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The Ring Two (2005)
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Movie Review by Kathleen
March 16th, 2005
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In October of 2002, there was a revolution in American cinema. A spare, quiet, utterly terrifying film opened in theaters nationwide-- and it was the start of a phenomenon.
Gore Verbinski directed THE RING, adapted from the Japanese film RINGU. Journalist Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) investigates a strange videotape when her niece dies a week after watching it. Rachel, her son Aiden (David Dorfman), and Aiden's father Noah (Martin Henderson) have horrifying encounters with a murdered little girl named Samara (Daveigh Chase). Crazed with a supernatural wrath, Samara's unearthly rage created this deadly video. THE RING forever altered the American moviegoing experience by introducing a new genre of horror film: the American remake of the Japanese horror film.
Full disclosure: THE RING is my favorite movie. It is flawless. Its minimalist approach only magnified how absolutely terrifying it was. And it accomplished this without a speck of gore.
THE RING 2 was directed by Hideo Nakata (director: RINGU, RINGU 2). Rachel and Aiden have moved away from Seattle, but their attempts to outrun their past are unsuccessful.
I had my doubts. You know how sequels can be. They can range from pointless (EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING, AUSTIN POWERS 2) to so awful that they sabotage the entire franchise (BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2, THE MATRIX RELOADED). But to my enormous relief, this sequel was amazing. Samara, desperate to live again, somehow takes over young Aiden's body. Rachel and Aiden once again cast about frantically for some way to defeat the undefeatable.
We learn more of Samara's history in this film when Rachel finds Samara's birth mother. Evelyn (Sissy Spacek) is a dried husk of a woman, her mind still fried from her short time as Samara's mother. When she tried to drown the infant Samara, Samara was taken away and adopted. Evelyn has been institutionalized ever since. Evelyn's monologue about Samara reaches heights of creepiness never before achieved onscreen.
I'll be honest, THE RING 2 isn't perfect. Serious plot holes litter the landscape; try not overthink the whys and hows. There's a faintly absurd scene where several full-grown bucks attack Rachel and Aiden. Still, the CG is respectable, and the scene is scary nonetheless. Also, we get a bewildering moment of comic relief when Rachel meets a real estate agent (Gary Cole ) trying to sell the Morgan horse farm, who gamely struggles to obscure the property's awful history. His entire role seemed out of place, but to be honest, I was grateful for anything that could relieve the tension.
Overall, this was a great film, and an imperfect but respectable follow-up to its peerless predecessor. I look forward to at least one other sequel. (Writers: the question of Samara's father remains unaddressed!) Readers, I strongly urge you to see this film.
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