LIKE an old-fashioned fairground ghost train, The Ring Two is a proficient exercise in suspense that delivers a couple of predictable scares, but little else.

It's all tease and anticipation, plenty of tricks but too little treat, adeptly manipulated by director Hideo Nakata, the creator of the original Japanese blockbuster Ringu upon which The Ring was based.

Set six months after the first film, The Ring Two travels to Astoria, Oregon, where newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) and her son Aidan (David Dorfman) have moved to escape the cursed videotape and Evil Samara (Kelly Stables).

Rachel believes they are free of the curse, having made a copy of the original videotape as instructed.

However, nightmarish memories of those horrifying events in Seattle resurface when a local boy becomes the latest victim of the legendary video nasty.

Rachel quickly realises that Samara has followed them to the small coastal community, more determined than ever to continue her relentless cycle of terror and death.

The vengeful spirit focuses on Aidan and battles to claim the little boy's soul.

However, Rachel will stop at nothing to protect her son, enlisting the help of local newspaper owner Max Rourke (Simon Baker) to banish Samara once and for all.

Rachel must discover the source of the evil, leading her to a mysterious psychiatric patient named Evelyn (Sissy Spacek), who holds the dark secret of Samara's origin.

Nakata makes his American film debut with The Ring Two and the sequel certainly possesses a different mood and pace than the standard Hollywood fare.

The film works best in its quieter moments like a charged conversation between Aidan and child psychiatrist Dr Emma Temple (Elizebeth Perkins), who suspects the boy is being abused by his mother.

Little does the medic realise the true cause of the bruises, or the awesome powers of the malevolent force that has Aidan in its grasp.

Many of the set pieces rely heavily on special visual effects. Sadly, some of the computer trickery isn't nearly as polished as it could be - the digitally created animals are an unconvincing case in point.

Watts screams and whimpers on cue and Dorfman powerfully conveys a gamut of emotions in those large saucer-shaped eyes, the windows to his character's tortured soul.

Baker is redundant but it's nice to see Spacek making her first foray into the horror genre since Carrie in 1973.

The narrative unfolds at a trot rather than a gallop and the finale leaves enough questions unanswered to suggest the makings of a third film.

If the hairs stand up on the back of your neck watching The Ring Two, it must be a draught in the cinema.

Rating: 6/10