Ring Two is confusing, but scary

The first real scary sequence in The Ring Two comes some quarter hour into the film when a moose stops a car driven by a mother with her young son beside her. Though we guess what is going to happen, we anxiously wait to see how director Hideo Nakata will develop the scene.

Nakata, who originated the enormously popular Ringu movie series in Japan, lets the suspense mount slowly, and then suddenly fills the screen with several minutes of scary shots.

There are many more eerie and suspenseful incidents in the film, including scenes of gravity-defying water flooding a bathroom.

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The sequel to the sleeper hit The Ring -- which opened in America with a $15 million weekend in 2002, and refused to budge from the top five films on the box-office chart for weeks, earning a handsome $140 million -- is a reasonably gripping film.

But the new film, which marks Nakata's Hollywood debut, fails to create a heart-tugging drama of a mother trying to save her son from a sad but horrible evil spirit.

Yet, The Ring Two could make a lot of noise at the box-office because it has some genuinely frightful moments that overcome a muddled and often confusing story line, and a decent level of suspense. And unlike many horror films, it is not filled with gore and blood.

If you want to make more sense of the film, you should watch the first film in the series. Even then, there is plenty of confusing material here.

The story here takes place many months after the events of the original, with its single mother heroine Rachel (Naomi Watts) having moved from Seattle to a small city in Oregon, with her son Aidan (David Dorfman). She is trying to put behind the horrible experiences she and her son underwent in the first film, because of the evil spirit Samara and her cursed videotape. Rachel also wants to be a better and more attentive mother.

When Rachel, an investigative reporter now working for a small local newspaper, hears about a local teenager turning up dead in front of his television set, she instantly suspects the familiar ghost is still hovering around.

She stealthily manages to see the dead body and one look at the disfigured face tells her that she was right in suspecting Samara.

While the first Ring concentrated on the struggle to fight the curse of the deadly tape, the sequel spends considerable amount of time showing Rachel delve deeper into the tragic story of Samara.

Rachel knows that to escape death at Samara's hands, one must copy the tape and pass it on, possibly leading to someone's death. But she is not happy with the choice and has to think fast and hard to devise a way to stop Samara's havoc, without compromising her own morals, to save herself and son from the curse.

Meanwhile, Aidan undergoes an ordeal that makes him dangerously ill.

When Rachel cannot handle Aidan's mysterious illness, she takes him to a hospital where he is diagnosed with extreme hypothermia. When she cannot explain the cause for it, she at once becomes a suspect.

But she cannot sit down to explain the strange phenomenon to the doctors and psychiatrists. She knows she has to work furiously to confront Samara.

In her quest to unravel the mystery, Rachel visits a mental asylum and meets a mysterious woman (veteran actress Sissy Spacek in a brief, chilling appearance) who lets her understand things about Samara, which Rachel might not have discovered on her own.

The movie, which turns a bit flabby in the middle, picks up the tempo following the crucial meeting between Rachel and the mysterious woman.

Naomi Watts, generally associated with films such as 21 Grams, is adequate here, mirroring the horror her character has to undergo. But Nakata does not give her enough time and direction to grow into a mother who shows her vulnerabilities and her innermost feelings about her son.

Technically, the deftly edited film looks more exciting than its predecessor. A moody atmosphere created by cinematographer Gabriel Baristain adds to the suspense.

We do not know how much English the director knows, but his instructions to David Dorfman have led to a natural performance by the boy. He holds our attention, particularly in the scenes where he has to switch back and forth between playing himself and a possessed kid.