There are certain rules that govern the modern J-horror, particularly those spawned within The Ring and Grudge franchises. Sure enough, you can check long black hair, dark water, mirrors, sinister children and things that go bump in the shower off the list with Takashi Shimizu’s sequel to his 2004 American remake.
We take up with Sarah Michelle Gellar – didn’t she die last time? - in a psychiatric unit and looking far more spooked than she ever did as the mighty Buffy. His younger sister Aubrey (Tamblyn) journeys to Tokyo in an effort to bring her safely home, but the dread curse of the original film has started to spread to disparate narrative threads. A mean girls prank at the International High School in Tokyo, for example, has gone desperately wrong for Arielle Kebber. Things aren’t looking rosy in Jennifer Beals’ relationship either.
Happily, Shimizu is more than capable of investing the material with visceral shocks. Twisted ghosts practically leap from the screen. Nasty sound effects take on a fingernails-down-the-blackboard quality. Japanese folks appear disturbingly inscrutable. The director’s crooked approach to chronology, meanwhile, keeps you guessing until the fittingly spooky denouement.
It may not represent Shimizu at the top of his game but it runs rings around The Ring 2.