The first Ring was an absolute masterpiece, a milestone for the horror genre. It took psychological horror to a whole new level, held a genuine sense of mystique and ambiguity, and made the Deus Ex Machina more frightening than ever before. But whereas Ring had me hiding behind the sofa, Ring 2 just left me yawning - or, more to the point, thinking "Right, tomorrow I'm going to log on to IMDb and tell everybody how much I hate this movie!" Most sequels are blatant cash-ins, but they don't come more blatant than this one.<br /><br />After Ryuji's death, Asakawa and her son Yochi have disappeared. Ryuji's girlfriend Mei suddenly (ie. conveniently) acquires psychic powers and ensues to spend most of the film chasing after Yochi for no apparent reason. When she's not doing that, she screams. A lot. Some people die, characters are introduced only to disappear without trace, and everything about the first movie is explained with pseudo-scientific hokum, effectively killing any mystique which Ring 1 possessed. As far as sequels go, think "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes" with spooky music and you have an idea what Ring 2 is like.<br /><br />Okay, let's try to be balanced here. There are some good points. Hideo Nahata's direction is slick as ever (albeit a little rushed), the acting is great (as was to be expected), and there are some genuinely creepy moments (I must admit I did take a shine to the editing sequence). But one of Ring 1's strengths was that it didn't revert to cheap tricks such as monsters jumping out of the shadows - and guess what? Ring 2 does *precisely* that. "Hey, I'm Sadako! Let me jump out of the shadows and scare you a little! Whoooo!" Bo-ring!<br /><br />More to the point, Ring 2 answered questions which I didn't really want answered. Ring 1 was suitably open-ended, but in Ring 2 we find out *everything*! We find out what happens to Asakawa after Ryuji's death, we find out what happens to Yoichi, etbloodycetera. But, frankly, I didn't wanna find out! It's for me to decide what happens to them! That's what open-ended movies are there for, dammit!!!<br /><br />Even more heinously, we are shown what Sadako's face looks like underneath that thick clout of black hair. I didn't wanna know that either, because otherwise the horror simply doesn't work (unless of course it's done cleverly and subtle, like in Ring: that "eye" still scares the life out of me). In Ring 2, she just looks like a badly animated cross between Joan Collins and a space alien. In other words, don't bother watching Ring 2 if you expect the kind of suggestive horror that the first Ring was so brilliant at.<br /><br />Forget Ring 2 and watch the prequel Ring Zero instead, to find out what Sadako was like as a human being (as opposed to the cartoon villain we have in this film). Ring 2 takes a lot away from the first installment, its mystique, its tension, its sense of isolation. Ultimately, it's a disappointing sequel and one which is instantly forgettable.