Around Again
The Ring 2 Director: Hideo Nakata; Starring: Naomi Watts, David Dorfman
Much of the first Ring film’s success was down to the decision to jettison traditional horror film gore for psychological thrills. The plot concerned a video which, if watched, would cause you to die a week later. The characters of that film defeated the curse: good for them, not so useful for Dream- Works’ plans for a sequel. In this second outing the dreaded tape is destroyed by Rachel (Watts), only to release the ghost girl, Samara, into the real world.
Said girl decides she wants a new life, and takes over the body of Rachel’s son. Yes, the plot is mindless hokum, but it gives director Nakata ample scope to scare the wits out of the audience. Instead of building on the unease that permeated the first film, he chooses instead to have Samara jump out of harmless-looking objects every five minutes. The technique is cheap, but effective. The film moves along well and only stumbles with Dorfman’s clichéd performance as the possessed child.
Scary smiles and gentle cooing of the word ‘Mommy’ does not a monster make. Ultimately, The Ring Two is silly, dumb fun. Just don’t expect to eat all your popcorn.
21st Apr 2005