Horror lost in translation

Hideo Nakata, who made Ringu, the phenomenally successful Japanese film upon which the equally profitable American The Ring was based, directs this sequel.

It's his first American film and he tries hard to rely more on story and character than special effects. The result is a horror fantasy that at least allows Naomi Watts, who earned an Academy nomination for her work in 21 Grams, a chance to show her worth.

She plays the same part as she did in The Ring, the mother of a young boy (David Dorfman again) beleaguered by the spirit of Samara, a young girl left to die in a walled well. Anyone who watched a video of Samara leaving the well was immediately doomed to a grisly death; her son narrowly escaped such a fate in the last instalment.

The Ring Two isn't as frightening as the original Japanese version. It hasn't the vitality, nor the sense of foreboding Nakata brought to the story first time round. But it's no slasher movie, and that's a mercy.

Rachel and her son have left the big city for a small seaside town where she becomes an investigative reporter on the local paper. But pretty soon it becomes clear that the video - and Samara - is back. Rachel burns one tape; but there's another about. Meanwhile, her son begins to act more and more like someone else. And, in the best sequence of all, a herd of deer attack her car while she's out driving in the forest.

The problem is that, in an American context, the fantasy seems more than a trifle strained, however efficiently Nakata orchestrates it. But if it makes as much money as The Ring, its producers will be satisfied. And Nakata will almost certainly be engaged to make a third film, and probably a fourth.

The Ring Two
Cert: cert15