# For us wusses: Tell me ALL about The Ring **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 19, 2004, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242 "2004-01-19T22:42:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/21 "2004-01-21T14:09:01Z")
> [@Siege](#): > > There was one thing in particular which bothered me. I’ve read here that the “Ring” in question was the ring of light around the lid of the well as Sadako/Samara’s mother put it in place. This leads me to believe she was concious at the time. Wouldn’t her mother have noticed that small detail? Or, is that the kind of question you should never ask about a horror movie, along the line of "Why did the girl run off to the dark, lonely woods instead of to the brightly lit, busy shopping center? > > CJ You may not like this, but if the mother noticed that Samara was still conscious, she didn’t care. She wanted the kid dead and gone in order to get rid of the visions Samara was causing everyone to have. Sadako has a different death story: her mom was already dead, and it was the psychiatrist at the remote sanitarium (later built over and turned into a scenic lodge/hotel) where Sadako was committed who clubbed her over the head and pushed her in the well after raping her (Sadako was in her early 20’s, as opposed to the preadolescent Samara). This is going by the first movie’s storyline, as things get a little confused in the later sequels and prequels. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/22 "2004-01-21T14:26:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Don’t get too attached to Joan of Arcadia, though. To let everyone know how much this movie affected me, I refuse to watch that show, because of that girl, and what happened to her in the movie. The mere sight of her creeps me out. The Ring deeply affected me in such a way that I don’t ever want to see even a clip of it, ever again. Sounds like Ringu is worse, too, so I probably won’t be seeing that either. Best horror film I ever saw. ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/23 "2004-01-21T14:30:49Z")
> [@Jean Grey](#): > > The Ring deeply affected me in such a way that I don’t ever want to see even a clip of it, ever again. Now that’s a review blurb! ---
**Author:** ![paulberserker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/24 "2004-01-21T14:33:37Z")
mm, the above posts explain it all really. I would recommend seeing the japanese original first though, then you can compare. The ending is filmed backwards going forwards as Sadako ambles towards the screen/foreground, which just looks _wrong_ , in the way its intended (fucking creepy). without CGI too, which is a bonus. I watched Dark Water the other night too. Big on tension, not so big on scares. ---
**Author:** ![Kingspades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecae2f/32.png) [@Kingspades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kingspades)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/25 "2004-01-21T14:37:05Z")
> [@LucysLogic101](#): > > at the end of the film, Naomi is on the phone with her father and asks him if he would do her a favor. She makes a copy of the tape and thus alludes to the idea that her son will show the video to his grandfather in order to save his own life. (actually, now i’m starting to doubt that the grandfather is involved in this plot, i think she just makes a copy for her son to show someone…i could be confusing this with Ringu) It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the movie, but I don’t remember anything about the grandfather. I do, however, recall the son asking who they were going to show the video to, and both of the actors looking at the camera as the last image of the movie. Was I the only one to assume that we, as the audience, were being shown the story to save the two characters’ lives? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/26 "2004-01-21T16:18:27Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > Sadako has a different death story: her mom was already dead, and it was the psychiatrist at the remote sanitarium (later built over and turned into a scenic lodge/hotel) where Sadako was committed who clubbed her over the head and pushed her in the well after raping her (Sadako was in her early 20’s, as opposed to the preadolescent Samara). This is going by the first movie’s storyline, as things get a little confused in the later sequels and prequels. Real quick nitpick…in the book, Sadako is raped by a guy and he tosses her into the well, but acording to the movie, there was no rape. The guy in question was the psychiatrist who married her mother, was possibly her father, and did what he did to try and stop her “evil”. According to the sequels, though, she just slaughtered a group of people, so it wasn’t all that un-justified (of course, they murdered her first, but that’s besides the point…yeah, the sequels just get even more confusing). And I believe **LucysLogic101** is also mixing her media. In the Japanese **Ring** , the movie ends with the mother calling the grandfather, but the American version just ends with Rachel showing Aiden how to record the tape and staring blankly at the snow covered screen. Quick hijack: seeing as someone’s already mentioned another horror film, **Juon** is another absolutely horrifying Japanese horror film. More scares than tension, but a nice healthy dose of that as well. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2004, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/27 "2004-01-30T06:10:27Z")
> [@El Elvis Rojo](#): > > Well, you may die in three days without water, but…I’d like to think that even as young as she was, Samara would have been able to find enough water to drink while _stuck in a well_! I was under the impression that it wasn’t thirst she died of, but drowning when she finally became unconscious from her injuries/hunger/whatever, since being unconscious isn’t the same thing as sleeping. ---
**Author:** ![Soup\_du\_jour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Soup\_du\_jour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup_du_jour)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2004, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/28 "2004-01-30T06:58:37Z")
> [@](#): > > I was under the impression that it wasn’t thirst she died of, but drowning when she finally became unconscious from her injuries/hunger/whatever, since being unconscious isn’t the same thing as sleeping. But don’t you see? _She never sleeps._ ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/29 "2004-01-31T02:23:39Z")
> [@Soup\_du\_jour](#): > > But don’t you see? > > _She never sleeps._ So? A person who never sleeps can be knocked unconsious. ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2004, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/30 "2004-01-31T06:45:26Z")
\ Scary movies bug the hell out of me. I’m talking really scary movies, like The Ring or Jacob’s Ladder. Gore-fests just gross me out; and Scream-type movies just piss me off because there are only two questions: Who’s doing the killing and who’s going to die next? Anyway, I found if I watch a comedy right after a scary movie, it takes the edge off and allows for a decent night’s sleep. So stop being a wuss! \ ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Doubt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Peter\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Doubt)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2004, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/31 "2004-01-31T08:22:03Z")
Question about the film technique, when she comes out of the tv at the end. So this was done by filming her walk/move backwards, then playing the film backwards? Think they used this method in [_Stir of Echoes_](http://imdb.com/title/tt0164181/) when the ghost of the girl appears in one scene. I didn’t remember this from the first viewing several years back. When it came on again recently, that scene was quite a jolt. Very effective. ---
**Author:** ![gaba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@gaba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaba)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2004, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/32 "2004-01-31T11:18:25Z")
(hijack) it’s heartwarming to see that I’m not the only person terminally creeped out by well-made scary-movies. I just can’t watch them. My sister has been raving about “Ringu” and wants me to see it. But that’s a no-can-do… sigh. (/hijack) ---
**Author:** ![KismetRose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@KismetRose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KismetRose)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/33 "2004-02-04T09:12:31Z")
I saw the Japanese Ringu after watching The Ring. My boyfriend and I had liked The Ring so much that we wanted to see what spawned it. Man, were we disappointed. The only thing at all scary about Ringu was the girl’s ability to roll her eyes like that. But we have friends who loved Ringu. Go fig. As for The Ring, we loved it. We had to sleep with the light on the first night we saw it, and both my boyfriend and I were raised on horror movies. We liked how there were lots of things that the movie didn’t or couldn’t explain, that there was a sense of mystery left. We showed it to our friends, and two of our friends didn’t find it scary, while the rest very much did. One of our friends was a wuss type and she nearly jumped out of her skin, but she got over it. The second time we saw it, it was still scary. After that, that feeling faded away, but my appreciation for the film has only deepened. It’s worth giving a go, at any rate. If it scares you, good. If it bores you, you can turn it off. ---
**Author:** ![PaperTowel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecb155/32.png) [@PaperTowel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaperTowel)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/34 "2004-02-04T13:08:53Z")
> [@El Elvis Rojo](#): > > the American version just ends with Rachel showing Aiden how to record the tape and staring blankly at the snow covered screen. Er, I thought she took the copy of the tape to the video store and left it in another box. Or was that a DVD alternate ending? ---
**Author:** ![paulberserker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/35 "2004-02-04T13:33:28Z")
> [@Sender](#): > > Question about the film technique, when she comes out of the tv at the end. So this was done by filming her walk/move backwards, then playing the film backwards? > > Think they used this method in [_Stir of Echoes_](http://imdb.com/title/tt0164181/) when the ghost of the girl appears in one scene. I didn’t remember this from the first viewing several years back. When it came on again recently, that scene was quite a jolt. Very effective. Yep, thats how its done. They use it in a couple of other films, unsurprisingly, Ring 2 (twice) and Dark Water, both by the same people. Theres something about it thats _wrong wrong wrong_ . I wonder if theyre going to remake Ring 2. ---
**Author:** ![With\_Rye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@With\_Rye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/With_Rye)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/36 "2004-02-04T16:20:07Z")
I first saw _The Ring_ at a big end-of-summer-before-college get-together with dozens of people. For some reason, we watched the movie at around 5:00 in the afternoon. The sun shined brightly through the think drapes, casting this fat glare across the screen that, especially during menacing-music-laced scenes, caused many necks to crane and requests for quick recaps. To aid the mood, observations and gleeful jokes (“What if she dialed \*69?”) sprang throughout the film. Maybe you should do that for your next horror movie viewing. The Super Bowl atmosphere will almost guarantee nightmare immunity. Oh, and **paulberserker** , which part of Dark Water did that backward-filming method come up? I can’t recall. ---
**Author:** ![paulberserker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/37 "2004-02-04T16:31:46Z")
before reading, I CANNOT DO SPOILER BOXES for some reason, I dont have the option. I’ll try to keep it to a minimum. The bit near the end where the little girl comes out of the waterlogged upstairs room, and her mothers looking at her through the lift window. The creepy way she moves about confused seems to be done backwards going forwards. IMHO. I may be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/38 "2004-02-04T18:05:49Z")
> [@PaperTowel](#): > > Er, I thought she took the copy of the tape to the video store and left it in another box. Or was that a DVD alternate ending? That was an alternate ending. The actual theatrical ending just had Aiden ask her “What about the person we show it to?” or whatever, and she just stares at the static. Then there’s a quick shot of the ring and shit, and it ends. ---
**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242/39 "2004-02-04T19:39:36Z")
> [@El Elvis Rojo](#): > > That was an alternate ending. The actual theatrical ending just had Aiden ask her “What about the person we show it to?” or whatever, and she just stares at the static. Then there’s a quick shot of the ring and shit, and it ends. The implication being, of course, that YOU, the viewer, are next. This film scared the hell out of me, but I am disturbed by wierd things. Not wierd like “things other people DON’T find scary”, but wierd like “unusual”. Like The Beatles’ _Yellow Submarine_ makes me extremely uncomfortable. I can’t even watch it due to its sheer strangeness. In _The Ring_, the images on the videotape and the white noise put me right on edge. I had to turn it off after the first 15 minutes. I’ve been spoiled enough that I know exactly what I missed, though, and I’ve clicked over to it a few times when it was on HBO and I was channel-surfing. I saw Rachel’s nightmare this way and it made my stomach do flip-flops. I had to change the channel when she saw the handprint on her arm. The _parody_ of Samara coming out of the television in _Scary Movie 3_ creeped me out enough. I don’t know if I could handle the real thing. I feel compelled to finish watching it, though, so maybe I’ll have another go next time it’s broad daylight and Cory is here with me. The apartments are soundproofed except for the walls of the hallways, so if I put a towel under the door, I can scream if I feel like relieving my feelings, and no one will call the cops. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-us-wusses-tell-me-all-about-the-ring/225242.md?page=1)