20 Worst Movies Of 2017 (So Far)

3. Rings

There should be a rule that long-dormant horror movie franchises should only be sequelised if there is a very, very compelling reason to do so. And that doesn't mean "because the studio wants to make more money and has run out of unique ideas."

The key to convincing of that is to make the reboot or belated sequel actually be any good, which has a marvellous way of insisting on something's relevance. Sadly, that's not what Paramount did with Rings, which is supposed to be the first step in an expanded Ringu universe or something (full disclosure, it probably made enough money to warrant that).

The reboot is cynically lazy and feels suspiciously like a copycat amalgamation of the horrors that have come out since this franchise died the first time. There are some scares, but they're the disposable jump scares that don't last, and the whole thing is oddly funny in a perverse sort of way (helped a lot by Vincent D'Onofrio's hammy performance).

It had a lot to do to be any good, and pretty much none of it came off.