HALF-DROWNED HOUND 
Rings (2017)
Remember when the American Ring movies were good? I remember. I yearn for it. I am sick with desire. If someone makes another Ring movie I will actually start throwing bricks.
I try to say something nice about every movie I review, but ... I've got nothin'. Folks, Rings is a bad movie. Perhaps the greatest insult is that it tries to 'replace' the original movie, with the 'couple musing on how sad Samara's life was' scene being the most egregious, as if they didn't already have way better characters in a way better movie. Like, you couldn't pay me to give a shit about these people. I don't even remember their names and I've seen the movie twice (unfortunately).
Speaking of! You'd think getting high would at least make the viewing experience better, right? [LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER] It was still easily the most un-entertaining movie I've watched in recent memory. I genuinely don't mean to come off as a hater, I would fucking love to like this movie, but it's nothing. Literally nothing. It feels like the creators never even watched the first movie. What's with the cicadas, man? Samara already had a fly motif, which is WAY more interesting and suitable, considering she spent over 20 years as a dead body. Plus the fact that it tried to become apocalyptic ... I already had that problem with Rings (2005)/The Ring Two, and this is just a personal preference, but like. Stop? Please? Can't we ever just say "fuck this city in particular"?
Easily my least favorite thing about Rings, though, is what it adds to Samara's backstory. First of all, not all villains need to be stuffed to the brim with Backstory™️, especially since hers was plenty effective in the first movie. But if you are going to bloat the movie with exposition, then at least don't make it cartoonishly offensive. What do you MEAN Samara only has evil powers because she was concieved via rape? Are you INSANE? Who approved this??? I refuse to acknowledge it as canon, but still, that's just a little Band-Aid on that problem. I've tried to remember if I heard any criticisms of this aspect when it came out, but I don't think anyone gave enough of a shit about the movie in general to talk about it, lol.
I guess I do have one good thing to say about it, and that's that the scares are pretty good. I've seen plenty that are less scary, anyway. While Rings fails to evoke emotion in regards to the sheer tragedy inherent to the series, it's at least visible that the energy that should could have gone toward that is being well spent. Still, if you're looking for a scary Ringverse movie, just watch Ringu. But, I mean, Rings is scary, undeniably- and I'm hard to scare.
TL;DR: this movie sucks and is weirdly offensive. Just watch the first hour and 37 minutes of the first movie if you want your Samara fix.