The Ring Two **** (2005, Naomi Watts, David Dorfman, Sissy Spacek) – Classic Movie Review 2296

Sussex-born, Aussie-raised Naomi Watts returns to her star-making role – journalist Rachel Keller, in director Hideo Nakata’s sleek, super and scary 2005 sequel to the much milder 2002 surprise hit The Ring.

It’s six months after Watts has dealt with the first film’s killer videotape, and now she’s got a new job and co-worker in nice reporter Max Rourke (Simon Baker) but fear is following her…

High school student Jake (Ryan Merriman) tries to get his girlfriend Emily (Emily VanCamp) to watch a cursed videotape. Jake discovers Emily covered her eyes and he is killed by the evil ghost child Samara Morgan from the first The Ring movie. Rachel finds Jake’s twisted body in the back of an ambulance and realises she again has to save her son Aidan (David Dorfman) from Samara. Rachel’s boss and friend Max Rourke learns the truth about Samara too late.

Keeping it tense but commendably low-key and credible, Watts is again first rate as the mother of a young son (creepy David Dorfman) menaced again by the old ghost in the well, Samara (Kelly Stables). Director Hideo Nakata, who made the original Japanese Ring films, whips up a mesmerisingly eerie atmosphere, and a film that runs like your worst nightmares boasts plenty of jumps and scares on the way to with a nailbiting climax back at the well with the ghost hot on Watts’ heels.

In a posh-looking film, with a sleek-looking production and smart cinematography, there is persuasive acting all round, though Sissy Spacek gives a turn of especially high quality by as the ghost’s mad mum, Evelyn. Also in the cast are Gary Cole as Martin Savide, Elizabeth Perkins as Dr Emma Temple and Kelly Overton as Betsy. Daveigh Chase appears in archive footage as Samara.

With this one much creepier and more polished than the first, can’t wait for The Ring 3!

Well, in fact there was a long wait – until Rings in 2015, with Matilda Lutz and Alex Roe as her boyfriend Holt. The new story is a prequel, set several years before The Ring, focusing on the origins of Samara’s reign of terror and how the mysterious videotape was created. Pre-production on the movie kicked off in Atlanta in March 2015 under director F Javier Gutiérrez.

Based on the original Kôji Suzuki novel and the first film’s screenplay Ringu by Hiroshi Takahashi.

It runs 110 minutes in the theatrical release but 128 minutes in the unrated version.

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2296

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