A teenage boy stares in horror as water seeps out from beneath a closed door. When he opens the door, he sees that there is static on his TV screen.

This scenario probably sounds familiar to those who have seen the 2002 thriller, “The Ring,” by director Gore Verbinski; but viewers who are strangers to the series may find this opening scene of “The Ring Two” to be more bizarre than frightening.

“The Ring Two” continues the story from the first movie, in which the concept is that a mysterious, unlabeled videotape created by a disturbed girl causes viewers to die one week, exactly to the minute, after they watch it.

In the sequel, Naomi Watts reprises her role as Rachel Keller, the reporter who investigated the source of these haunted videotapes in the first film.

Rachel and her son Aidan, played by David Dorfman, move to the suburbs in an attempt to forget the traumatic events caused by the videotapes.

Unfortunately, Rachel soon heard the news of the mysterious death of a local teenager, whose body was found in front of his TV set.

Also, Aidan is becoming very ill and he begins to have strange dreams as well as waking encounters with the ghost of the little girl named Samara, played by Daveigh Chase (as the living form of the girl) and Kelly Stables (as the undead version of Samara), who created the videotapes. Samara is trying to possess Aidan.

“The Ring Two” is directed by Hideo Nakata, who also directed the original Japanese film, “Ringu,” which “The Ring” was an American remake of, as well as the Japanese sequel, “Ringu 2.” He does well producing some of the highlights of the film, but there are times when he provides suspense that leads nowhere or a sense of fear and graveness in scenes where those feelings do not belong.

Although the sequel retains many elements from the first film, the skin-crawling creepiness from “The Ring” is generally absent from “The Ring Two.”

The focus of the movie quickly shifts away from the mysterious videotapes and zeroes in on Samara’s past.

The film still leaves many unanswered questions and is sometimes presents plot twists and imagery that are more strange and confusing than scary.

The idea of a scary movie that can actually reach through a TV screen and attack viewers, although it is a warped and mind-boggling concept, it is one of the aspects that made the first “Ring” movie so disturbing. By letting go of that plotline, “The Ring Two” loses some of its appeal.

Overall, the sequel doesn’t quite meet the par of its predecessor. Moviegoers would be better off renting the first film from their local video store.

On Screen

What: “The Ring Two”: The ghost of a little girl comes back to haunt an investigative reporter and her son.

Rated: PG-13

Starring: Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, Sissy Spacek, Emily VanCamp

Bottom Line: The first installment set a standard so high that the sequel didn’t reach.