Ring, The (2002)
Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline: Before you die, you see...

The Ring is the critically acclaimed, smash hit thriller David Ansen of Newsweek says "raises some serious Goosebumps!" This cinematic thrill ride will keep you on the edge of your seat from the stunning opening to the astonishing conclusion!

It begins as just another urban legend-the whispered tale of a nightmarish videotape that causes anyone who watches it to die seven days later. But when four teenagers all meet with mysterious deaths exactly one week after watching just such a tape, investigative reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) tracks down the video...and watches it. Now, the legend is coming true, the clock is ticking and Rachel has just seven days to unravel the mystery of The Ring.

User Comment: Brandon L. Sites (brandonsites1981@yahoo.com) • * Please note that I have not seen the 1998 version of this film. I never read any reviews or even a plot description for the 1998 version.

The film is a remake of the 1998 film called Ringu. It is about a reporter (Naomi Watts) who hears an urban legend about a video tape that kills whomever watches it exactly one week later. After a group of teens who supposedly watched the tape are all found dead, she begins to investigate what is happening. Adding urgency to her mission, is the fact that she has also watched the tape herself.

A terrific performance from Naomi Watts and a good supporting cast along with realistic special effects, richly detailed direction, a bone chilling & expertly plotted script, and a ending that will haunt you make this a must see film for all horror fans. If you have never seen the 1998 version and you think you have figured out the ending, guess again because more and likely your way off as to which direction this film is heading. Even at 110 minutes (trailers not included), there is not a single wasted moment in this film.

Rated PG-13; Adult Themes, Disturbing Images, and a little bit of Profanity.

Summary: Emotionally devastating, deeply disturbing thriller will stay with you long after you have walked out of the theater.

( *** SPOILERS BELOW *** )
(Do not read further until you have seen the movie)
Movie and Plot Discussions:
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They scratched out the faces of others to begin- this signified the overwhelming need the film had created in them to continue the cycle of death that samara so desired. As the 7 days continued they began to scratch out their own faces- this meant they were killing themselves as they had not discovered how to save themselves.(to propagate samaras wish by copying the tape)

Why everyone's faces in video and pictures are all distorted was because that's how samara saw people from the well under water. Blurry.
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By helping Samara, however, Rachel set into motion a potentially never-ending cycle, of person after person watching the tape, copying it, and passing it along. And in the novels, while copying the video may save you in the short term, there are other, long-term consequences

-taken from the ringworld

and the thought that she is now free... she can directly get someone else's attention..

"She never sleeps..."
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Remember when she was in the clinic? she was standing inside the room, motionless and she was watching the ticking of the clock, she never slept that time. She was more of... suffering insomnia.... plus! she knows no sleep that time so, even in death... she knows no sleep!

>>>is your phone ringing??? come on!pick it up!<<<
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They killed her because she was affecting the horses, the harvests on the island, and remember the father said that "she's not going to whisper in my ear anymore" right before he electrocuted himself. They moved her to the barn because she drives you crazy if you are near her. And that's why the horses went crazy, because she was now by the horses, affecting them. She can implant images on walls, film, and video tape, and she can implant images in your mind as well, but only if these things are nearby.
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She doesn't necessarily come out of the TV each time she kills. In the Japanese version, two of them (a couple) died in a car on the side of the road. There's no TV in that vehicle they were in....
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Why did Aidan freak out when Rach freed Samara? -Because Samara is now free and can now do actions directly...
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I think Samara moved the bodies because its a hell of a lot scarier to find a body positioned in such a manner than to find it sprawled on the floor. And I also believe that seen as Samara was an only child it would make sense for her to be playing with her victims as though they were dolls, posing them in such ways that they would scare the person who finds them to death (i.e. Becca) and then causing them to be scared sh*tless for the rest of their days, thus Samara's curse is spread if not by death, by insanity etc.
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The reason Becca is in the mental hospital is not cuz she found Katie in the cupboard. Remember, the mom saw her in there too, and Rachel saw Noah and was OK. I think Becca actually saw samara while she was out of the TV. That would sure drive me a little nuts. (hence the curtain when she's walking by the TV in the mental hospital).
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I think I heard somewhere that Samara can come out of any reflect-able surface. This is why she can kill the people in the car in the beginning. She comes out of a window or puddle. I prefer puddle, it makes sense. I don't know if this is true or not, can someone confirm?
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What is the deal with Samara? I'm thinking she is Damien's sister (see: "The Omen"). Anna Morgan had repeated miscarriages until suddenly she is with child? Evidence seems to point to Samara being the daughter of Satan (remember the way the animals reacted to Damian and his mother on the safari drive?).
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What about that Aidan makes drawings about his cousin's dead days before the death? Katie told Aidan that she was going to die. Remember the line in the movie and the trailer: "How did you know Katie was going to die?" "She told me." They must have seen each other in between when she watched the video and the day she died.
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The word 'ring' has different meanings. I have never had any doubts that the movie is named after the ring of light that the girl was seeing in the well. But when this movie was translated into Russian the translators decided to take the other meaning of that word and named the movie with the word Zvonok which means the phone ringing. So everybody is now sure that the main thing was that phone call Samara was making to her victims. And I'm starting to question my sanity. So what is The Ring to the Americans - the circle, the phone call or both?
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Nah, the Russians simply missed the point....probably only saw the first few minutes and concluded.....even the poster for the film shows the ring of light, soooo...

After watching the movie, I think the ring means the people who come in contact with the tape and each other. They have 2 ways to get out of that circle. Either is quite painful...

Many people keep asking how the tape was created. Well, here is how. Aside from all her other creepy powers, Samara had NENSHA. It means you can burn images on film with your mind. Here is what happened, When Samara was killed and thrown in the well, all her powers kind of shot upwards, remaining above the well as an invisible cloud. Then, the cottage was build over. A few years later someone must have forgotten a blank tape in the cottage and all of Samara's fear and suffering got copied unto the tape. The first tape must have been destroyed at some point (probably by Richard Morgan), but when Katie and her friends left another blank tape in the VCR and the cycle began all over again.
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What "first tape"?

There is one tape recorded by the teens. It however doesn't show the game they intended to record, it's Samara's video.

And there is another tape from the mental institution named SM0015. Rachel watches it and we see it only shows Samara being questioned and "not sleeping".

There is no reference to any other tape in the movie. For all we know, this is the first time it happens because we can't hear any other reference to similar things happening in the past. Just the urban legend about the video which is unexplained how it had got that far in just a week.

Oh, there has been strange things happening on the island, but that was when Samara was alive, not from a tape.
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I think samara can completely climb out of the well and chase Noah is because Rachel and Noah have 'released' her from the well i.e. they've removed her body and buried her.
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My take on why it is bad that samara is now "free":

Samara has these powers to burn her nightmare images into things, right? Well she is somewhat secluded in this remote well under a cabin, and has a limited reach with her powers. But now that she is out of the well, she will be able to burn images on anything she comes near, i.e. they will probably take her to a hospital for an autopsy, and to a morgue, and all along the way and in all of these places she will be able to burn her nightmare into any videotapes she comes close to. Her nightmare will likely spread much more quickly this way.

The only thing I don't get is how samara kills people who aren't by a TV, like the kids in the car. The reflective surfaces theory is good, but it is never actually mentioned in the flick, so I can't give it much validity.
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I have seen the movie 14 times in a Theater. Although this doesn't make me an expert on everything, I have my own views on the movie.

The lady's name is Rachel

I have felt for some time that people are overestimating the concept of Samara. This is how I see it.

Samara, while alive, was just a little girl; HOWEVER, she was a little girl that was somehow possessed by some type of evil spirit. ("Think Exorcist"). The possession of the evil spirit caused the evil things that happened around her. Samara herself was not evil. She had no real control over what inhabited her or why these things happened. When the doctor at the institute questioned her, she had no real idea of how the mysterious pictures appeared or why these thoughts were in her head. The doctor said "You don't want to hurt anyone anymore" she answered "But I do....it wont stop." This doesn't meant that she wishes to hurt people; but rather that she knows that she hurts people around her and she cant stop it.

Samara never sleeps because the demon inside her doesn't sleep. It has taken over her body.

When Samara is suffocated and dumped down the well and left for dead, the body is still inhabited by the demonic power. This power could radiate from the well, like when the video tape was created in the cabin above. The demon stayed with the body until Rachel found the body. While this solved the mystery of Samaras death, the Demon doesn't die. The demon may have kept the body preserved and intact. Once the well was opened, and the body was found and removed, the body decayed quickly; the demon was "free" so to speak. I think that freeing the demon was worse than leaving it with the body in the well. I feel that once it was free from her body, it had "more power" to do its evil work.

What came from Noah's TV may have resembled Samara in shape and form but that's about all you can say. A demon cant be seen so it needs to take some recognizable form. What we saw behind the hair was an evil demonic presence, not a cute little girl like she was in real life and not a decayed body like she would be after she died.

I think that when you look at the story of Samara as a girl possessed by a demon, it makes a bit more sense and it helps explain things a lot better.

And yes I agree that a happy ending would not have fit in a movie like this. The story doesn't end here so a neat and tidy ending would spoil everything.
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I have seen both versions of this film many times and have enjoyed them both for different reasons, but I'm pretty sure the American version made a mistake. In the original, The heroine makes a copy and then shows that copy to her ex husband the first time he sees it, this is why she is spared, if you make a copy and get someone to watch it, you are spared and it goes to the other person.

Now in the American, she didn't make the copy until after Noah had seen it.

Both versions do kind of work, and I may be wrong about the original, but I'm pretty sure that was the premise. Make a copy and get the person to watch the copy, kind of like a chain letter.

Sorry, I'm watching it at the moment and it has occurred to me that, the scene straight after she makes the copy, she shows it to Noah in his apartment as they try and stretch the film a bit. Maybe that is why he died, the copy doesn't have to be seen first perhaps?
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Aidan or whatever her son's name is watched the copy. Notice the tape had "copy" when she fished it out of the VCR?
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What was the point of the fly the journalists picked off the screen?
1. The fly is there because it was probably on the television screen during the recording and it makes for a good creepy effect.
2. The fly is a fore shadowing effect. It shows that things from inside the movie can come out into the world.....
3. Ok, I think the reason Rachel is able to pull the fly off the TV is because this is Samara becoming more real in Rachel's world and vice/versa (sort of like the supernatural world of Samara and the real world of Rachel sort of come together and by the 7th day they are the same world).
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When Rachel leaves Noah's apartment (after she discovers his body), we see her watch his current girlfriend leave the apartment. - His current girlfriend isn't leaving. She's going up the elevator, to Noah's apartment. She will most likely find the body, and dial 911.
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And the person who said the tape was a Urban Legend...WRONG. If you watch the beginning, when Becca starts telling Katie of the tape, and Katie begins freaking out, Katie asks where she heard that, and Becca says, "Someone from Revere. Not sure who." or something along those lines. Now, Katie's boyfriend was from Revere. And so was the other two people who died in the car. So, you see? Becca heard it from one of those three. It is NOT a Urban Legend.

So, this means Samara created the tape over the tape the four kids were trying to record the football game on. ________________

There's also an easteregg in the DVD. If you wait in the main menu the > cursor thing will disappear when it does push up on your DVD remote and enter or play. Doing this will play just the video from the movie. Supposedly there's something on the DVD that causes your phone to ring. When me and my friends did this my phone rang every time when I picked it up there was silence. I have a feeling my friends were just messing around calling my room on their cell phones but if some happens to try it on their own and their phone does ring let me know.
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I don't buy this demon stuff - I just say the kid was EVIL!
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Here is PROOF that Samara came out of the TV to kill Katie.

Q: In the mental hospital, why did Becca walk with that curtain on wheels trundling in front of her?

A: This scene is taken directly from Ring 2. In a flashback, we learn that Masami (Becca in the remake) had been in the bathroom, but returned just in time to see Sadako emerge from the television and claim Tomoko (Katie in the remake) as her victim. This incident was so psychologically crushing that not only was she institutionalized, from that time on she was deathly afraid to go near a television set. Thus, whenever she would leave her room in the hospital, the staff would always wheel a screen in front of her to block out the TV.
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I don't think that you should try and use one of the versions to explicitly explain the other version.

But if Becca was afraid of televisions and the sort, why did she stop and stare at the TV and the 'curtain' kept on going past? she didn't panic/scream or anything.
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I think the 'possessed' explanation for the girl works the best. The exact words in the mental clinic are :

Dr : You don't want to hurt anybody...

Samara : But I do, and I'm sorry. It won't stop.

Samara wouldn't be sorry unless some piece of her wasn't evil. Under all the horrible things she did, I think she was an innocent little girl. However, the demon or spirit or whatever makes her do the things she does. (By the way, I LOVE the idea of Richard and Anna going off to make a 'deal with the devil' for a child. That works so well and adds so much if you think of it that way. Awesome.)

I am still confused as to why Aidan saw the extra little segment at the end of the tape where Samara's hand comes out of the well. One of my friends believes it's because every time you make a copy, she gets farther and farther out of the well. (Aidan was watching the copied version) But that's just him.

Samara also obviously has some sort of kinetic power related to electronics, thus, the reason she is able to make a phone ring or come out of a TV.. I'm wondering if it had anything to do with the TV in her room. Rachel says "She was up here all alone" and Noah points at the TV and says "Not alone". This might be why she chooses to travel by frequency waves... but she can only appear to or 'mess with' people who have seen the tape.
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I agree on the possessed part. About Samara coming out of the well: I still don't know if that wasn't the case when Katie saw the well, we simply haven't got enough info for that. I think, she came out of the well, because Rachel released here.
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I think I have the answer to the urban legend questions.

To me it was quite clear that Katie herself started the urban legend. When they saw the tape in the cabin, after thinking they taped a football match, they thought that someone was joking with them. They received the phone call after they watched the tape and thought this was part of the joke. Katie said so herself to Becca. So when they got back from their trip to Shelter Mountain, she began to tell the story at school.

This all makes sense, because when Becca starts telling the urban legend to Katie, Katie jokes with her by saying she has experienced the exact thing. If Katie didn't start the legend herself she would be pretty freaked out to hear the story, but now she can laugh about it, because she started the legend herself.

Now I still have something I can't figure out. In the whole movie we only witness one phone call, the one Rachel answers in the cabin. When Becca tell the legend she heard, she says that you are called and a woman says you will die in 7 days. But
when Rachel answers the phone, the voice only says "seven days" and nothing else. Samara is lucky that Rachel had already heard the legend, so she knows what will happen in seven days.

But what if she hadn't heard the story, than Rachel wouldn't have known what it was all about, What seven days? What will happen in seven days? Will I have to take out the trash in seven days or what?

I believe that is the objective of Samara to make the seven days a hell, just like the seven days were a hell for her. But if she isn't clear on what will happen in seven days, people might just live a happy life for the remaining seven days of their life.
Mmmm anybody any thoughts?
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--- JOYA ---

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