The Ring. I'm mixed on it. Very cool creepy movie and worth watching for that at least. And the idea behind the plot is really cool too. But what I didn't like about it...(SPOILERS)

[Ishamael]

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>What I didn't like about it was the fact they didn't explain jack shit!

(1) Why did Aidan (the son) have the special connection with Samara (the girl)?
(2) Where did Samara come from and what exactly did she do to hurt people when she was alive (and why was she so evil)? She has some power, but it's never explained. I mean, the closest thing we get to an explanation for that is she never sleeps. Kinda cool, but that doesn't explain how or why she does what she does. Like how she's able to do that stuff to the horses for starters.
(3) Umm, where did the tape come from? OK, there's the scene in the record room of the mental hospital with a missing tape, but that doesn't explain how those images got on the tape...unless I missed something.
(4) Why did the girl cause people to scratch out faces? And why did taking pictures of soon-to-be-dead people cause their faces to look all whirrly in pictures?
(5) And the whole burning images thing is never fleshed out. We see the burned image of the tree in Samara's creepy room in the horse stable, but there's no explanation for how she's able to burn stuff (and why she only burns Naomi's character) and why she burned those images.
(6) Why'd Samara's stepfather (the old dude) kill himself? He knew about this shit for decades, so why did he kill himself at that point?
(6) And of course, the most obvious question of why does making a copy save you.

There are tons of other questions I could come up with, but if I could get some decent explanations for those, I'd be happy for now.

Still, even with all those gaping plot holes, I have to recommend the film. It's still pretty scary...</div>

[Flip]

<div style='font: 12pt "Cooper Black"; text-align: left; '>number 4 isnt that she was making people scratch their faces out, its that she was making them make the pictures look like her. You know when she walks out of the well and all her black hair is hanging forward in her face?

number 6 is explained, poorly, by the fact that someone said all she wants to do is spread word of what happened. So if you spread word, make a copy and show someone, you will be saved. What is dumber then that is why does she want the word spread that she was killed? Its not like she was an innocent girl that was killed by psycho parents. She was the psyco who somehow made bad things happen to the townsfolk, she deserved to die, its not like anyone will feel sorry for her.

A good and bad movie, i agree.</div>

[Ishamael]

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Oh ok. #4 sounds right...And #6 is weak (for the reason you gave among others), but I guess I'll take it. I found out the original is part of a trilogy, so hopefully they'll release followups.</div>

[Torgo]

<div style='font: 9pt Arial; text-align: left; '>1. The Shining? I dunno. What's a kid in a horror movie if he/she doesn't have some sort of sixth sense?

2. See above.

3. This one's pretty weak, but I figure that it was a physical manifestation of her evil. She seemed well adept with technology.

4. The hair theory's the best I've heard. I'm not sure about the blurring thing, but I think it might have to do with the Asian belief that taking a picture steals your soul, or something like that. Usually, I would confirm this myself, but I'm too tired right now, so any clarification would be appreciated :).

5. Burning seems to be one of her powers. That's why the bodies looked so messed up. Or it might be electrocution, since there's always a puddle when she shows up. (This doesn't answer your question. I know :))

6. I didn't really see much of a reason for him to kill himself after all those years. My question, however, is why he gathered up every freaking appliance in the house in order to do it. A toaster or radio would've done the trick.

7. I thought that making a copy was the only way to survive because doing doing so would spread the curse. Samara was an evil little bitch, so she probably would allow some people to live if they inadvertently became harbingers of death. Of course, one could make a copy and then quickly destroy it, but we don't really know what'll happen after that.

Man, I hope the DVD version has a commentary.</div>

[G-man Joe]

<div style='font: 11pt "Fine Hand"; text-align: left; '>...watch the tape and then quickly fly to an island with no electrity or any appliance.</div>

[Won-qu]

<div style='font: 12pt Arial; text-align: left; '>I think the problem with The Ring wasn't so much that they didn't explain enough but that they tried to explain anything at all. As soon as it turned into some predictable ghost story it stopped being scary...as well, it forced the writers to have to try and explain <I>everything</i> which is where all these holes start coming in.

Anyway, these are my proposed explanations for your questions, but they're still pretty weak...

<i>(1) Why did Aidan (the son) have the special connection with Samara (the girl)?</i>

As Torgo said, he's a kid-psychic. What more explanation do you need?

<i>(2) Where did Samara come from and what exactly did she do to hurt people when she was alive (and why was she so evil)? She has some power, but it's never explained. I mean, the closest thing we get to an explanation for that is she never sleeps. Kinda cool, but that doesn't explain how or why she does what she does. Like how she's able to do that stuff to the horses for starters.</i>

I don't really think this needed to be explained - again, if anything I thought the movie explained <i>too much</i>. I agree, though, that the existence of her "evil powers" should have been developed a bit more.

<i>(3) Umm, where did the tape come from? OK, there's the scene in the record room of the mental hospital with a missing tape, but that doesn't explain how those images got on the tape...unless I missed something.</i>

The tape missing from the hospital was the interview with Samara that the father had kept (the one where she talks about how she wants to hurt things or whatever). The "Death Tape" seems to have materialized from Samara's dementia. Remember that her only friend in the barn was the television set, which is probably why her demonic powers manifested themselves as TV images.

<i>(4) Why did the girl cause people to scratch out faces? And why did taking pictures of soon-to-be-dead people cause their faces to look all whirrly in pictures?</i>

Flip already pointed out that it was meant to be hair hanging in front of their faces like Samara's. And the distorted faces in the photos and videos seems pretty self-explanatory to me. It's like watching the tape sorta distorts your "soul" in some way so you look weird in photographic images and such (kinda like how vampires don't have reflections).

<i>(5) And the whole burning images thing is never fleshed out. We see the burned image of the tree in Samara's creepy room in the horse stable, but there's no explanation for how she's able to burn stuff (and why she only burns Naomi's character) and why she burned those images.</i>

She's an evil ghost. She's got creepy psycho-kinetic powers. What more do you need explained?

<i>(6) Why'd Samara's stepfather (the old dude) kill himself? He knew about this shit for decades, so why did he kill himself at that point?</i>

Just before he kills himself he says something like: "It's never going to stop. <u>You coming here proves that."</u> So basically I guess he had been hanging on to some dim hope that he could forget Samara, but when Naomi arrived he lost it.

<i>(6) And of course, the most obvious question of why does making a copy save you?</i>

It's not just making a copy, but making a copy and showing it to someone else. I suppose if you're going to find Samara more victims then she'll spare you.</div>

[Ishamael]

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>

I think the problem with The Ring wasn't so much that they didn't explain enough but that they tried to explain anything at all. As soon as it turned into some predictable ghost story it stopped being scary...as well, it forced the writers to have to try and explain <I>everything</i> which is where all these holes start coming in.

Anyway, these are my proposed explanations for your questions, but they're still pretty weak...

<i>(1) Why did Aidan (the son) have the special connection with Samara (the girl)?</i>

As Torgo said, he's a kid-psychic. What more explanation do you need?

But how are we supposed to know this. Samara communicates with half the cast most of the movie. There wasn't anything that indicated the kid was more special than everybody else.

<i>(2) Where did Samara come from and what exactly did she do to hurt people when she was alive (and why was she so evil)? She has some power, but it's never explained. I mean, the closest thing we get to an explanation for that is she never sleeps. Kinda cool, but that doesn't explain how or why she does what she does. Like how she's able to do that stuff to the horses for starters.</i>

I don't really think this needed to be explained - again, if anything I thought the movie explained <i>too much</i>. I agree, though, that the existence of her "evil powers" should have been developed a bit more.

Explained too much?! Are you kidding me? They didn't explain jack! That had all this cool setup and didn't explain squat. Cool movie still, but it would have been so much cooler if they explained stuff.

<i>(3) Umm, where did the tape come from? OK, there's the scene in the record room of the mental hospital with a missing tape, but that doesn't explain how those images got on the tape...unless I missed something.</i>

The tape missing from the hospital was the interview with Samara that the father had kept (the one where she talks about how she wants to hurt things or whatever). The "Death Tape" seems to have materialized from Samara's dementia. Remember that her only friend in the barn was the television set, which is probably why her demonic powers manifested themselves as TV images.

Eh, sounds about as good as anything else. ;)

<i>(4) Why did the girl cause people to scratch out faces? And why did taking pictures of soon-to-be-dead people cause their faces to look all whirrly in pictures?</i>

Flip already pointed out that it was meant to be hair hanging in front of their faces like Samara's. And the distorted faces in the photos and videos seems pretty self-explanatory to me. It's like watching the tape sorta distorts your "soul" in some way so you look weird in photographic images and such (kinda like how vampires don't have reflections).

The photo thing is the one explanation that makes total 100% since. As far as the rest....

<i>(5) And the whole burning images thing is never fleshed out. We see the burned image of the tree in Samara's creepy room in the horse stable, but there's no explanation for how she's able to burn stuff (and why she only burns Naomi's character) and why she burned those images.</i>

She's an evil ghost. She's got creepy psycho-kinetic powers. What more do you need explained?

But she was burning stuff while she was alive too (hence the picture on the wall in the stable). She says those things "just appear". She also says she wants to hurt people, but is sorry (or something like that). Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?!

<i>(6) Why'd Samara's stepfather (the old dude) kill himself? He knew about this shit for decades, so why did he kill himself at that point?</i>

Just before he kills himself he says something like: "It's never going to stop. <u>You coming here proves that."</u> So basically I guess he had been hanging on to some dim hope that he could forget Samara, but when Naomi arrived he lost it.

Like you said, weak, but I guess I'll take it. Do I have a choice? ;)

<i>(6) And of course, the most obvious question of why does making a copy save you?</i>

It's not just making a copy, but making a copy and showing it to someone else. I suppose if you're going to find Samara more victims then she'll spare you.

I guess I'll take that. OK, that makes two explanations I can agree with 100%.</div>

[Joey Joe Joe Shabadu]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Spoiler alert maybe?</div>

[G-man Joe]

<div style='font: 11pt "Fine Hand"; text-align: left; '>If the original thread is a spoiler, so will the replies. Thus is our custom here.</div>

[Garford]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Ring is firstly a 3 (Ring, Rasen, Birthday) + 1 (Loop) novel series by Suzuki Koji. The first 3 was about Sadako(Samara) and the last being about an alternate world that is related to the Sadako one, so as expected a good deal should be explained in the next movie, but then again, the movie adaptation of the Ring in Japan lacked/changed a few details from the movie)



Do not read past the line unless you want a good part of the Ring storyline being spoilt.















































------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
































Last warning!!!!




<b>Spoiler Message:<b>
<span style="background: black; color: black;">(1) Why did Aidan (the son) have the special connection with Samara (the girl)?

ESP. As dumb as it sounds, the kid is suppose to have ESP in all version of the Ring that I've saw.

(2) Where did Samara come from and what exactly did she do to hurt people when she was alive (and why was she so evil)? She has some power, but it's never explained. I mean, the closest thing we get to an explanation for that is she never sleeps. Kinda cool, but that doesn't explain how or why she does what she does. Like how she's able to do that stuff to the horses for starters.

From the novel, Sadako was a hermaphrodite with strong levels of psychic power. She was born in a water cave where a statue of an evil demon was stored in, giving the hint that the demon might have impregmented Sadako's mother and as a result, Sadako have this strange power.

(3) Umm, where did the tape come from? OK, there's the scene in the record room of the mental hospital with a missing tape, but that doesn't explain how those images got on the tape...unless I missed something.

In the novel/japanese movie, a resort was just built on top of the well that Sadako was murdered in. When the 4 kids went to the resort, they wanted to record some show on TV while they sleep but the next morning, they saw the weird scenes on the video tape and thought that it was a joke and they deleted the last part of the scenes, which shows words being formed stating that the tape must be copied and spread, and dump the tape to a corner. 7 days later, the 4 kids died.

(4) Why did the girl cause people to scratch out faces? And why did taking pictures of soon-to-be-dead people cause their faces to look all whirrly in pictures?

This was introduced in the Japanese movie to indicate that the person was "marked" by Sadako as her powers was related to eletronical things. The way the people are suppose to die from the curse in the original context were that the victims died from heart attacks and just before their death, they will see horrifying vision. Guess they change it to be that the victims are so frightened that they scratch their faces then die.....

(5) And the whole burning images thing is never fleshed out. We see the burned image of the tree in Samara's creepy room in the horse stable, but there's no explanation for how she's able to burn stuff (and why she only burns Naomi's character) and why she burned those images.

See below.

movie..... search me out on ICQ/E-mail if you are interested.

(6) Why'd Samara's stepfather (the old dude) kill himself? He knew about this shit for decades, so why did he kill himself at that point?

Mental breakdown.

(6) And of course, the most obvious question of why does making a copy save you.

The "curse" in the Ring is explained in the second book/movie to be actually cause by a modified small pox virus. The word ring comes from the fact that the virus is ring shaped. Originally, Sadako was murdered and thrown into the well by a doctor, the last person in Japan at that time who was being treated for smallpox. He tried to rape Sadako but found that Sadako actually has a penis and being unable to take it, strangle her and drop her into the well. Before she dropped into the well, Sadako scratched the doctor and got hold of the smallpox virus.

After she dropped into the well, the doctor sealed up the well, with Sadako still alive.

Before she died, she developed a big hatred of mankind due to her happenings and wanted all to know how it feels to be "Sadako" and used her psychic energy to create the ring virus, which contains her DNA and then form a psychic buildup in the well with the last bit of energy she has before dying. When the resort was built over the well, and the VCR was turned on, the energy had a venue to went to, and formed images that represents the things Sadako was thinking about/seeing before she die, onto the tape. When someone watch this tape, their dna is altered and the modified smallpox virus is recreated.

When the ring virus infects someone, 3 things can occur and if the virus detectes that a tape is duplicated, the virus will become dorment.</span></div>

[Garford]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Ring is firstly a 3 (Ring, Rasen, Birthday) + 1 (Loop) novel series by Suzuki Koji. The first 3 was about Sadako(Samara) and the last being about an alternate world that is related to the Sadako one, so as expected a good deal should be explained in the next movie, but then again, the movie adaptation of the Ring in Japan lacked/changed a few details from the movie)



Do not read past the line unless you want a good part of the Ring storyline being spoilt.


























------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



























Last warning!!!!






<b>Spoiler Message:<b>
<span style="background: black; color: black;">(1) Why did Aidan (the son) have the special connection with Samara (the girl)?

ESP. As dumb as it sounds, the kid is suppose to have ESP in all version of the Ring that I've saw.

(2) Where did Samara come from and what exactly did she do to hurt people when she was alive (and why was she so evil)? She has some power, but it's never explained. I mean, the closest thing we get to an explanation for that is she never sleeps. Kinda cool, but that doesn't explain how or why she does what she does. Like how she's able to do that stuff to the horses for starters.

From the novel, Sadako was a hermaphrodite with strong levels of psychic power. She was born in a water cave where a statue of an evil demon was stored in, giving the hint that the demon might have impregmented Sadako's mother and as a result, Sadako have this strange power.

(3) Umm, where did the tape come from? OK, there's the scene in the record room of the mental hospital with a missing tape, but that doesn't explain how those images got on the tape...unless I missed something.

In the novel/japanese movie, a resort was just built on top of the well that Sadako was murdered in. When the 4 kids went to the resort, they wanted to record some show on TV while they sleep but the next morning, they saw the weird scenes on the video tape and thought that it was a joke and they deleted the last part of the scenes, which shows words being formed stating that the tape must be copied and spread, and dump the tape to a corner. 7 days later, the 4 kids died.

(4) Why did the girl cause people to scratch out faces? And why did taking pictures of soon-to-be-dead people cause their faces to look all whirrly in pictures?

This was introduced in the Japanese movie to indicate that the person was "marked" by Sadako as her powers was related to eletronical things. The way the people are suppose to die from the curse in the original context were that the victims died from heart attacks and just before their death, they will see horrifying vision. Guess they change it to be that the victims are so frightened that they scratch their faces then die.....

(5) And the whole burning images thing is never fleshed out. We see the burned image of the tree in Samara's creepy room in the horse stable, but there's no explanation for how she's able to burn stuff (and why she only burns Naomi's character) and why she burned those images.

See below.

(6) Why'd Samara's stepfather (the old dude) kill himself? He knew about this shit for decades, so why did he kill himself at that point?

Mental breakdown.

(6) And of course, the most obvious question of why does making a copy save you.

The "curse" in the Ring is explained in the second book/movie to be actually cause by a modified small pox virus. The word ring comes from the fact that the virus is ring shaped. Originally, Sadako was murdered and thrown into the well by a doctor, the last person in Japan at that time who was being treated for smallpox. He tried to rape Sadako but found that Sadako actually has a penis and being unable to take it, strangle her and drop her into the well. Before she dropped into the well, Sadako scratched the doctor and got hold of the smallpox virus.

After she dropped into the well, the doctor sealed up the well, with Sadako still alive.

Before she died, she developed a big hatred of mankind due to her happenings and wanted all to know how it feels to be "Sadako" and used her psychic energy to create the ring virus, which contains her DNA and then form a psychic buildup in the well with the last bit of energy she has before dying. When the resort was built over the well, and the VCR was turned on, the energy had a venue to went to, and formed images that represents the things Sadako was thinking about/seeing before she die, onto the tape. When someone watch this tape, their dna is altered and the modified smallpox virus is recreated.

When the ring virus infects someone, 3 things can occur and if the virus detectes that a tape is duplicated, the virus will become dorment.

Search me out on ICQ/E-mail if you want to know more.</span></div>

[G-man Joe]

<div style='font: 11pt "Fine Hand"; text-align: left; '>...the DNA altering thing to make one sick and watching the tape AGAIN to offset the "self-made" virus is whacky. I prefer the girl coming out of the TV and frightening you to death with a touch electricity better. =8^D

Hermaphrodite, eh? Esque will very much like that. =8^)</div>

[Joey Joe Joe Shabadu]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Blah blah blah, fine.</div>

[kali o.]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Damn japanese...

I for one, prefer the 'americanized' version...

KO-</div>

[Ishamael]

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Yikes, talk about wierd. :) Thanks for the explanations, though in some ways I almost liked the lack of explanation better than the explanations.</div>

[Garford]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>So much so that an alternate version of Ring 2, was filmed with all the sci-fi aspect being removed since everyone find it stupid. Till now I still find it stupid that a TV is suppose to alter your DNA.

The story gets even weirder in Rasen then what I've explained fyi....... Especially with what the other things the virus is suppose to do.

Anyway, seeing how the American version had alter the story so far, I don't think Birthday is possible to be Americanize since birthday is mainly an explanation of Sadako's childhood life. They will most likely use the modify Ring 2 script, which is more supernatural horror related to film the American sequel I guess.</div>

[G-man Joe]

<div style='font: 11pt "Fine Hand"; text-align: left; '>Reminds me of MGS2's stupid twist in the end. Japanese peeps have a knack for wierdness.</div>

[Ishamael]

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>So what did the altered sequal version change?</div>