The Ring Two

The Ring Two marked the beginning of declining interest in Japanese horror. It was a gradual decline because even today there are people who seek out Japanese horror movies, but the interest is not as huge anymore. It's logical. In The Ring Two, Hideo Nakata seems to be repeating himself and trying to come up with an interesting ending but ends up drowning in the overall meaning of the story. And the worst part is that the only scene that scares is the one with the deer. (04/11/2014)

Overcast, with occasional Samara... Unpleasant Oregon weather, a few scenes where carpets and floors had to be dried out, one missed "Beware of Digital Wildlife" sign, a small role for Sissy Spacek, still haunted by water since The River with Gibson, and a predictable finale in a well with climbing holds. It's worth noting that the screenwriter tossed the director of the Japanese original into the well, but he didn't climb out... Samara and her phenomenon are already decaying; in The Ring 3, the small, pale Igor Chmela would be the only scary thing left. (28/08/2024)

Solidly shot wholes/half-parts clash with utterly incompetently shot details in this aesthetically very uneven work. But the camera impotence and the inability to captivate are nothing compared to the stupidity of the script, which has more logical errors than holes in Swiss cheese. And even the idea itself – if it can be called that at all – is rather laughable. (09/12/2005)

A typical sequel. The screenwriters apparently decided to give the first part a good beating, they wanted everything to be even more gripping, shocking and scary, but somehow it didn’t go beyond the effort. The Ring 2 doesn't have nearly the atmosphere of fear that Verbinski's film could boast, all the scares are forced and unsuccessful, the director serves one cliché after another, ultimately drowning the great performances and plot potential. The story digs its own grave from the beginning, sinking deeper and deeper into it, despite the great effort to scare the viewer and keep a true horror face. A big pompous sequel trying to capitalize on the success of the excellent first one, which, while watchable, is still best avoided. (11/03/2012)

I was prepared to be disappointed by The Ring Two, but I didn’t expect that I wouldn’t even feel like reviewing it. At the beginning, there are still some promising directions that the story could take, but as the film subsequently serves up clichéd and nonsensical scenes, the viewer loses trust and eventually stops caring by the end. It’s the complete opposite arc of the first film. The screenplay is just contrived fluff that attempts at all costs to find something to from the previous movie’s subject matter to grab hold of. The character of Samara no longer has any gravitas, the fear aspect works at 30% capacity (whereas it worked at 90% in the first one) and often fails due to the director’s reliance on digital effects, which he hadn’t been able to afford previously and which are unfortunately completely gratuitous. The only positives: the initial “supernatural feeling” culminating in the great scene with deer, decent cinematography, an excellent Hans Zimmer central motif and the always pretty Naomi Watts. (12/04/2005)