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The Ring
Directed by	Gore Verbinski
Produced by	Walter F. Parkes Roy Lee Laurie MacDonald Michael Macari
Written by	Kôji Suzuki Ehren Kruger
Starring	Naomi Watts Martin Henderson David Dorfman Brian Cox Jane Alexander Lindsay Frost Amber Tamblyn Rachael Bella
Music by	Hans Zimmer
Cinematography	Bojan Bazelli
Editing by	Craig Wood
Distributed by	DreamWorks SKG
Release date(s)	October 18, 2002
Running time	115 min.
Language	English
Budget	$48 million
Gross revenue	$249,348,933
Followed by	The Ring Two
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Ratings
South Africa:	13V
United Kingdom:	15
United States:	PG-13

The Ring is a 2002 American remake of the 1998 Japanese horror film, Ring (also known as Ringu). Both movies are based on the novel Ring by Kôji Suzuki. It was directed by Gore Verbinski and starred Naomi Watts and Martin Henderson.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Reception 3 Home Video 4 Trivia 4.1 References in popular culture 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

The plot summary in this article or section is too long compared to the rest of the article. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.

The story begins with two teenage girls discussing the events of the previous weekend, during which one of them, Katie Embry (played by Amber Tamblyn), went to a cabin in the mountains to spend time with some friends. While talking, the subject of a supposedly cursed videotape is brought up. The other girl, Rebecca 'Becca' Kotler (played by Rachael Bella), states that anyone who watches this video receives a phone call, in which a voice says, "you will die in seven days." Then, exactly seven days (to the minute) after viewing the tape, the viewer dies. Katie reveals in horror that she had watched that video at the cabin last weekend with three friends, exactly seven days earlier. After a series of unexplainable occurrences, involving a television in the house turning itself on and eerie sounds, Katie is mysteriously killed while Becca has the misfortune of watching, causing her to be institutionalized in a mental hospital.

The film then introduces Katie's aunt, Rachel (played by Naomi Watts), a journalist living in Seattle. Her son, Aidan, was not only Katie's cousin but also a good friend, and seems to be sensitive to psychic occurrences. Aidan's teacher brings to Rachel's attention that he had been drawing pictures of his cousin dead in the ground for days before Katie actually died. At Katie's funeral, Rachel's sister asks her to investigate her daughter's death, and, as she begins, she learns of the videotape. Her investigation leads her to the same cabin in the mountains where Katie and her friends had watched the tape. There, she finds the tape and eventually watches it. After that the phone rings and a girl says - seven days. The next day she calls Noah, Aiden's father, to see the video. He asks her to make a copy for further investigation. Unfortunately, Aidan watches the tape a couple days later.

After viewing the tape, strange things begin to happen to Rachel, and presumably anyone else who had viewed the cursed images. She experiences terrible nightmares, nose bleeds, and curious surreal situations (such as when she pauses a section of the cursed tape in which a fly is running across the screen, she finds she is able to pluck it from the monitor). Rachel's investigation turns to the tape itself, which contains a seemingly random series of disturbing, grainy, black and white images. Investigating those images leads Rachel to Anna Morgan (the woman seen in the tape) who lived on Moesko Island with her husband and daughter, and raised horses. Rachel discovers that a mysterious tragedy befell the Morgan ranch, in which all the horses seemed to go mad, killing themselves attempting to flee the ranch. For reasons that were never completely explained, this presumably caused Anna Morgan to become severely depressed, and shortly after taking residence at a mental institution, to commit suicide. Rachel goes to the Morgan's house and finds Richard Morgan who refuses to talk about the video or his daughter. Rachel goes to see the local doctor to ask about the Morgan family. The old doctor tells her that Anna wanted a child more than anything, but was never able to successfully carry a fetus to term. One winter they left and returned with Samara whom they adopted. But after some time Anna started complaining about visions that only happened when Samara was around, so she sent them both to a mental institute on the continent. Noah goes to the institute and finds Anna Morgan's file and discovers that a video is missing. Rachel goes back to the Morgan's house and after watching the video of Samara's conversation with the doctor is confronted by Richard Morgan. He states the girl was evil, and then promptly kills himself with an elaborate toaster-in-the-bathtub type scheme.

Noah arrives at the house just after Richard's death, and together with Rachel, he goes to the barn to discover a little room where Samara was kept by her father. Behind the wallpaper they discover a burned image of a tree recognizable from the video tape, and Rachel remembers seeing it near the cabin at Shelter Mountain Inn. They arrive there and discover a well underneath the floor. Rachel is led to where Samara was killed; at the bottom of a well. Rachel gets stuck in the well and finds Samara's body. Samara, or at any rate, the not-completely-dead body of Samara, shows Rachel how her mother took her to the well and dropped her there. Rachel notifies the authorities, and the now apparently dead Samara is given a proper burial, presumably putting her spirit to rest. Noah asks her how long could you survive there and Rachel guesses that you could survive seven days.

At this point it seems that everything is well again, and Rachel informs Aidan that they will no longer be troubled by Samara. However, Aidan quickly corrects her and says that Samara's spirit has been released, evident by the bruises on his arm, given by Samara in a nightmare that Rachel also experienced. In the film's most unsettling and memorable scene, Noah is going over some film prints in his apartment when his TV turns on to static, in the same fashion that Rachel's niece Katie experienced before her death. Noah turns it off casually before the TV turns itself on again, which alerts Noah. He is then treated to a recurring image of a well, in which a long-haired female figure (Samara) crawls out of the well and slowly walks toward the screen. It intensifies as Noah quickly backs away and Samara literally crawls out of the television set. Noah knocks over a shelf in fear and crawls away before turning around, only to have Samara stare directly at him, causing his inevitable death which Rachel discovers after racing to his apartment. Rachel is scared and worried that Aidan would die too when she realizes that the only way to escape Samara after watching the video is to make a copy of the tape and show it to someone else, thus continuing the cycle. The movie ends with Rachel helping Aidan to make a copy of the tape.

The film was financially successful.^[1] The success of The Ring opened the way for American remakes of several other Japanese horror films, including The Grudge and Dark Water. A sequel, The Ring Two, was released in North American theaters on March 18, 2005. It was directed by Hideo Nakata, the director of the original Japanese film.

The Ring received mixed reviews from film critics, receiving a “fresh” 72% favorable reviews out of 166 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes,^[2] and a Metacritic score of 57/100 (mixed or average) from 36 reviews.^[3] On the television program Ebert & Roeper, Richard Roeper gave the film "Thumbs Up" and felt it was very gripping and scary despite some minor unanswered questions. Roger Ebert gave the film "Thumbs Down" and felt it was boring, borderline ridiculous and disliked the extended, detailed ending.^[4] IGN’s Jeremy Conrad praised the movie for its atmospheric set up and cinematography, and said that “there are 'disturbing images'… but the film doesn't really rely on gore to deliver the scares. … The Ring relies on atmosphere and story to deliver the jumps, not someone being cleaved in half by a glass door.”^[5] Film Threat Jim Agnew called it “dark, disturbing and original throughout. You know that you’re going to see something a little different than your usual studio crap.”^[6] Praise went to the director Gore Verbinski for slowly revealing the plot while keeping the audience interested, “the twists keep on coming, and Verbinski shows a fine-tuned gift for calibrating and manipulating viewer expectations.”^[7]

Despite the praise given to Verbinski’s direction, critics railed the characters as being weak. The Chicago Reader’s Jonathan Rosenbaurn said that the film was “an utter waste of Watts… perhaps because the script didn’t bother to give her a character,” ^[8] whereas other critics such as William Arnold from Seattle Post-Intelligencer said the opposite: “she projects an intelligence, determination and resourcefulness that carry the movie nicely.”^[9] Many critics regarded David Dorfman’s character as a creepy-child “Six Sense cliché.”^[10] A large sum of critics, like Miami Herald’s Rene Rodriguez and USA Today’s Claudia Puig^[11] found themselves confused and thought that by the end of the movie “[the plot] still doesn't make much sense.”^[12] This movie was number 20 on the cable channel Bravo's list of the 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

The Ring was released on home video on March 4, 2003 in North America. The VHS was packaged in a transparent plastic sleeve rather than a standard cardboard one. This gives the video the appearance of a rental tape one would find at a local store. The DVD came in a standard black keep case. The VHS, when played from the beginning, plays the "cursed tape" footage followed by a black screen where a telephone rings. The footage is then followed by previews, the feature film and finally, after the feature, deleted scenes edited as a short film. All of these features were also available on the DVD release however, the previews and deleted scenes were selectable from the menu while the cursed tape was available as a easter egg by moving the cursor one up from the "Play Movie" option (or one down from "Look Here") and pressing the select button on the remote control. While the tape is playing, all buttons on the remote control are disabled, forcing the viewer to either watch the footage, eject the DVD, or turn off the player. After the cursed tape plays, the DVD returns to a faux main menu which is identical to the real main menu, except a ringing phone is heard.

Just before the release of the sequel, The Ring DVD was re-released with an extra disc that had a fifteen minute short film, Rings, which was intended to bridge The Ring and The Ring Two. Rings is also included as a special feature in the DVD release of The Ring Two.

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Before Naomi Watts was cast in the leading role, other actresses were considered for the part including Liv Tyler, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Connelly, and Gwenyth Paltrow. Kate Beckinsale almost got the part but was turned down because the director felt she looked too young.
• There was a subplot that was dropped from the film, having been written and shot that featured Chris Cooper as a child murderer. Cooper's villainous character appears in the beginning of the film, who tries to convince journalist Rachel (Watts) that he has been rehabilitated and ready to reenter society. But Rachel sees through this facade and helps put him back in jail. At the end of the film, Rachel drops off a copy of the videotape for him at the mental hospital where he is staying. The only remainder of this subplot is a picture of Cooper in a newspaper article, which Noah picks up his coffee mug from.
• There are brief flashes of the "ring" motif throughout the film. There is at least one instance of a barely detectable single frame of the ring being spliced into the film between scenes, such as at 57:35, just after the horse jumps off the ferry. The ring also appears briefly during the opening DreamWorks logo, as well as just above the fading light of the lighthouse when Rachel returns to the Morgan house at night.
• In order to advertise the film, many promotional websites were formed featuring the characters and places in the film.^[13]
• Aiden took their name from the child in the movie^[14], and sampled a quote from the movie in their song "I Set My Friends On Fire".
• During the cursed video, approximately 25 seconds in, a young boy's voice can be heard faintly singing about a weeping willow. This audiotrack is sampled from the 1961 classic The Innocents.
• A crossbuster logo is briefly visible inside a locker. This is a reference to Gregor Verbinski's previous experience directing videos for punk band Bad Religion.

This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007)

Angry Alien

The popular website made its own '30-Second-With-Bunnies' version, even including the extra footage of Samara-bunny reaching out to kill the viewer.

The O.C

In an episode of "The O.C", Seth Cohen (played by Adam Brody) tells Ryan Atwood not to read a letter because "it's like the ring" if you read it you'll die. Adam Brody appeared in The Ring early in the film.

Blue Collar TV

Larry the Cable Guy experiences the consequences of ignoring his wife in a sketch entitled "The Ring III: Till Death Do Us Part". After ignoring his wife's requests for housework while watching television, Larry is attacked by the aforementioned wife emerging from the television, griping about his lack of effort in their marriage.

Family Guy

In the Family Guy season 5 episode "Mother Tucker," a cutaway scene shows a girl telling Peter not to watch the video tape because afterwards one dies. Despite this he turns it on and it turns out to be Mannequin. Peter dies of horror shortly after he watches the tape.

The Suffering

In the PS2 version of The Suffering, there is a level with a hole blown in the wall. When the player crawls through the hole, he or she ends up in an office with a static-filled closed circuit monitor, and a red phone on the guard's desk is ringing. By answering the phone, a little girl is heard saying "You will die in seven days."

Will & Grace

In an episode of Will & Grace when Jack and Grace are cleaning Will and Grace's apartment, one of them happens to come across a water ring left by a glass on a wooden table. When Jack realises how Will will not take kindly to this, he exclaims, "Oh my god! First he sees the ring, and then we die..."

Rugrats

The Interview with a Campfire movie in the Rugrats series featured a scene in which one of the friends went missing. When Angelica wandered around the area where the person had disappeared, the television burst into static and a cartoon version of the cursed videotape began to play.

Shark Tale

A newspaper appearing in the DreamWorks film Shark Tale features an "upcoming movie" called The Hook, the ad for which looks very similar to The Ring.

Scary Movie 3

The whole movie parodies The Ring and other popular films like Signs.

Teen Titans

In the episode "Fear Itself", Beast Boy explains a scary movie thus: "They say when you watch this video, strange things happen" - a reference to The Ring.

TimeSplitters Future Perfect

There is a television early on in the 'Haunted Mansion' level of the story mode, on which the circle of light shown in the American version of the film is played. Also, a ghost girl appears twice who bears a distinct resemblance to Samara.

F.E.A.R.

The character of Alma bears several similarities to Samara.

Dragonfable

In this online RPG, the town of Amityvale has a quest called "The Well" that spoofs The Ring, where you must go into a well full of undead to rescue the paladin, Artix, who went to retrieve a girl's ring, but has to return it in seven days. If you choose to look up the well at the beginning of the quest, you see a view identical to the 'ring' from the cursed videotape.

Saturday Night Live

On February 3, 2007, an SNL Digital Short named Body Fusion was aired. The sketch, under the guise of an 1980s fitness video, was purposely altered to resemble an old, worn-out VHS tape. When SNL network NBC posted a second version of the sketch on YouTube, it contained a new ending in which, using film footage, we see the characters of The Ring to be watching the video.

Gorillaz

The ending to the Video of the Gorillaz single Dare included Noodle, a Japanese character, suddenly stopping as the Camera homed in on her eye, moving to another scene. She would later confess that this part had been directly inspired by The Ring Franchise in the Gorillaz Biography, Rise of the Ogre.

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

In one episode, Billy rents a videotape and watches it. A white ring is displayed, followed by a Chupacabra climbing out of the screen, that to suck on Billy's nose.

Robot Chicken

In one short, a random guy sits down to watch videos for a dating service. When he picks one, the Ring tape plays. Samara crawls out inhumanly, looks up and talks like a sweet girl stating what she is interested in, then disappears. The guy appears horrified until he thinks gladfully what it would be like to date her.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

On the July 23rd, 2007 broadcast of the news show parody, Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker's faulty video address to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was lampooned by inter-cutting the glitch-mired feed with portions of The Cursed Video. (Watch here^[15])

Kingdom of Loathing

In the MMORPG Kingdom of Loathing, there is a piece of jewelery called "The ring" which correspondingly does spooky damage, as well as having a description that describes some events on the film.

Kappa Mikey

Kappa Mikey had a halloween episode called LilyBoo, where the whole plot is related to the Ring.

Cathy's Book

In the novel, Cathy writes on page 112 in different fonts 'They All Have To Die', referring to one of Samara's lines. One of these fonts is the same font used for The Ring and The Ring Two.

• List of characters in The Ring

• ring-themovie.com - Official website
• the ringworld - fansite covering all aspects of the Ring series
• the Ring AREA - Contents of the cursed videos of the Ring cycle and their scene-by-scene analyses, as well as lots of other useful information.
• The Ring at the Internet Movie Database
• The Ring at Rotten Tomatoes
• Trailer from Tribute.ca

Preceded by Red dragon

Box office number-one films of 2002 (USA) October 20, 2002

Succeeded by Jackass: The Movie

v • d • e Ring
Novels: Ring • Spiral • Loop • The Birthday Japanese films: Ring 0: Birthday • Ring • Ring 2 • Rasen American films: The Ring • Rings • The Ring Two Korean films: The Ring Virus Curses: Samara Morgan • Sadako Yamamura • Park Eun-Suh • The Video • Towel-Headed Man Other topics: Anna Morgan • Richard Morgan • Moesko Island Lighthouse • Hideo Nakata • She Is Here • Koji Suzuki • Terror's Realm