The Ring Two (2005)

The Ring was one of the few examples of a well-done American remake of a Japanese horror film.  Directed by Gore Verbinski and written by Ehren Kruger the movie was an atmospheric film that owed a lot to both David Lynch's slow-burn style as well as old-fashioned horror.  It was different than 1998's Ringu, the adaptation of Kôji Suzuki's novel on which it was based, but contained the major elements of the story and set them in the Pacific Northwest instead of coastal Japan. 

Hideo Nakata, who directed Ringu, also directed its sequel in 1999.  Though not as highly regarded as the original it was still a hit and continued the story of the ghost Sadako and the haunted video tape that caused people to die in seven days.  Since Verbinski had gone on to other projects and The Ring had made a decent amount on a modest budget Paramount decided, after a number of other directors passed on it, to bring Nakata over from Japan to do the sequel to the American version.  This one, also written by Kruger, was a completely new story rather than being a remake of Ring 2.  

Six months after the events in The Ring Rachel (Naomi Watts) and her son Aidan (David Dorfman) have left Seattle and settled in Astoria, Oregon.  She has taken a job as an editor on the small town's newspaper and is looking forward to restarting her life.  Unfortunately, those hopes are dashed when a local teenager dies from watching a copy of one of the tapes.  Rachel had figured out that to survive the curse a copy of the tape had to be made for someone else to watch, and had done so to save Aidan's life, but she thought there was only one copy floating around. 

Rachel obtains the tape and burns it, but that only frees Samara, who then attempts to possess Aidan.  The attempts are scene by local doctors as abuse on the part of Rachel.  While separated from Aidan she goes in search of more answers and to find Samara's real mother (Sissy Spacek), who is incarcerated in an insane asylum.  The answer to saving Aidan, unfortunately, may be a step further than Rachel is willing to go. 

Although Hideo Nakata is directed and actually made the effort to make a good movie, according to him he was plagued by Paramount executives looking over his shoulders and demanding changes even as scenes were being shot.  Naomi Watts herself had returned under duress as she had to fulfill a contractual obligation, and Dorfman had visibly aged more than six months when this was made.  Daveigh Chase, who had played Samara in the first one, could not return for the same reason, and so for the most part Samara's footage is archival or outtakes from the first movie.

The result is a movie that covers much of the same ground as the first, only changing superficial elements - elk instead of a horse, a guy named Max instead of her boyfriend Noah and a search for Samara's real mom instead of adoptive parents.  The one thing that is not the same is that the whole main conceit of the first film, as well as the entire idea of how Samara kills, is abandoned early on.  The idea was an old style haunting using what was then modern technology.  Although visually there are some interesting scenes the fact that anything that sets Samara apart from any other ghost is gone.  We are left with the same rote possession story from hundreds of other better movies. 

Watts, to her credit, still gives a decent performance despite the fact that she didn't want to be there.  Nakata has a completely different visual style than Verbinski had envisioned for the first movie, often showing the aftermath of rain showers rather than the dim constant drizzle of the first, and there is certainly much more color.  I have no idea how much Kruger's story actually got through, or if from about the first few minutes some bald guy in a suit chomping on a cigar said, "Does it really have to be a video tape?" and just destroyed the whole concept.

Whatever happened, Nakata disowned the film, went back to Japan and vowed never to do another Hollywood movie again.  The second sequel, Rings, didn't come out until 2017, and by that time the whole Asian supernatural movie (at least the ones with the ghosts with the hair over their face) fad was past and no one in that film had any previous association with this one; in fact, it completely ignored the events of The Ring Two.  If anything this initially brought an early end to a series while still leaving the original film pretty much unscathed, as it is perfectly watchable (and has a decent ending) without adding on numerous sequels.

The Ring Two (2005)

Time: 110 minutes

Starring: Naomi Watts, David Dorfman, Simon Baker

Director: Hideo Nakata