The Ring Two (2005)

Horrible, 21 December 2005

I usually begin one of these with a short synopsis of the plot, but with The Ring Two, I don't see any point. There's very little new ground covered or explored in this movie. While I found The Ring reasonably entertaining, it's a veritable masterpiece when compared with the sequel. The Ring Two lacks almost everything that made the first film enjoyable. Gone is the suspense and horror created by Samara. This is a problem with a lot of sequels, but in The Ring Two, Samara is presented with little fanfare or any real surprise from any of the characters. She's just there. Gone is the atmosphere. Atmosphere is replaced by cheap CGI effects and cheap jump scares. A CGI Samara is bad enough, but what was the idea behind those crazy CGI deer? Gone is any mystery. The search for Samara's origins was one of my favorite aspects of The Ring. The attempt at mystery here is hardly worth the effort. Most of it is a rehash of what we saw in the first movie.

But the part that bugged me the most was the decision to change the rules. In The Ring, Samara is tied to the videotape. She would appear seven days after the tape was watched to kill the viewer. Ten minutes into The Ring Two, the videotape is all but forgotten. Instead, we are presented with a whole new set of rules for Samara. She can now appear at any time. She can affect dreams. She can physically affect reality in some major ways.

Finally, what was Sissy Spacek doing in this movie? Have things really gotten so bad for actresses of Spacek's caliber that they have been reduced to making cameos in drivel like this?

2/10