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BY BRETT MICHEL
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Want to know the scariest thing about The Ring Two, sequel to Gore Verbinski’s 2002 fright fest? Directed by Hideo Nakata (creator of the Japanese-language Ringu and its sequel, the very films that inspired The Ring), it’s a horribly inferior bastardization of his own material. Anyone who’s seen both versions of George Sluizer’s The Vanishing will understand what I mean. Yet the root of this film’s evil lies within Ehren Kruger’s screenplay, which discards the video-tape/phone-call gimmick that thrilled fans of the previous movie. Indeed, the best scene here is also the first, and it’s the last time the original rules apply. Lured by an air of sex, randy teens (that old horror staple) pay a deadly price, as a Hell-born video tape becomes the ultimate form of coitus interruptus. Alas, with video being so ’90s, it’s out with the old, and in with . . . DVD? If only. As Naomi Watts’s Rachel adapts to small-town life, she’s once again forced to protect son Aidan (David Dorfman) from the possessive advances of restless spirit Samara (Kelly Stables), who really just wants to be loved. Aw, isn’t that scary? Overloaded with unconvincing visual effects in place of psychological terror, this is a Ring best left unanswered. (109 minutes)
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