Rings

The third in the American Ring cycle is dull as the ditchwater at the bottom of the well where vengeful spirit Samara lies in that infamous cursed videotape. An unscary confusion of tepid chills and lame-brained thrills, it follows a lovelorn student (a bland Matilda Lutz) who spies hitherto unseen embedded clues to the fate of that "ghost in the machine" after she opens a video file on her boyfriend's computer (because who has a VCR these days?). The random images eventually lead her and equally dumb boyfriend (Alex Roe) to a small-town community with buried secrets. Johnny Galecki as the professor trying to prove the existence of the soul and creepy graveyard caretaker Vincent D'Onofrio add some sorely needed acting chops, while director F Javier Gutiérrez flaps around for frights that boil down to assorted CG insects and recycled imagery that goes back as far as the original Japanese Ringu (1998). Redundant in every way, only the climactic hints at a reboot inspire true fear.