Ringu 2 (1999)

After the backlash to Ringu's first, more literary, sequel, it was up to none other than Hideo Nakata, director of the original film, to save the franchise! And wouldn't you know it, without bringing back old characters or contradicting the lore of prior movies, he just manages to certainly gets things back on track. I mean, kind of. Set just after the events of the original film (ignoring of course everything that happened in Rasen) Ringu 2 follows Mai Takano, a young girl barely featured in the original film, as she delves into the dense and mysterious history of the curse that took the life of her university professor and boyfriend, Ryuji Takayama. Of course, it isn't long before she's put herself in mortal danger as the number of unexplained deaths among teenagers begins to climb. Can she help stop the spread of the tape before it's too late? 

First of all, the good: Mai Takano is no longer played by whoever the hell botched her character so badly in Rasen, so that's a big improvement right off the top. In general, there's attention to detail and style to spare. Some occasionally wonky optical effects and whatnot, but hey: I can dig it. And how about that score: no stock nineties pop instrumentals playing during any action scenes here, no sir. The atmosphere is thick once more, and there's definite tension as we wonder what exactly will happen next in this totally new and original continuation of the story. And how about that creepy scene in the sanitarium where all the patients freak out when Sadako enters their midst? It's basically a much better version of the scene from the American The Ring where Rachel goes to visit the girl who discovered her friend's gruesome corpse in the sanitarium where she now resides. Yes, this is an intelligently conceived sequel to a film that took on a life of its own, desite its status as an adaptation.

So why does this film still feel like such a damp squib? Is it because it's so glacially slow? To build atmosphere, sure, but once we're bumping up against the third act, it's time to kick things into gear a little. And by then, with no stakes really established and no characters currently in mortal danger (though a few familiar ones have died at this point in shocking scenes) and it feels like 'too little, too late.' It's easy for dreamlike mood and circular nightmare logic to go from hypnotic to sedate, and here, that's certainly the case. 

Maybe it's because our protagonist is hardly ever really in trouble in the film, or perhaps because she has next to nothing to do with any of the events she's staking her life to intervene into. Her boyfriend is dead, sure, but the people she tries to save as the film hits its climax have nothing to do with her and no one is asking for her help. She just kind of insinuates herself into the situation. Combine this with the lack of stakes and you have a seriously trying plot full of filler. Stylish filler, but filler nonetheless and by god do you begin to feel it after a certain point.

But the big thing is: where is Sadako? Wasn't the whole point of this exercise in attempting to make a  new sequel to Ringu to bring her back in familiar form and have her spread her influence over an ever-wider area so we can get lots of spooky deaths? Wrong. She's barely in the film at all, and in her most prominent scene, she appears to be wearing a spray-painted Shatner mask just like Michael Myers once did, only we're here expected to believe that this is her actual rotting face. So that ain't great, but what's even worse is that... well, does anyone die in this film? I mean, besides the big death that comes as a result of automobile accident, not involving a ghost I might add, all I remember is people going crazy as a result of Sadako's video. Oh wait, no, that one girl in white did totally die because the journo didn't watch his copy of the tape like promised, but jeez, man: should it be so hard to find the horror in this horror film?

In the end, it's underwhelming. Like, you appreciate the effort that clearly went into it, and it's a cut above other money-mandated sequels in some ways, but in others, it's like: where's the story, guys? Where were your priorities when writing this? Because despite all its best intentions, it does the exact opposite of what fans of this franchise want to see, even if it doesn't outright break any rules of sequels and storytelling in the process like Spiral and its film adaptation. By the time the film becomes something like a cross between Akira, Firestarter, and The Exorcist 2, I've kind of tuned out, to be honest. We're going to defeat Sadako by driving her out of a little boy and into a swimming pool with telepathy? Sure, sure, sounds great, just hurry up already. I've got places to be and other, better films to watch.

So would I recommend Hideo Nakata's Ringu 2? Umm, well, here's the thing: it's fairly well executed and presented. I mean, decently so. But the screenplay is a huge letdown, though at least written by someone who clearly knows what they're doing. It just isn't what I want to see in a mainline sequel to Ringu, a spooky horror film. I think my blood ran cold maybe once the whole time I watched, and that's just about unacceptable. Sadako would not be pleased.