 Horror films have had a good ride at the box office this year despite receiving their usual downpour of negative reviews. The Ring Two, directed by Japanese horror mater Hideo Nakata, is probably no exception. Manohla Dargis in the New York Times concludes that despite "Mr. Nakata's track record and the radiant presence of its star, Naomi Watts, The Ring Two is a dud." Michael Sragow in the Baltimore Sun begins his review by asking, "Remember mood rings? The Ring Two is a mood movie -- a bad-mood movie." Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post admits that he was utterly baffled by the film. It "appears to have been written on a large piece of blank paper by chickens with their feet dipped in ink," he writes. On the other hand, Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times argues that the "charm" of The Ring Two "is based on the film's ability to make absolutely no sense, while nevertheless generating a real enough feeling of tension a good deal of the time." And David Hiltbrand in the Philadelphia Inquirer found the film to be "unusually atmospheric" and although "subtler and slower-moving" than most American horror films, it is nevertheless "nightmarish, in the true sense of the word." |
