The Ring Two

As with The Sin Eater, if the title is poor, you can expect the film to follow suit. The Ring Two just does not flow. Furthermore, the title doesn't truly reflect the content of the film. It is as much about rings and videotape as The Sin Eater is about eating naughty things.

The tension of the first was that if you watched the tape, which contained a string of disturbing and random images, you would receive a phone call telling you that you had seven days to live. Cue a race against time to copy the tape and pass the virus onto someone else. This disappointing... no, that doesn't quite cover it... this appalling sequel deals instead with demon possession and maternal exorcism.

Cliched to the point of being scream-out-loud irritating, The Ring Two has the audacity to move as slowly as The Omen, without providing fright bites at any point in its trying-too-hard-to-be-confusing plot. The single saving grace is one exciting scene, in which a herd of deer charge at Rachel (Naomi Watts) and Aidan (David Dorfman), as they sit in their car. Beyond this, I struggled to remain conscious.

There is something twitchy about Aidan that makes him appear psychologically disturbed. This is enhanced by his spooky insistence on calling his mother by her first name. It becomes quickly apparent that he is an irritating little boy with a fragile, disconnected relationship with his suffocating mother. The coldness of his character, combined with the chilly nature of their interaction, makes the plot feel empty and uninteresting, since it's all about possession and being a mother and being a son, etc.

The director, Hideo Nakata, seems intent on creating suspense by moving the camera as slowly as possible, with Hans Zimmer's swirling score creeping up in volume. This technique is simply not enough for a modern, desensitised audience. He splices images from the video into the film, attempting to heighten its edgy feel, showing us how this moment in the plot echoes back to a certain point in the tape. This fails to make the film richer symbolically and demonstrates a certain disdain for the audience, assuming that without this visual aid they would be unable to remember what the significance of a mountaintop, or a fly, is.

The Ring Two is vastly irritating to watch, uninvolving, redundant of fear and tension, with the symbolism and richness of a puddle. I would rather watch a video that kills me than sit through this again.