The Ring – 2002
The ring is a psychological thriller which was directed by Gore Verbinski and written by Ehren Kruger. It was influenced by the Japanese and a horror that they made; the ring is an English interpretation of a film. This film made it global and had an international audience.
The ring is based around a video tape which if watched would kill the watcher within 7 days. After the viewer of this tape has finished watching it they receive a phone call from a little girl which appears on the video whispering ‘7 days’. Katie the first girl within the film to die has her friend Becca over for the night, and becca starts talking about the video tape which she believes to be a myth, well that was until Katie told her she watched it. At first when Katie told Becca that she had watched it with her boyfriend and one other lad becca didn’t believe it was true, until the phone rang and she got really scared.
As the phone continues to ring and ring Katie answered it, but to her relief it turned out to be her mum so she had nothing to worry about. As she finished the conversation with her mum, the TV in the front room came on, making a noise as if it had a lot of interference. As Katie walks out of the room after turning off the television it came back on, she left it and walked upstairs, to find water flooding out of the bottom of the door to her bedroom, as she opened the door there is a close-up of the door handle making it very tense as you could see her scared face within the handle as she was stepping in a puddle of water. As the door opened there was a creepy face which turned into a montage.
Katie’s cousin, Aiden, started to draw pictures of Katie dead in a coffin underground. To his mums surprise they were drawn 3 nights prior to her death during school, making his teacher very worried due to the way that his drawings were not of the nature that they were meant to be in. the way that he drew these pictures of Katie’s death was as if he knew it was going to happen, as Katie told him that she didn’t have much time. When Katie’s funeral scene starts there is a dark sky with white flowers as if to show her purity. As the funeral caries on the mother of Katie talks to her sister asking her to find out what happened due to how close Aiden was to Katie, she thought that she might know. Katie’s mum starts telling her sister that although there was no proof why she died, she didn’t believe that there was no explanation for her heart to just stop beating she was adamant that something had to of happened to cause it, although there was no medical proof as doctors were baffled as to why it had just mysteriously stopped.
As well as Katie, Josh her boyfriend died the same night, which was supposedly a suicide the only thing was, there was no way that he would of killed himself due to the way that he was too happy and full of life to do such a thing. The one thing that baffled Katie’s aunt was that they all died the same time of night (10pm) and all died with the same expression on their faces. As well as this, in Katie’s room there was a book sat on her desk which is full of models with their faces scribbled out which is seen as a symbol of the girl in the video marking her territory, as well as this there was a local photo shops card within the front cover. After she got them developed she realised that the last picture on the camera role that was taken had blurry faces. This suggested to the audience that it was only turning their faces blurry on photos after they had watched the tape.
After seeing the photos she travelled down to the inn where Katie and her friends had stayed a weekend, which was where the blurry picture was taken. The inn owner informed her that all the guests in the tavern had complained about reception as it was in the middle of nowhere and therefore put video players in each room. As well as him telling her this, he also told her that all of the videos that were used within the rooms of this inn were left by all of the guests that once stayed in the inn. As she found the tape she asked for the room that Katie and her friends had stayed in, after purchasing that room she went and sat in the room and watched the tape, as it finished the phone rang and as with Katie it whispered ‘7days’. She then stole the video to try and find out more about it due to the way that she believed strongly that it was the reason behind Katie’s death. As she showed Aiden’s dad the tape the phone didn’t ring straight away, after he left it rang, and she left it to go to voicemail. At first he didn’t believe her that it was a dangerous video tape due to the way he was so sceptical, it wasn't until he was stood in a shop and looked into a CCTV camera and saw his face was blurry that he started to believe her. She tried to copy the video so that she could do more than one test on the video but the numbers on the recording machine went funny and changed as if the recording machine was broken. After trying to copy the video she went to the psychiatric hospital that Becca was at since the night of Katie’s death to ask her some questions to try make a bit more sense of what happened to her. Turned out that Becca could tell that she had watched tape and as she asked what happens when you die she answered ‘she’ll show you in 4 days’. It was very clear to Katie’s aunt that Becca was afraid for her.
When looking at the video in a closer detail, she could see that there was more image off to the side of the screen showing the lighthouse which is situated on Moeskoe island. When paused you could see the fly on the screen moving still, and she picked it off the screen and her nose started to bleed as if the interference off the screen had effected her in some way or other. Whilst she researches about the island, she finds some interesting news headlines about the drowning horses on the video, it was said in the articles that they suffered from hallucinations and they jump out of their pen and ran straight to the lake where they drown themselves. When she looks at what she is doing with her pen she realises why Katie had scribbled out all of the faces in the book full of models; it was an after effect of the video. Another side effect of watching the video is seen in the kitchen when she tried to take a drink of water whilst on the phone to Katie’s mum; she started to choke out electrodes (the relevance to the video becomes clear later on in the film).
As she goes back to the Morgans house she finds herself watching a tape which had a meeting between her and her doctor speaking. On this tape was the white room that she had been dreaming about, the same setup of where she was sat with the water around her, but this time she could hear what the doctor was saying and what Samara replied back to him. Samara told the doctor that she liked to hurt people and won’t stop doing it. As the video was close to an end Richard smacked her on the back of the head as if to stop her watching any more. After she woke up from being unconscious she walked upstairs to the bathroom where Richard was setting up a load of wires. He started to say that the pictures would never stop and that he had to leave. Meanwhile the bath was filling with water; he then turned the electric switches on, and electrocuted himself so that the pictures would stop.
After finding out that it wasn’t over, she rushed round to the guys house to try and help him, only to find him dead in the chair with the same expression as all the other people died with. Before you see this you see the Tele flicker on after he turns it off. The phone rings and he ignore it due to the way that his TV is currently turning on and off. He starts walking towards the TV when water starts flowing out of the TV from the screen and the top leaving a puddle all over the floor.
After this she goes to sleep and wakes up after dreaming about a girl with long black hair over her face (like in the video) sat in a white room in a char in the centre surrounded by a puddle of water just like the night that Katie died and there was water coming out of her room. After she woke up she walked into the front room to find her little boy (Aiden) watching the tape. From looking at drawings that Aiden had drawn after speaking to the girl from the video she came to the conclusion that before you die you see the ring, which is the sunlight coming through the lid of the well that is closed.
As it cuts to the next scene you can see the heavy rain which is falling onto the car windows suggesting that there is something bad that is going to happen. Within this scene you can see that the horses within the articles in which she read on the internet about moscoe island are actually killing themselves rather then the owners drowning them. The owner of the horses is called Anna Morgan, she is also the mother of the girl within the video. After this she goes to the morgans house where she found out that most of the video was filmed and made within the house. As she asks Richard morgan the husband to anna morgan about the tape which had part of the house in, he looked and sounded quite worried as he asked what had happened to it. After this she is sent away by Richard morgan as he was telling her that he never had a daughter even though there was a swing outside. The drawing that Aiden had drew in the car before she crossed on a ferry to the moscoe island was of the Morgans house with the daughters face scribbled out. It turns out that Aiden had been able to see and speak to the girl as he got information like the horses kept her up all night and that she now lives in a very dark place. After trying to make sense of the information that she had got from her son and that she had picked up along the way, she went and spoke to the psychiatric nurse on the island to find out a bit more about their daughter. As Richard had said he hasn’t got a daughter he was pretty much right, Anna his wife couldn’t carry children and therefore adopted a girl from another country, Samara. All samara did was just cause a lot of trouble, as she had a few things wrong with her, she was described as the devil. She was referred to the psychiatric ward on the mainland due to the one on the island being unable to help.
As she goes back to the Morgans house she finds herself watching a tape which had a meeting between her and her doctor speaking. On this tape was the white room that she had been dreaming about, the same setup of where she was sat with the water around her, but this time she could hear what the doctor was saying and what Samara replied back to him. Samara told the doctor that she liked to hurt people and won’t stop doing it. As the video was close to an end Richard smacked her on the back of the head as if to stop her watching any more. After she woke up from being unconscious she walked upstairs to the bathroom where Richard was setting up a load of wires. He started to say that the pictures would never stop and that he had to leave. Meanwhile the bath was filling with water; he then turned the electric switches on, and electrocuted himself so that the pictures would stop.After this, she makes her way to the barn as she clicks the fact that she didn’t like the barn because the noises kept her up at night. In the barn was the same ladder which was on the video tape. She was kept alone and was blamed for her mother turning crazy, the only thing that kept her company was a TV and a video player. Underneath the wallpaper there was a tree which she had seen before on Shelters mountain which is where the tavern was. After that they travelled back to the tavern where they first started, when they thought all was lost she accidentally knocked over the glass full of marbles onto the floor which formed an arrow on the floor boards over the well. As with Katie the TV flickered on with water flowing out and over it. The nails and screws in the floor boards start to lift up and out and bugs start to appear from everywhere. After this she falls down the well and lands in lots of water, desperate to get out she starts looking round the walls to find a way to escape. When frantically looking round she saw nail marks on the wall from where samara had scratched the wall with her nails in probably what was to try and escape. The lid on the well closes and the ring appears. She finds herself holding samaras hair in the water and feels her body slowly turn in to a skeleton. Samara was killed by her mother by a black bag being out over her head and throwing her into the well. Samara was the one that made the tape as she wanted to be heard, she survived seven days down the well before actually dying and therefore that’s the reason why she gives people 7 days to live after watching the tape. Just as they thought that it was over they found out from Aiden that she was never meant to be helped and that she never sleeps therefore meaning that it wasn’t over.
After finding out that it wasn’t over, she rushed round to the guys house to try and help him, only to find him dead in the chair with the same expression as all the other people died with. Before you see this you see the Tele flicker on after he turns it off. The phone rings and he ignore it due to the way that his TV is currently turning on and off. He starts walking towards the TV when water starts flowing out of the TV from the screen and the top leaving a puddle all over the floor. She climbs out of the TV and crawls until she can stand up, and you can see him backing off as far as he can, until he ends up dead on the chair.
The end of this film you can see that they can get out of dying by making a copy of the video that makes you die after 7 days and She makes her son copy this video so that he can survive.
.tiff)
