The Ring 2 (American version) (4½ Stars)

"The Ring", made in 2002, is a remake of the Japanese film with the same name, originally made in 1998. There are different opinions about which film is better. "The Ring Two", as it's correctly called, was made in 2005, but it isn't a remake of the Japanese film "The Ring 2", made in 1999. It's a direct sequel to the first American film, taking place a few months later, but it tells a completely different story. The only thing it has in common with the Japanese film is the title. And the director.

It was Hideo Nakata who directed the first two Japanese Ring films. When he was invited to make the American sequel, I'm sure the American studios expected a remake from him. That wasn't to be. The director wouldn't be happy making two identical films. He asked the screenwriter Ehren Kruger to write a completely new screenplay, presumably giving him detailed instructions on the direction he wanted.

The premise is the same as in the first film. A haunted videotape exists. After watching it the phone rings, and a voice tells the person who watched the tape that he will die in exactly seven days. The voice on the phone is Samara, a young girl who was abused and finally killed by her parents. In other words, it's a typical Japanese ghost story. At the end of the first film it was revealed that the viewer could save himself by making a copy of the tape and showing it to someone else. Samara evidently wants to be remembered.

In the first film the reporter Rachel Keller found Samara's body and made it possible for her to be buried. This didn't stop the killings, but it brought Rachel to Samara's attention. Rachel has shown more affection for Samara than either her birth mother or adoptive mother ever did. Now Samara wants Rachel to be her mother.

How can a ghost be adopted by a flesh-and-blood woman? Easy. Samara possesses Rachel's eight-year-old son Aidan.

Maybe Hideo Nakata can be accused of self-plagiarisation. The concept of a ghost wanting a new mother was already used in the film "Dark Water", which he made in 1999. All I can say about that is that if you can't copy yourself, who can you copy?

I would have welcomed a third film in the American Ring series, but it wasn't to be. This is the last time that we see Rachel Keller and her son Aidan. A sequel wasn't made until "Rings" in 2017.

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