The Ring 2

When the Japanese film Ringu was remade a couple of years ago I was new to the whole saga. I really liked the remake. Since then I have watched the original, and to be honest didn't like it at all. Many reviews talk about the horror of it that was not recreated in the remake, but I guess I missed it. Even so when I heard that a sequel was being made with the original director of Ringu at the helm I couldn't help but get excited. All the teaser trailers and posters looked great as well so I went it with high expectations, maybe this is one of the reasons I feel so disappointed by the resulting film. Picking up two years after the original the story once again focuses on mother Rachel (Naomi Watts) and son Aiden as they try and settle into their new Samara free life in a small town away from the city. But, you guessed it, that video tape has managed to find its way to the area and once again they find Samara after them, however this time it is through possessing Aiden that she wreaks havoc not through the old tape player. Maybe the fact that DVD is so common now, or just the fear of repeating the original led to this change but it immediately confuses the plot and legend. Having Samara just abandon her video-tape exploits simply doesn't make sense and new elements of her 'powers' are just as baffling. The first film managed to stay just the right side of the ridiculous with a real sense of fear against the slightly (lets face it) silly premise of the idea. Now having Samara just do whatever she wants and can may make the characters in the film less safe, but it gives the audience nothing to cling on to. No reason or explanation, just some impressive special effects. Add to this the fact that there are hardly any other characters in this film apart from the main two, and those that there are are severely underwritten, means it fails to grab your interest. Naomi Watts does her best but her character remains thin and her son is just plain creepy anyway, so as far as sympathy goes there isn't much around. I don't know what it was exactly, but this film just didn't capture me at all. It felt boring and slow at times, and failed to deliver any real scares or deaths which means most horror fans are going to be disappointed. The trouble is there are some really interesting ideas presented here and some that do warrant a further examination of the Samara legend. I hate unnecessary sequels but this felt natural, its just a shame with the direction it took. The ideas about Rachel being suspected of child abuse was good, but went nowhere. The opening section where kids have been watching the tape, waiting to as close to a week as they could before passing it on for a 'thrill' was good as well but then totally abandoned. It just felt that the makers thought of some cool scenes such as in the well, or with the deer, and then found a way of making it fit the story, but it never quite worked. The film isn't completely terrible, the direction can be suspenseful and arty at times with some beautiful shots, but the package is just a ghost of what it could have been. With a nonsensical plot and dull characters and very few 'scares' this is a poor effort. Lets just hope the series stops here. A disappointing sequel in every sense, this is a shadow of the original with some good ideas but terrible execution meaning it doesn't scare or make any kind of cohesive sense, let alone entertain. Shame.