"They don't dream, you know. The dead don't dream, and the dead never sleep. They wait, they watch for a way to get back."
— Evelyn
The first sequel to the 2002 adaptation of The Ring, released in 2005.
Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) has moved with her son Aidan (David Dorfman) to a new place, where she tries to leave the horrors of previous film behind. However, Samara's curse returns to haunt them as people keep dying around the town.
It is followed by Rings, released in 2017.
This film has examples of:
- Anti-Villain: Samara. Sure, she killed a bunch of people, but she just wanted to be loved.
- Asshole Victim: Dr. Emma Temple. True what happens might be a bit harsh, but she is easily the least sympathetic victim in the American films.
- Disturbing Deer: During a drive through the woods, the protagonists are attacked by a herd of deer, presumably due to the curse.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Samara's father is revealed to be an ocean entity (and her mother a human).
- Ironic Echo: One of the most striking images in the Tape in the previous film is Anna, Samara's adoptive mother, throwing herself off a cliff. Rachel escapes Samara's dreamworld by doing the same thing, in the same pose, from the same cliff.
- Mirror Scare: Aidan looks at the photographs he took of himself and sees Samara in the mirror coming closer and closer...
- Precision F-Strike: "I'm not your fucking mommy!"
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: A child psychologist tries to keep Samara!Aidan away from Rachel. In response, Aidan (possessed by Samara) psychically compels her to inject an air bubble into her own neck.
- Retcon: In the first film, Samara's birth certificate is briefly shown and the Morgans are named as her parents. In addition, there is a glimpse of another document which reveals a little information about her parents where especially the description of mother matches that of Anna quite well. This means that despite what the parents said, Samara wasn't actually adopted but instead conceived by unorthodox means. In this film, however, the information in these papers was disregarded, and another characters were introduced as Samara's biological parents, making her the adoptive child of the Morgans.
- Running on All Fours: Well, not so much running as moving at a creepy pace, but this is how Samara exits the well on the tape.
- Screamer Trailer: Although the trailers for The Ring were standard fare, the teaser trailer
for The Ring Two is basically a full-fledged Screamer. - Sequel Number Snarl: This film is actually the third installment in the American Ring series, the second one being the short film Rings.
- Smug Snake: Dr. Emma Temple, a cold and smugly superior psychiatrist played by Elizabeth Perkins, who brings an energy to the character that makes it truly easy to hate her. Her death definitely confirms her Smug Snake status. She succumbs instantly to a Jedi Mind Trick to commit suicide implying she is so Weak-Willed Samara can just control her directly rather than rely on Mind Rape like all her other victims.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Jake from the short film Rings dies in the opening scene after he fails to pass the curse onto his girlfriend.
- Urban Legends: The deadly tape has earned this status. The first victim in The Ring Two was a guy who joined one of several groups that dare people to watch the video then get someone else to watch it within seven days. Conveniently enough, these groups are called "Rings".
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Samara ends up suffering from this. She possesses Aidan to get a mother, only to be drugged by Rachel, exorcised from Aidan's body, and then re-sealed in the well.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Rachel's son Aidan insists on calling his mother by her first name. So when Samara takes over Aidan's body and subsequently starts calling her "mom", she realizes something's up.