Apparently, director Hideo Nakata was drafted in to shoot this sequel to 1998's RING when that film's original sequel, RASEN – shot back to back with the first – flopped with Japanese audiences. RING 2 is more of a straightforward successor to RING, logically following on from events portrayed in the first film and feeling exactly the same in terms of tone, lighting, and look. Heck, even most of the actors and actresses are back from the first film, so watching these two back-to-back would be akin to sitting through a three-hour film.

For starters, RING 2 isn't as good as the first film. It lacks the surprise and the originality of that movie, and all of the shocks here are familiar to anyone who's seen the original film – and anyone who hasn't will be scratching their heads and wondering what the heck is going on here. The film is very talky and very slow, as with the original film in the series, and once again the overlaid English subtitles are extremely hard to make out, so some of the dialogue is missed. However, there's always plenty going on so there's never time to get bored, despite the slow pacing, and the return of many cast members from the first film is a real treat – especially Hiroyuki Sanada, who doesn't let his character's death in RING stop him from coming back here! The plot twists and turns in many directions and opens up new areas of the mythology, incorporating psychic powers and the mysterious channelling of psychic energy into water. I admit that I was engaged with the story and never found it lacking for a second.

Thankfully, the horror in this film is just as creepy as ever. Nakata keeps a slow-burning tension that builds up until the first real shocks that occur about an hour into the production. My favourite scene of all is the bit where the reporter examines the videotape and discovers that something weird is happening to the head of the girl on film – things get more surreal as she becomes a creation of ghostly evil, and there's a fantastic use of a 'jumpy' special effect like the ones used in JACOB'S LADDER and THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL remake. Many creepy scenes from the first flick are repeated, like the grainy television set images and the excellent bit involving the woman combing her hair in a mirror. Things culminate in a nightmarish ending which returns things to the well – and what happens is as disturbing as ever. RING 2 doesn't top the experience of watching the first, and best, film in the series, but it proves to be a worthy sequel with plenty of scary bits to enjoy.

This sequel starts exactly where 'Ringu' finished. May Takano (Miki Nakatani) decides to investigate what happened to her boyfriend and she becomes aware of the details about the origins of the videotape cursed by the spirit of a girl named Sadako, killing the viewer one week later.

'Ringu' is a stunning and original horror movie. This sequel indeed is not bad, but when compared with the first movie, will make fans disappointed. I hope producers respect this fantastic plot and do not release a 'Ringu 3'. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Ring 2 – O Chamado" ("Ring 2 – The Call")

So the real sequel to the original ring movie. This goes to science route and the attempt to stop the ghost with ... well science. Will they succeed? Although it is obviously not just science that is highlighted here of course, but also the paranormal and other forces.

While this may not reach the heights of the original movie, it is still a quite solid horror movie, if you like your horror to be creeping up on you and not with much blood and other stuff on display, but rather suspense and fright itself. Characters are as fine as is the acting too. Slow burning and slow moving ... which should not count as a bad thing, unless you view it as such