**‘Weenathon 2024: 11/33**
*She’s not your fucking mommy*
Everything that made *The Ring* a creatively enthralling adaption of its Japanese counterpart is sucked away to make a lifeless, by the numbers sequel.
Gore Verbinski is gone and in his place, Hideo Nakata. That may inspire some initial hope until you watch the movie. Then you see that they made a bog standard mother/child possession story, that has nothing unique to say. Some interesting things flash through but it’s momentary, like the framing of some shots here or there but there’s nothing of the atmosphere and oppressive look that Verbinski gave us in *The Ring*.
Overdone is the early 2000s CGI. From Samara’s appearance through most of the second half to deer. Yes, CGI deer. A whole herd of deer assail Naomi Watts and her son but are oddly out of place due to the CG. Gone is Hans Zimmer’s unnerving, chilling score which is replaced by a piano heavy soundtrack that tries to emulate movies like *The Exorcist *and *Halloween*.
With an intriguing start, I thought I was in for a surprise. A decent follow up. Somehow, the tape has returned and found its way to the little town that Naomi Watts has moved to. Except, all that is thrown out the window within the first 20 minutes when Naomi Watts burns the tape, Samara continues to hang about and the movie develops into a run of the mill child possession story. The best part of the whole move is Naomi Watts’ delivery of the line “I’m not your fucking mommy.”
