THE RING TWO

Rachel Keller and her son Aidan have survived a terrible experience and are trying to rebuild their lives: new city, new job, and a clean break with the ghosts of the past. Despite this, the urban legend of the videotape that kills after a week continues to spread, especially among teenagers on the West Coast, and when it claims another victim in the small community of Asheville, Rachel is plunged back into the nightmare: she fears for her son's life, but soon she will realize that there are fates sometimes worse than death… The long-awaited American sequel to "Ring" has finally arrived: for this project, Dreamworks decided to rely on the Japanese director behind the success of "Ringu", Hideo Nakata, a somewhat risky choice (since "Ring 2" made in Japan had not been appreciated in the West) but which ultimately proved to be a good one. In fact, the film does not follow the plot of "Ringu 2" (we should get used to calling it that) because many ideas from the Japanese sequel had already been used in the first American "Ring" (remember that "Ringu" is about half an hour shorter than the American remake), rather it seeks its own path, so it is not a remake of the sequel but a sequel of the remake, if you will permit the pun… Comparing "Ring Two" with its sequel, it is immediately noticeable that Nakata has succeeded in giving the film his own stamp, giving it a less "teenage horror" cut compared to that of Gore Verbinski. Certainly, the story is more suited to his directing style, although the film clearly speaks American and cannot be compared to his works from the '90s: it is true that the film begins with a sequence very similar to the opening of "Ringu" (although in this case the boy tries to show the video to a classmate to free himself from the curse) but the pace is much higher than in "Ringu" and "Ringu 2", with much more action and fewer silences. It is also important to note a certain influence of "Resen", the much-maligned first sequel to "Ringu", from which the idea is taken that the curse "mutates" and that Samara's new (or old?) goal is not to make her story known to as many people as possible but rather to come back to life "by proxy": it is true that this idea is mildly present in "Ringu 2", but in this case the similarities to "Resen" are more evident: the action shifts from the tape (it seems that the last copy in the world is destroyed as in Suzuki's book) to the attempt to possess Aidan. Although the screenplay is in itself good, there are noticeable inconsistencies both with Verbinski's film and within the film itself, many good ideas are wasted or not sufficiently exploited, especially the excellent performance of the unforgettable Sissy Spacek (her cerulean eyes are as chilling as in "Carrie") in the role of Evelyn lasts only a few minutes, despite both Spacek's performance and the importance of her character suggesting that more space should have been devoted to her. In the end, the moments of tension are limited, among these however stands out one of the best sequences of "Ringu 2": the climb into the well. In this appearance, Samara is much more terrifying, especially because the same shooting technique seen in "Ring 0: birthday" was probably used, that is, the action is filmed in reverse and the film is flipped during editing, which makes the actress's movements quite "unnatural". Certainly, in the well Samara moves faster than Sadako in "Ring 0", which gives the idea that the well is a kind of highway (after all, it is an American film!). Another memorable sequence, in this case completely original, is the bathtub scene, perhaps not too terrifying but extremely suggestive from a visual point of view, where the CGI is up to the task. Unfortunately, the same does not happen with the animation of the deer, especially at the moment of the car accident, where the animals appear clearly fake. The cast, apart from Sissy Spacek, is average, everyone does their duty: David Dorfman (Aidan) is as annoying as in the first chapter; Naomi Watts is decent but certainly not her best performance. An important note is the absence of Daveigh Chase, who refused the role of Samara that she played in the first chapter, apparently on the advice of her agent; in this sequel she has been replaced by two actresses: Kelly Stables and Caitlin Mavrometes regarding the feedback where Samara is a newborn. In conclusion, "Ring Two" is superior to the American prequel, especially thanks to Nakata's direction (although it is astonishing, especially in relation to the final result, to know that in reality he was the third choice after two other directors, Noam Murro and Richard Kelly, had turned down the project) but it will not be remembered in the history of horror cinema: certainly after the result of "The Grudge" one could fear the worst, but it could have deserved an extra pumpkin with a slightly more polished script and less space for action. Given the success of the film, the likelihood of seeing a third chapter is very high.