A new horror milestone was born in 2002 with “Ring”, the remake of the Japanese box office sensation “Ringu”. With visual brilliance, a dense atmosphere and sometimes nerve-racking moments of tension, “Ring” is one thing above all: extremely scary. Probably only very few viewers could or can find a restful deep sleep after watching the film. And in this case, the idea of staging a new edition was also associated with success – both economically and cinematically. For us, “Ring” is even one of the best horror films of all time!
After “Ring” was on everyone’s lips, it should of course only be a matter of time before a sequel was produced. Which, by the way, wasn’t surprising, since there was also a sequel to the Japanese model. And Hideo Nakata, the director who has already taken care of the role models from the Far East, was also responsible for the staging of “ring 2” from 2005. Even if it doesn’t come close to the predecessor of Gore Verbinski (“Pirates of the Caribbean”), the sequel is quite successful. Anyone who hasn’t seen the horror film can do so today, September 30 at 10 p.m. on ZDFNeo or alternatively, of course, also for the in-house film collection:
» “Ring 2” on Amazon*
Six months after the horrific events surrounding the mysterious, deadly videotape, journalist Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) has retreated to a small town called Astoria with her son Aidan (David Dorfman). She has taken a job at the local newspaper and is happy to be able to devote herself to raising her son in peace. But the horror seems to follow her up to here.
Because nearby, a teenager dies in a similar mysterious way as she has experienced before. She drives to the crime scene and sneaks into the hearse, where she finds that the dead man has a horribly distorted face, like the previous victims. Her worst fears come true when her son is afflicted by horrific visions and suddenly falls ill…
In the official DashFUN review, “Ring 2” received a solid 3.5 out of a possible 5 stars. Our author Carsten Baumgardt writes in his conclusion:
“The paranormal horror around ‘the rings‘ So it goes on: subtle, sophisticated, exciting. Hideo Nakata presents a good film – viewed in its own right, but which clearly falls short in direct comparison to its predecessor. A slight disappointment remains. But this is not a reason to complain. Nobody seriously expected that the sequel would achieve the originality and brilliance of the first part.”
So it’s also a question of expectations, how you ultimately feel about “Ring 2”. What is certain is that Gore Verbinski would have worked more impressively if he hadn’t had to cede the director’s chair to Hideo Nakata because of “Pirates of the Caribbean 2” and “Pirates of the Caribbean 3”. But this one does its thing badly: “As is typical for Japanese conditions, the story structure is calmer, more leisurely, but this makes way for a dark atmosphere, which is shaped in wonderful pictures by cinematographer Gabriel Beristain.”
In addition, you have to make some compromises on the emotional level, which is also due to the fact that too much time is taken until the central riddle is finally solved: “In “Ring 2” it takes quite a long time , until the protagonist goes in search of the solution. Before that, Nakata confidently unwinds his genre workload. A little more speed wouldn’t have hurt.”
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