The problem with doing a sequel to The Ring is that the original movie, as well as its Japanese counterpart Ringu, isn't really more than a well-done gimmick movie. The Ring starts off with its version of playing out an urban legend, then uses it as a set-up for a big payoff. The story built around that is a bit arbitrary -- it's a little less fun than the idea itself of how watching a video tape can kill you and wondering how it gets around to doing that. After that's been revealed, there's really nowhere left to go.

Since the first movie's success ordains a sequel, the makers of The Ring Two had to make a choice: either repeat or modify the gimmick of the first movie, or take the original story and expand on it. To their credit, they went in the latter direction. Going with the first choice would've been problematic and also would've looked lazy, so there is a fair bit of detectable sincerity in the sequel's story. One can tell they're trying to take the tale of the vengeful ghost Samara and create a plausible continuation that doesn't depend on watching videotapes.

However, it's disappointing if this is the best they could come up with. Samara's back all right, and this time it's personal. She seems to have it in for the heroine Rachel (Naomi Watts) and her son Aidan (David Dorfman), and manages to find a new way to torment them, although whatever methods she chooses don't seem to have strict rules applied to them here. And although part of me enjoyed what was basically an arranged eventual smackdown between the ghost and the heroine, the rest of me knew that the creative -- *ahem*-- well was probably running dry before the movie even began. No gimmick this time, but nothing else to focus on, either.

Meanwhile, little else helps to prop the movie up. As a modern horror movie, it has that annoying tendency of using  sound effects to underline every little surprising moment (I find it creepier to notice something on your own without it drawing attention to itself). It also has a clunky script -- the situations that occur in the movie are fairly standard, such as people around the heroine thinking she's disturbed, and the dialogue arising from them comes across simply like an effort to play along (there are a couple of funny exceptions, such as when an asylum attendant talks about certain events like he's heard them a million times). The movie makes use of every chance possible to have an arm come up from somewhere and grab another person by the arm. There are some spots of creativity throughout the movie, but simply not enough to leave an impression.

Japanese-style horror continues to be an "in thing," but with The Ring Two we're starting to get the sense that it's already settling into the mediocre space of the American mainstream. Getting the original Japanese director of Ringu (and its own sequel, Ringu 2, unrelated to this one), Hideo Nakata, doesn't seem to help either because he probably doesn't have enough creative control to keep it from falling into Western-style pitfalls. For what it's worth, Nakata does get to make an impression with the climax, a great little piece of unnerving creepiness involving what looks almost like stop-motion, but the rest of it fails to include much personality.

Finally, although The Ring Two decided to go the more difficult route of expanding the storyline rather than going with another gimmick, by doing this it sadly creates a handicap for itself. In fashioning a story about Samara vs. Rachel, the inherent fear in the material doesn't transfer directly to the audience. Much of the disturbance from the first movie came from knowing everyone had a TV; viewers could take that part of the horror home with them (you don't how many people I knew who said they couldn't sleep with a TV in their bedroom after seeing The Ring). But this time, when Samara makes it personal, no one in the audience is worried anymore because none of us are or can be Rachel. It just becomes another story to watch, barely trying to be involving, and this time, when we leave the theater screen, it stays in the theater screen.

(Released by DreamWorks Pictures and rated "PG-13" for violence/terror, disturbing images, thematic elements and some language.)

Review also posted on www.windowtothemovies.com.