I’ve exausted the hampsters and can’t find a thread dealing with questions about The Ring so please indulge me. My wife and I finally rented it last night and while it was good, some questions went unanswered.
The daughter who was causing the deaths, what was the deal with her? There is a lot of information about how her parents wanted to have a child, then left one winter to return with a child claiming she was adopted. We missed the significance of this part. What did this imply about her?
When the kid is all upset that his mom for helping the girl and says, “Don’t you understand? She never sleeps”. I don’t understand that. All right, she never sleeps as shown by the video in the mental hospital but what is the kid trying to say in this part?
The well - Is it on the family property? When the girl gets throw down the well, she is looking at the horses. Neither of us could figure out if this meant that the well was on family property. The part about the cabin being built over it had us confused also. Was there any reason to build a cabin over it or was it simply for sake of the plot? It made little sense since I can’t think of any reason to build a cabin directly over a closed well.
Anyway, I figure if any place was the source for some answers, this was it.
Note: I haven’t seen The Ring, so I’m basing my answers on my viewing of Ringu, wich is the Japanese movie that The Ring was based on. Incidentally, I thought Ringu was really freakin’ lame, so I didn’t bother to watch the American version, since IMO American remakes of foreign films tend to be worse than the originals.
What’s the deal with the daughter?
IIRC, the mother had psychic powers, and was being kinda exploited by the mad-professor guy. They had sex, ergo the daughter, who can do the death-by-telepathy thing. Professor is horrified with the daughter, so down the well she goes.
Never sleeps…
Beats hell outta me. I don’t recall anything analogous in Ringu.
What’s with the well?
The correct answer is (b)–lame plot device. The daughter (who can kiiillll just by loooooking at youuuuuu!!! Aieeee!!!, dontcha know) just happens to be loitering by the well and gets dumped down it, then later the cabin just happens to be built over the well, then later a group of teens spends the night in the cabin, and the group of teens all die!!!
Wow, it sounds like the American version is a lot better for leaving details out.
There is no explanation in the American version as to where she came from.
The mother was explaining how the girl would rest now - that someone had to understand what happened to her before she could move on and stop killing people by having them experience what it was like to spend 7 days in the well. The fact that Samara does not sleep means that she cannot stop.
I can’t remember if they explain whether the well was on their property or not - since the horses were there, it’s a possibility. Maybe they sold the property afterwards.
Thanks for the links. I’ve tried to search for The Ring multiple ways and each time I get pages of results with things about Led Zepplin songs and LOTR. Obviously I am searching incorrectly. The threads you posted all seem to degenerate into either a comparison of The Ring vs Ringu or straight out dicussion of the Japanese version. To me, The Ring was a good movie with a lot of missing information. Since I found it interesting I figured asking here might find some info.
During the ferry scene we were both yelling, “Just leave the damn horse alone!”.
#2 I think it was because she was a spirit , being dead and all, and never sleeps.
#3 If I remember correctly they lived on an island , on a farm and her dad or stepdad had her locked up in the barn , in a small little room with only a television to watch.
The cabin , one of several that was built into some sort of summer camp type resort , no where near the family home , vaguely remembering the flashbacks , it may have originally been a farm.
I think it’s implied that they went abroad, where they entered into an unspeakable pact with some hideous evil, and thus the kid is half human at best. That’s why the father says he doesn’t have a daughter- his wife has a child, but he isn’t the father.
Although you spend a lot of the movie sympathizing somewhat with the poor psychic girl who can’t control her powers, eventually you realize that she is geniunely evil, and her parents might have had the right idea in throwing her down the well.
I’m reading the book it was based on and quite frankly, I think it sucks. It’s not quite as eerie because again-they try to explain everything. And at the end of the tape it’s supposed to have instructions on how to avoid the curse. Which I don’t like-I’d rather Samara NOT give people advice on how to avoid it.
Also, it was more clinical and sterile, what with her being a hermaphrodite and it’s a virus rather than a cold, etc. And the guy’s friend is a rapist (or at least claims to be)…I dunno.
Okay-I THINK Shelter Mountain was originally a getaway cabin the family owned. After Samara was killed, her parents moved the cabin over the well-or her father had it done so she couldn’t get out. The place was later sold, I would imagine.
Samara’s parents moved her to the barn because she creeped them out-she kept burning images in their heads. I don’t think at this point she was evil-she did bad things without meaning to. It wasn’t until after her mother killed her that she started doing it deliberately. Of course, that’s MY opinion-it never says so one way or the other in the movie.
I base this on the interview where the doctor says, “You don’t want to hurt people, do you?”
When she answers, “But I do,” it sounds like, I know I don’t want to, but it happens anyways. Rather than Yes, I DO want to hurt people. And then she says, “I’m sorry, but it’s not going to stop,” meaning she can’t control it, she’s sorry, but she cannot help it.
I think the reason the kid is upset about his mom helping her is that now she’s been triggered. Or else that there was no point to it-it doesn’t matter if you help her or not-she’s still gonna be evil.
Remember that her mother had several miscarriages before having her. You could interpret that as nature trying to prevent the Thing That Should Not Be, as Menocchio put it. When they went away (and returned with the girl) they may have been at a fertility clinic, or doing black magic, or any number of things to make the birth happen; but I think that the miscarriages were a sign that whatever she gave birth to would be evil, so her body was trying to prevent it.
Guin, I think that scene was a classic bit of movie misdirection.
We’re conditioned to assume that children are good, and that abuse and especially murder such as Samara suffered are never justified. Thus, we feel that Samara’s out for revenge, and read the tape in the way you did. But that’s not what she really meant.
But I do [want to hurt people]. And I’m sorry [rhetorical, she’s not sorry], but I’m not going to stop.
Samara was evil. Killing her was justified, and now to stop her others must be put at risk.
The friend who was in the institution would have been a good vehicle for more information but was totally wasted. Her character could have been used to give information about Samarra, at least some insight since she supposedly saw her kill her friend. Sadly, all she mutters is, “She’ll tell you herself in 4 days” or something similar and is never seen again.
In most movies of this type, I enjoy the background story as much as the action parts.
I always thought the nosebleeds were simply the result the stress from having had that really intense dream. Also, a really really creepy way for the mother to know that her son was still in danger (wasn’t that scene just awesome? “You weren’t supposed to do that.”).
Well, I’ve seen The Ring and Ringu. For the most part, I think the American one was better, save one scene that freaking rocked in Ringu. Samara moved so freakily when she got out of the television. I’m getting shivers just thinking of that Ringu scene!
Anyway, on to the questions:
She was evil. That’s all I can figure.
Perhaps “She never sleeps” can be read as “She never dies.” Sleeping and dying being similar in art has been around a long time. (“For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause…”) You can’t kill the evil, you can just hope you don’t catch the video bug.
They owned a horse ranch, as far as I can tell. Since Samara was looking at the horses right before being chucked down the well, maybe she takes out some of her anger later on them. Since there was that plague that got the horses after she dies, (or was it before?), the family must’ve been in dire financial straits. I guess they sold the land to pay bills. Maybe before they sold it, they built a building over the well so they could try to forget it.
You know, maybe I liked The Ring better because I didn’t have to constantly look at the bottom of my screen for the translation. That, and the female lead doesn’t get slapped by the male lead. That was priceless.
I’d say they probably built the cabin over the well so that her body would not be accidently discovered. After all, even if your daughter is evil, you’re still not allowed to murder her. They needed to cover up their crime.
When Samara is looking at the horses, there is a clear open stretch of land from the well to the pasture where the horses are running around. Now, whenever they show the cabin, it’s all woods. So, the only way this works is the family is somewhere else with the girl, possibly on land they own, the mother throws the girl down a well and they build a cabin over it. Later the pasture area becomes woods.
It’s not mentioned on movie-mistakes.com and they usually post the most minute mistakes imaginable.
One that is mentioned and I picked up on while watching the movie was when Rachel falls into the well. When she revives and stands up, the water only reaches her waste. From the distance she fell, she should have hit bottom.
Jon, yes, she seems to have taken her anger out on the horses. During the video of her sessions in the hospital, she mentions how her father doesn’t really care for her, only the horses.