The Ring 2 (2005)

Let me preface this review with saying I loved The Ring. It is one of the few films that turns me into a trembling, sniveling shadow of my former self EVERY time I watch it. In fact, I enjoyed The Ring more than the original Ringu. It is a genuinely creepy film that gets under my skin every time. After watching The Ring, I was petrified of all unlabeled VHS tapes. I even went through all my VHS to make sure they were labeled...if they weren't I HAD to watch them (for the safety of humanity!) to make sure they weren't THE tape.

The Ring left such a strong impression on me, I was hoping The Ring 2 would have at least a little bit of that chutzpah. I knew it would probably be pretty bad, but I just wanted to be scared, or at the very least creeped out. No. Such. Luck.

Rachel and her son Aidan have moved to a small town in Oregon to get away from the memories of what happened in Seattle. They settle down to try to lead a normal life, one that doesn't involve a vengeful ghost of a girl down a well. Rachel, working at the town's small newspaper, learns of the death of a boy who was found in front of his TV, his house flooded, his scared girlfriend hiding in the basement. She has a hunch that Samara and the tape are back, and boy is she right! It appears Samara is after Rachel and Aidan, not for their lives, but for their life. Now Rachel must figure out how to get Samara out of their lives for good...

Ugh...they COULD have done so much with this movie. It was not scary at all. In fact, I jumped only once - that was within the first 10 minutes. Speaking of the opening, I felt like I was in a cheesy teenybopper slasher flick. It was too damn generic. After the infamous video was played, we learn teenybopper boy made teenybopper girl watch it in order for him to survive. She ends up covering her eyes and not watching it, much to the chagrin of teenybopper boy. Now for the ONE scene that scared me - it was a shot of Samara's hand reaching out of the well. That's it! It was a surprise scare, too, which doesn't count in my book. It's just a cheap trick. Anyone can do a surprise scare with the right music and editing.

Whereas The Ring built up dread through it's blue-imbued atmosphere and the unraveling of the mystery, The Ring 2 relied heavily on deer and water imagery. I will not dignify the awful deer scene, but let's just say I felt like I was stuck in a very bad 50s creature-feature.

I felt no dread during this sequel - I just awaited the next laughable scene. Samara's adoption story seemed tacked on and created to give an easy solution on how to get rid of her, though I did enjoy seeing Sissy Spacek in the role of Samara's birth mother.

The Ring 2 was a letdown. It was not scary, it was not creepy, it just plodded along until the lackluster ending. That's it - BORING!

Check it out on Amazon!