature, so that worked for me.

RENT it, don't expect so much, and maybe you'll like it. Just watch the special features, for sure.

3 out of 5 stars

Some Info on UNRATED Version August 22, 2005
17 out of 19 found this review helpful

the differences in the unrated version don't add any extra gore as some of you might think. the beginning scene is extended and extra character development is added back in. the editing and music in some parts is different and it flows much nicer. the only bad thing is that the editing and extra scenes stop halfway through the movie and don't stop this movie from being a sub-par horror flick.

3 out of 5 stars

Suspenseful sequel to "The Ring" quite a bit different March 18, 2005
16 out of 19 found this review helpful

Coming off as a pale imitation of "The Exorcist", "The Ring Two" has its moments of jolting horror and surprise. While it can't possibly compare to the original US remake, "The Ring Two" has two important things going for it-- Naomi Watts and David Dorfman from the first film. Watts returns as Rachel Keller and Dorfman as her son Aidan. The two have nice chemistry on screen together so it's natural to believe that they are really mother and son in this sequel. By avoiding the pitfalls of most sequels (redoing the best bits, making it bigger and badder than the original), the film also stumbles a bit; the psychological suspense thriller this morphs into will disappoint some fans of the first film. Sadly none of the other supporting characters are developed all that well. That's not to suggest that this isn't a good film; it's best moments including a stunning attack by nature, a bizarre incident in the bathroom and some truly creepy moments make this a worthy if lesser movie than the original.

In this case, the story focuses much more on the personal side of things. Naomi Watts returns as Rachel Keller who has relocated along with her son Aidan to a small town. When the videotape shows up in her small town, Rachel feels responsible for the death of a teenager. She believes that the evil has followed her and she won't let Samara spoil their new world. When it becomes clear that Samara wants something from her and Aidan, Rachel and her son must fight for their lives to escape this evil child-thing.

First for those who watched "Ringu 2" this isn't a remake of the first film. While elements of that plot are incorporated into this film, its plot veers off in its own direction. Director Hideo Nakata (who directed the Japanese original of "Ringu" and "Ringu 2" as well as co-writing them)keeps the pace moving along nicely. Although a bit disjointed at times (it feels as large portions of the film were excised), it works quite well. Although it isn't quite as gripping as the original US film, "Ring Two" works much more as a suspense thriller than a horror film; it focuses the story much more on the personal relationship between Rachel and Aidan and the personal threat they face from Samara. With some nice cameos (Gary Cole, Elizabeth Perkins and Sissy Spacek)to support the main cast, the film proves to be a superior, different sequel but not an improvement on the first film.

The creepiest set pieces remind me more of the film "The Omen" than they do something out of the first film. I'd suggest (unless you want to spoil the film for yourself) to ignore a lot of the reviews with too much details of the plot. "Ring Two" seems to be much more a psychological thriller than the first film with just enough jolts to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

Certainly lower key than the first film and focused much more on build up than the pay off, "The Ring Two" will disappoint fans that want gore (either blood or director Verbinski)but will remain interesting for fans of psychological horror films. What ultimately pays off for the film is the strong relationship between mother and son and the actors playing them.

1 out of 5 stars

I wanted my money back July 11, 2005
9 out of 14 found this review helpful

I saw this opening day, expecting an even better movie than the first ring. I loved the first one. I saw it in theaters twice, and was actually scared. I bought the dvd. I thought the first one was great, and so i was looking forward to the ring 2. Although it looked not as good in the previews, I kept my hopes up. Man, what a horrible turn. This movie isnt even related to the first one IMO. The first movie was actually about the video tape, and the curse that samara set on the people who watched it. This movie is all about samara trying to posess aiden. WTF? How is this a sequel. I felt i was watching a cheap rip off of the exorcist. I laughed more in this movie than in most of the comedies that have come out lately. After it was over, i was so angry. This movie had no point at all. The ending is so stupid, i was amazed at how horrible it was. How could they possibly ruin the ring franchise like this? I hope there wont be any more sequels. Whats even more shocking is that the director who directed the original ringu films from japan made this film. How can you mess up your own franchise? Well, he did. Please do not see this film, and give the creator and studios more money. Hopefully with the low box office sales they will not make another one, but they probably will. Another one is in talks. NOOOOO!

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