The Ring Two (2005, DVD)

"The Ring Two" stars Naomi Watts and David Dorfman reprising their roles as Rachel and Aiden Keller, a family plagued by Samara Morgan, a demon child that created a video tape after death that showed horrifying images and killed the viewers seven days after they watch it. The original was met with great praise, labeled by critics as the scariest movie since "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby", even though I didn't find it scary at all, just a good mystery. In "The Ring Two", Rachel and Aiden have moved to a new town, and evidence arises that a local death may have been caused by a mysterious video tape. This inspires Rachel, a reporter, to investigate.

Most critics don't like this film because it doesn't have the "atmosphere" of the original. Since I've read the books and now how vastly different the first is from the second, I didn't expect it to. You can't expect it to, anyway, seeing as how they have two different directors. I'm quite sure this movie would have been better if Gore Verbinski had been on to direct, but the studio hired the director of the Japanese film. It didn't work for "The Grudge" and it didn't work for this, but it turned out better than what I expected.

In "The Ring" the mystery of the video tape was revealed, including where it came from and the history of who made it. (Though I will admit, they could have explained it better. The book does.) In "The Ring Two", we know what there is to fear so all there is left to do is throw it at us and see what happens. They try something new though, that slightly resembles what occurs at the very end of the book, but is much different and happens in the middle. I didn't like how they just threw the idea of Samara being adopted at us. I wish they had explained it. They also kind of overexagerated on the water. After a fact about the villain is later revealed, it kind of makes sense but not really. I just hope fans react to "Dark Water" well when they see it. I also really liked the scene at the end with the well. There seems to be a scene like that at the end of both of them, one that shocks you and makes you flip out. (The first being where she crawls out of the TV.) All in all, it was a very cool movie, one of the better ones I've seen recently. I'd give it 10/10 because it did everything I thought it should. They did close it off, but I still expect a third. Why wouldn't they do it?

I was hoping to rent the "ring 2" in order to get an explanation
about the original "ring" there was never really an explanation as to
where this tape came from. I figured if "ring 2" explained something, I will re-watch "ring 1" and enjoy it more than I did the first time around....it didn't happen. I thought this movie was extremely boring...at least the first one had some exciting moments. I am expecting "ring 3" will come out and maybe it'll be a dvd instead of tape..who knows? who cares?