The Ring (2002 film)

The Ring redirects here. For other uses, see The Ring (disambiguation).

The Ring
File:The ring poster2.jpg
Directed by	Gore Verbinski
Written by	Ehren Kruger
Produced by	Walter F. Parkes Roy Lee Laurie MacDonald
Starring	Naomi Watts Martin Henderson David Dorfman Brian Cox Kelly Stables Daveigh Chase
Distributed by	DreamWorks SKG
Release dates	October 18, 2002 (USA)
Running time	115 min.
Language	English
Budget	$48 million

The Ring is a 2002 American remake of the 1998 Japanese horror-mystery film Ringu. It was directed by Gore Verbinski, written by Ehren Kruger, and stars Naomi Watts and Martin Henderson.

Plot

The story begins with two teenage girls discussing the events of the previous weekend, during which one of them, Katie, went to a cabin in the mountains to party with some friends. While gossiping, the subject of a supposedly cursed videotape comes up. The other girl, Becca, states that anyone who watches this video receives a phone call that says they have "seven days" and then dies seven days later. Katie reveals in horror that she had watched that video at the cabin last weekend, seven days earlier. After a series of creepy occurrences involving TVs in the house turning themselves on and unexplained water, Katie dies and Becca goes insane.

The film then introduces Katie's aunt, Rachel, 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. At Katie's funeral Rachel begins investigating Katie's death and learns of the videotape. Her investigation leads her to the same cabin in the mountains where the teenagers had watched the tape. There, she finds the tape and eventually watches it, as does Aidan a few days later.

Rachel's investigation then turns to the tape itself, which contains a seemingly random series of disturbing, grainy black & white images. Investigating those images leads Rachel to learn of a girl, Samara, who had been adopted and then murdered by her parents, apparently after causing her mother to go insane and after causing the deaths of several horses. Rachel is eventually led to the girl's grave at the bottom of a well. Rachel notifies the authorities, and Samara is given a proper burial, presumably putting her spirit to rest.

However, just as it seems that everything is nicely tied up, it is revealed that Samara is not so much interested in having her story told, but in hurting others. Samara kills Noah; Rachel and Aidan realize 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.

Misc info

Produced by DreamWorks SKG, the film was a popular success, earning a total of US$129,094,024 in domestic box office receipts and a worldwide total of $249 million.

The success of The Ring opened the way for American remakes of several other Japanese horror films, including The Grudge. 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.

Just before the release of the sequel, The Ring 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.

The Ring debuted on network TV on ABC on Monday, June 6, 2005 at 9 PM EST, 8 PM PST.

Trivia

• There are brief flashes of the "ring" motif throughout the film.

• The bizarre music on the cursed videotape is the same noise as Anna closing the lid on the well.

• Ringu wasn't released in theaters when The Ring was in theaters, but appeared on DVD around the DVD release of The Ring.

• The "Don't Watch This" feature on the DVD has footage deleted from the film and meshed into a short film without a specific plot.

• According to director Gore Verbinski, he would occasionally get into heated arguments over the production with producer Walter F. Parkes.

• The movie is actually an allegory. This allegory is about disease. The videotape is the means that the virus is spread through, while the seven days are the incubation period, until it causes death.

Differences between The Ring and Ringu

• The name of the character Reiko Asakawa was changed to Rachel Keller.
• The name of the son is changed from Yoichi to Aidan.
• Ryuuji Takahama is now Noah Clay.
• The freaky images on the tape.

(See: the Cursed Videotape)

• Name of girl in Japanese tape: Sadako; name of girl in American tape: Samara.
• In Ringu, the ghost girl's victims just have their mouths open with fear. In this one, the ghost girl's victims look like they've been underwater for some time.
• The term "ring" refers to the ring of light that Samara saw.
• The mother, called Anna, jumps off a cliff, while in Ringu, the mother jumped into a volcano.
• In Ringu the ex-boyfriend had the psychic ability not the son

External links

• ring-themovie.com - Official website
• the ringworld - fansite covering all aspects of the Ring series
• The Ring at IMDb
• Trailer from Tribute.ca