Last Updated on March 21, 2025 by Angel Melanson
Rachel Keller thought all of the death was behind her. Unfortunately for her, Hollywood loves a sequel. 20 years ago today, Samara made her return to the big screen in The Ring Two, the follow-up to one of the most influential and hugely successful horror films of the early 2000s. Lightning in a bottle can be tough to capture twice, but damned if DreamWorks didn’t tr.
Just to briefly recap, director Gore Verbinski was tasked with remaking the J-horror hit Ringu. Released in 2002, The Ring became a surprisingly big success, taking in nearly $250 million worldwide. More than just a hit, the movie became a real “thing” in the greater pop culture landscape, with Samara quickly becoming a horror icon. Naturally, a sequel was going to happen with success on that level.
What’s particularly interesting about The Ring Two is that Hideo Nakata, who helmed Ringu, was brought to America to helm the sequel to the remake of his film. It served as his American film debut. Naomi Watts was also brought back as Rachel Keller, which was a big deal as she was arguably at the height of her powers as an actress, starring alongside Adrien Brody in Peter Jackson’s King Kong in 2005 as well. Watts was also coming off of a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her work in 21 Grams.
The Ring Two picks up six months after the horrifying events of the first film. Rachel and her son Aidan (David Dorfman) have left their home in Seattle to escape the memories of Samara and her cursed videotape. They move to the small coastal community in Oregon, hoping to find a fresh start. What they find instead is more unmarked videotapes and eerily familiar evidence that suggests the past isn’t through with them just yet. Samara is back! Let the horror ensue.
Several years earlier, the first movie was a critical surprise in addition to being a commercial hit. The Ring was also a relatively rare, truly scary PG-13 horror flick. It helped tee up a slew of other American remakes of foreign horror hits in the years that followed and influenced the genre for years to come. That’s a lot to live up to and, sad to say, the sequel just couldn’t get there.
Critics were not kind to The Ring Two upon its arrival. From Hans Zimmer not returning to do the score to a script that just couldn’t measure up to the original, Samara’s second coming just didn’t have the same pop. Even so, it became a sizable hit, taking in $164 million globally against a $50 million budget. Those are numbers studios would kill for now.
Even so, the studio opted to put the franchise to bed for quite some time – though not permanently. In 2017, Rings hit theaters and, despite earning ever worse reviews, still managed to take in nearly $83 million against a reasonable $25 million budget. So, who knows? Maybe it’s only a matter of time before Samara haunts our screens once again. Maybe, in the meantime, now is a good time to revisit this sequel to see whether or not time has been kind to it.
For more, check out some goods from Fango’s archives on The Ring including…
