Rings review – a pointless and lazy sequel

‘Julia’s boyfriend Holt disappears when investigating a mysterious video with a curse.’

Rings is yet another belated horror sequel. This time continuing the film series which itself started the trend of remaking all the “J-Horror” movies back in the early 2000’s. Directed by F. Javier Gutiérrez, this latest instalment comes more in the form of a soft reboot than a continuation, as the original characters are dropped and replaced by a new group of typical teenagers you could find anywhere in your standard scary movie.

As a result, the continuity of the original is messed around with and even ignores the narrative of the The Ring Two (2005), meaning you can come into this film semi-fresh (although the writers do assume you know the basic concept as the rules of this world are glossed over somewhat). This time the story follows young couple Julia (Matilda Lutz) and Holt (Alex Roe), who are the latest victims of the vengeful spirit Samara, who will kill anyone seven days after they watch her experimental video. Desperate, they set out to discover the mysterious origins of this horrible curse in the hopes of saving themselves.

It’s a pointless and lazy attempt to reinvigorate a dead franchise, and it comes nowhere near to matching the Japanese originals, or even the 2002 remake. In fact, it very much follows the same pattern of that film, as similarly our protagonists run around from place to place trying to find a way to put an end to this curse before their seven days are up.

This adds nothing new or fresh to the story, except maybe the half-hearted effort to modernise it by having this demonic video now accessible through the World Wide Web and social media, in hopes of attracting the new streaming generation. It’s not handled very well though, and to hammer this point home is just having the main characters constantly looking at their phone screens and laptops and sending the video via the Internet.

For the amount of subtlety he brings, Gutiérrez might as well have included a voiceover in the background shouting: “Hey, look at how much things have changed since the last film. Isn’t it interesting”. No substance is given to the topic at all; no social commentary on our technology-obsessed society, which could have added an engaging dynamic to the narrative. Instead it just feels like the main excuse for the film’s existence.

As a horror film, apart from a couple of genuinely frightening moments, Gutiérrez mostly relies on cheap jump scares, and throws a constant barrage of them to startle us into submission. Where sudden loud noises, or something being thrown in front of the camera will jolt us into thinking we’re watching something terrifying.

No true suspense is maintained, no unnerving atmosphere that keeps you on edge, and he struggles to build any kind of tension at all, making it a rather dull and slow experience. There’s also an over-reliance on visual effects, as too much is shown instead of using effective and chilling sound design or cinematography to get into the viewer’s head, letting our imagination do a lot of the heavy work of scaring the audience.

All this isn’t helped either by having bland and generic characters we have seen in a million other scary movies. At least in the original 2002 version we had a mother and son relationship we could get invested in, but in Rings, you’ll find it hard to care for any of these people. Lutz and Roe’s performances are serviceable as horror film characters but they have no depth, and at best can be described as functional.

This isn’t entirely their fault though and some of the blame has to go to the fact that they’re just lazily written, one dimensional characters who aren’t given any kind of logic or common sense, as they run into situation after situation and do things no sane person would do, all to get them where they need to be to progress the story. Even a great character actor like Vincent D’Onofrio struggles with the material he’s given and is wasted in what is a very hammy role.

‘Rings is another lazy attempt of rejuvenating a long dead horror franchise. No care or love has been put into its development.’

Apart from those few moments of actual competent film making and storytelling it has nothing new to offer. With its poorly written plot, undeveloped characters and no real suspense or atmosphere, it’s a sequel best forgotten about.