I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed Ringu after years of only having the Hollywood remake and its sequel to deal with. When the opportunity arose to finally view the original Japanese versions I turned the lights off and got ready for a scare-fest. What surprised me about Ringu was the fact it was different from The Ring (or should I say the Hollywood remake was different from the original film?) Ringu made a bit more sense than its Hollywood remake, it relied more on the Rosemary's Baby School of Scares and delivered a creepy, satisfying film. This sequel? Not so much.
Perhaps it's the difference in cultures, but having seen (and enjoyed) the Hollywood sequel The Ring Two, and being intrigued by its concept of connection between Samara, Naomi Watts' character's son and water, I figured Ringu 2 would have some sense of familiarity. Instead, Sadako is relegated to almost nothing until the finale, the story (if you can call it that) hops all over the place and character motivations come out of nowhere (Sadako's father embraces death like a martyr after standing around doing nothing for the whole film), and while the main actor in Miki Nakatani has a great face for horror films (her scared face is thoroughly enjoyable!!) the connection to the mother established in the first film dissipates, and we don't even get to see what could have been the most harrowing scene in any horror movie ever (the implication Reiko copied the cursed video, got her son to make her father watch it, essentially making her kill her father), it's all glossed over and thoroughly unsatisfying.
While the Hollywood sequel had crazy water effects and, yes, CGI deer, at least it still had the backbone of the mother-son relationship. While this is technically the third film in the Japanese series, made only a year after the original two, it feels like it's already running out of fuel and I walk into the final film with what are quite possibly the lowest expectations I've ever experienced for a horror sequel, and that's saying something.
Perhaps it's the difference in cultures, but having seen (and enjoyed) the Hollywood sequel The Ring Two, and being intrigued by its concept of connection between Samara, Naomi Watts' character's son and water, I figured Ringu 2 would have some sense of familiarity. Instead, Sadako is relegated to almost nothing until the finale, the story (if you can call it that) hops all over the place and character motivations come out of nowhere (Sadako's father embraces death like a martyr after standing around doing nothing for the whole film), and while the main actor in Miki Nakatani has a great face for horror films (her scared face is thoroughly enjoyable!!) the connection to the mother established in the first film dissipates, and we don't even get to see what could have been the most harrowing scene in any horror movie ever (the implication Reiko copied the cursed video, got her son to make her father watch it, essentially making her kill her father), it's all glossed over and thoroughly unsatisfying.
While the Hollywood sequel had crazy water effects and, yes, CGI deer, at least it still had the backbone of the mother-son relationship. While this is technically the third film in the Japanese series, made only a year after the original two, it feels like it's already running out of fuel and I walk into the final film with what are quite possibly the lowest expectations I've ever experienced for a horror sequel, and that's saying something.
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