Horror Movie Review: The Ring Two (2005)

The 2002 remake of Ringu (The Ring) was surprisingly well received by viewers and critics alike. Even I didn’t think it was completely terrible, although it does have some pacing issues among many other things. Ringu was a classic. I guess it shouldn’t come as too much of a shock when the remake doesn’t turn out to be total trash. The big question was could a sequel stand on its own. Could it give us something truly original and frightening without an original source material? Ringu had given The Ring a foundation to build upon but now it was all alone. This is, The Ring Two.

Six months after the events of the first film Rachel and her son Aidan have moved from Seattle to Astoria. Rachel begins a new job at a local newspaper, working for Max. Before long, there is news of a teenager’s death in town. Rachel investigates, finding the dead boy’s face shows a twisted expression of horror. It’s  just like the previous victims of Samara’s tape. Upon finding the boy’s corpse, she also has a vision of Samara. She grabs her and declares “I found you.” Rachel goes to the police station and persuades the girl who witnessed the boy’s death to tell her where the tape is. She takes the tape deep into the woods and burns it.

This seems to “release” Samara from the tape which gives her the ability to pretty much appear wherever she wants. If I understand correctly, her body is confined to the well but her spirit is free to roam around.

Aidan has a dream in which he comes down to the television room without Rachel home, and is pulled into the screen by Samara when the videotape starts. Back at home, Aidan starts to develop hypothermia, and his body is suddenly covered with bruises. At a county fair, Aidan takes pictures of himself in the bathroom mirror, with a blurred Samara standing behind him. His behaviour grows increasingly odd and distant (though it’s hard to tell), and while Rachel and Aidan drive home from the fair, a deer attacks their car, nearly killing them.

Aiden’s condition doesn’t improve as Samara continues to torment him. Further physical attacks eventually lead to social services stepping in and removing him from Rachel’s custody.  Rachel delves deeper into Samara’s past, learning that the Morgan’s were not her biological parents and of the strange circumstances surrounding her birth as well as the fact that her mother had attempted to drown her not long after.

Aiden is full on possessed by Samara so he escapes from hospital by forcing a doctor to inject themselves with what I can only assume is a sedative. Unfortunately it’s painfully clear that the syringe is empty which only makes it that much more hilarious.

It seems Samara intends to live inside the body of Aiden and have Rachel be her mother, sucks to be you Rachel. Rachel falls asleep and dreams of Aidan telling her how to release Samara from his body. After waking, Rachel tells Aidan/Samara that he should go to sleep. Aidan responds that he never sleeps. She crushes sleeping pills in a sandwich, and after eating, Aidan falls asleep.

Rachel fills the upstairs bathtub with water and holds an unconscious Aidan underwater. Aidan suddenly wakes up, telling Rachel that he is still Aidan. Rachel then drowns Aidan and Samara’s spirit leaves his body, and Rachel is then able to revive him. However, Samara attempts to come back into the house through the TV set. Rachel grabs onto Samara as she is emerging, and is pulled into Samara’s well inside the world of the cursed video.

Will Rachel escape? I hoped she wouldn’t but you can’t always have what you want I guess.

The Ring Two claims to take place 6 months after the first film when in actual fact it is 3 years and you can tell when it comes to how much older Aiden looks. You would think it has been 3 years with how casually he & Rachel have moved on with their lives, they actually own a Television! It’s hard to really separate the two movies when I think about it because they both feel so similar which is bad.

You get much more of a focused look at Samara, much more than necessary but I couldn’t help but feel as if there was something off with how she looked. Whatever they changed between the first movie and this one, it just didn’t work for me.

The worst thing about The Ring Two is easily Aiden, played by David Dorfman. I could have sworn this kid was practically asleep when delivering some of his lines; it’s infuriating to sit through. He looks so disinterested and shows a complete lack of emotion. Even in moments when he’s clearly supposed to be afraid, he looks bored. The best part of the film is when he slips into a coma. This is ironic because I could swear he had already been comatose up to that point. Sadly, it doesn’t last very long. He ruins loads of moments that are meant to evoke fear due to his lack of reaction. If he doesn’t care then why should I?

Once again, the parts between scares when Rachel is “investigating” are painfully dull to witness. There is some terrible CG on display with the whole deer attacking the car scene; I can’t forgive it simply because it’s 2005 as this is the same year King Kong released so it shouldn’t look this bad.

In the original the well was seen to be buried underneath that random cabin in the woods that Rachel visited; what the heck happened with that?

The Ring Two isn’t scary, it’s very boring. It had to stand on its own and couldn’t depend on original material to go off of which led to this unimaginative chore. I really wanted Samara to win…..