THE RING Mythos
(2002 and 2005)
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THE RING by Gore Verbinski
Being rewritten...
THE RING 2 by
Hideo Nakata
I love Nakata, and I love the original Ring movies, including the remake by Verbinski. With that aside... every time I hear Rachel declare in Ring 2 "We only made one copy" I dont know why but it rubs me the wrong way. No idea at all why, just doesn't seem to add up. Then I realized why it bugs me so much. If they had only made 1 copy, shouldn't one of them be dead by now?
The Ring 2 could've been a great sequel, but the bodies effects are not scary, the movie makes little sense, and is just a really empty horror movie lacking any of the mystical, esoteric, folklore feel of the first movie before it.
The mythos feels sort of dried up in The Ring 2. The music is nice, i love the theme, but nowadays, horror movies have good music, and crappy scripts, this one seems to be right in line with the trend.
There were a few choice moments in the film. The beginning was not terrible. The tree burning into Aiden's room was nicely done, especially since it tied into the original story nicely.
The bathroom scene was sadly right out of a cheesy Amityville sequel, while the entire movie left me waiting for something cool to happen and never delivering. The first movie had the tension of the 7 days, and the mystery of the detective story, this plot was just too thin.
I do however like the way that scene ends with Aiden exclaiming why is she doing this to me?! Talking about Samara, but of course Rachel's friend thinks Aiden is talking about Rachel.
First I want to point out some little things I thought were cool: Aiden's old therapist's name was Koji, the water in the opening credits same as the japanese Ringu films. Also I believe the fact that Samara just wanted a mother led her to become desperate and kill for one. Imagine she has been in that well a very long time, but then again, who or what is Samara and could she be loved?
And now onto the review.
The ending of RING 2 is a genius twist of writing. The way it ties together
aspects of part 1, Anna Morgan, the leap of faith, all that ending gave me chills.
But, the rest of the movie up to that point, lacked impact. There were no scares.
In fact the entire movie I kept just hoping Samara would get a mother. They
even say in the movie, she just wants a mom! Man that was sad wasn't it? We
know sacrificing her son is out of the question, and existing as Samara's mother
in her world won't work, so how do you solve this riddle? Have a baby and let
Samara take it at conception. Or do as they did in the original Loop movie in
Japan.
When Rachel sacrifices herself at the end of RING 2, anyone who knows Nakata's works, instantly thinks of the ending to Dark Water. At the end of RING 2, I felt Rachel was being callous and uncompassionate because she already knew the truth that Samara only wanted a mom, why not help her, or maybe that comes in Ring 3.
I felt sort of disappointed after watching Ring 2, the movie wasn't scary enough to win me over on scares like Gore Verbinski's part 1, but it wasnt mushy enough to win me over sympathetically as a heartstring puller, to do that they'd have had to truly HELP Samara, so it sort of was luke war overall. I think they should have gone deeper in both areas, and then it would have been perfect. A part 3 must be in the works, because the story has so much potential still. I did love the ending, but hope they make a final part 3 to help Samara like Loop did for Ringu.
Some have sepculated that you can see images of the tape playing on the TV at the end of the movie...
Actually there are no images from the tape on the screen at the end, at least not while you are in the house. No matter what anyone tells you it simply is not there. I have watched it at 40% speed and slower, and at the end, rachel looks towards the window, we zoom in on the TV for roughly 1-2 seconds, and all you see is this:
A reflection of Rachel and Aiden hugging and the room behind them in the house, nothing sinister.
http://www.kittysafe.net/reviews/ring/media/ring2/reflection.jpg
One can speculate that once the camera zooms outside, as soon as you hear the telltale RING sound effects, the new glows coming from the house are in fact the tape playing on the TV, but it's really impossible to tell on the video.
As for what happened in the sky at the end? The crescent moon represents the opening in the well and there is a subliminal image of the ring in static above the clouds, it is nearly impossible to get a screenshot of though, i tried for a good 20 minutes. Couldnt see it frame by frame.
Ring 0 is still my favorite of all the RING movies.
