The Ring 2

Naomi Watts returns in The Ring 2.

Herald rating: * *

Lots of people liked the first episode in this franchise, a story that ran along the lines of "you rent this video, you watch it, you will die before the overdue charges kick in". Uh-huh. Good for business at your local video-hire because it encouraged people to get their tapes back to the store, but as a concept ...

Round two is the Hollywood debut for Hideo Nakata, the guy who came up with the Japanese original and its sequel. So yes, he is making this story for the third or fourth time.

From the original US version Naomi Watts returns as the journalist who stumbles across the sinister tape. This time she destroys it, to protect her son (David Dorfman). But she doesn't know that the evil spirit within the vid - hey, don't blame me, I'm only the reporter here - is about to set out on a trail of revenge. Yep, I lunged for the eject button at this point.