Nightmare Fuel / The Ring

I saw her face...

Using a cursed videotape as a plot device may have caused The Ring to date itself easily, but terror within is undoubtedly timeless.

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The novels

Ring

• Unlike the films, it's explicitly stated that victims of those who watch the cursed tape drop dead because their coronary artery is blocked by tumor caused by the virus. Nevertheless, it is highly implied that when their time comes, Sadako does appear to them, though precisely how is unclear (emerging from a TV screen is a film addition). Before she succumbs, Tomoko smells something funny (implied to be lemon, which Sadako is associated with) and hears noises which she is certain don't come from the house. Meanwhile, Shuichi Iwata makes a gesture as if trying to remove his helmet before succumbing to the virus, the implication being Sadako appears from his helmet visor to claim him.
• When Asakawa arrives at South Hakone Pacific Land, he does so on a road that is unusually narrow for the entrance to a resort, which then suddenly widens as he gets closer. He stops at the main building to ask for directions, and there are plenty of people there, even though it's late at night on a week day. There's something about that small part of the novel that's just so darn creepy.
• The cursed video in the novels is even more mind-boggling than the adaptations. Highlights include: a pair of dice tumbling, an old woman speaking a long-extinct dialect, a volcanic eruption at night, and a baby boy. According to the characters, watching the video give the sensation of actually being there; when Asakawa comes to the scene with the baby, he makes a rocking gesture and feels as if he just touched amniotic fluid. There are also occasional blips in some parts of the video, which Ryuji deduces, correctly, to be a girl's blinking. As in, Sadako recorded the video through her own eyes and projected it to the television, so viewers of the tape literally go inside her head throughout the duration of the viewing.
  • The old woman in the video is theorized to be a visual interpretation of En no Ozunu, a real historical figure who inhabited the island where the Yamamura family lived and who is implied to be the one giving Shizuko, and by extension, Sadako, her powers. En no Ozunu's statue was tossed into the sea during the US occupation, and when Shizuko recovered it, her powers awoke.

Spiral

• The scene where Ando visits Mai's apartment. Searching in the bathroom, he finds human hair tangled in the drain, before slipping and falling head first. Down there, he notices that someone vomited on the floor, right before he hears a baby's laugh. Followed by the sensation of someone touching his legs. When Ando gains the courage to stand up, he understandably decides to GTFO from the place, any curiosity of the place be damned.
• The circumstances behind Mai's death. Her body was found at the bottom of an exhaust shaft of the highest building in the neighborhood several days after her death. On top of that, there are a lot of hoops just trying to reach the shaft in the first place (including stairs too large for a man to go through, a floor that is normally off-limits to outsiders, etc.), so Mai must have chosen the place explicitly because she did not want to be found. Finally, her vital signs show that she somehow became pregnant and gave birth, all during a couple of weeks of her disappearance. Sure, everything is explained at the end of the novel, but still, brr...

The Japanese films

Ring

• The film is not the sort that jumps out and scares you. No, this is Fridge Horror terror. This is terror that comes creeping up on you only after you finished the film and have walked away. Then you start THINKING. To make matters worse (or better if that's your bent) this is quite possibly the only movie ever made that actually gets MORE terrifying simply by watching a 4th generation VHS copy of it.
• The score gives the film an undercurrent of unremitting menace, alternating between low, organic grinding sounds, and screeching strings.
• After Reiko watches the cursed tape at the cabin, there's a very unsettling moment where both she and the audience can see a reflection of Sadako in the TV screen, after it's been turned off. But when Reiko turns around, Sadako isn't there. Then, minutes later, the phone rings.
• While staying at her father's home with Yoichi, Reiko is awaken from her sleep by a voice sounding like that of her late neice Tomoko. When she turns to Yoichi's futon, she sees an enigmatic figure in a Troubled Fetal Position where Yoichi should be. Reiko's confusion slowly turns to dawning horror when she sees The Towel Man from the videotape, and hears the trademark screeching sounds from the videotape. Cue a Scare Chord as Reiko flings the sliding doors wide open... and sees that Yoichi has just finished viewing the cursed tape.
• A truly disturbing moment in the film arrived in the Deliberately Monochrome flashback to Sadako's mother giving a demonstration of her psychic abilities. The reporters present begin to shout "Fraud!", and all of a sudden, one of them just drops dead, wearing the same twisted face as Sadako's present-day victims. We cut to the present for a moment as the protagonists react to this information, and then, without warning, we cut back to the flashback. Sadako runs out from behind the corner — our first real glimpse of the Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl — almost scuttling, like an insect, and already with her famous hair. A subtle moment in the overall scheme of the movie, but truly effective.
• The sheer Uncanny Valley of Sadako's lone, angry eye◊. According to Behind The Scenes material, this was achieved by having a male crew member fill in for the scene, and trim off his eyelashes. Also invokes Nothing Is Scarier by raising the question of what the rest of Sadako's face is like.
• The mysterious voice on Sadako's tape (theorised by some to be the voice of "the Towel Man"), which can only be heard clearly when the tape is played in slow-motion, is incredibly eerie and creepy. "If you keep on doing Shomon, Bokon will come." (Translated in some versions as "Frolic in brine, goblins be thine" although the basic meaning is the same.)
• The tape itself is just horrific. It's a collage of short, disturbing scenes that seem to be non-sequiturs, but make a terrible sort of sense once you know the backstory.
  • Which owes a lot to Luis Buñuel and Un Chien Andalou.
• The Scare Chord that plays when Reiko finds her niece's photos, where she and her friends' faces have all been distorted. It's truly uncanny to look at, especially compared to the other regular photos taken.
• The now famous scene from the ending. The day after finding Sadako's remains in the well, everything seems to be fine, but something just feels... off. Not just to the audience, but to Reiko as well. Cut to Ryuji just going about his day in his apartment, when suddenly the television turns on by itself... and the image of the well from Sadako's tape appears on screen, as an unsettling, high pitched, intermittent screech plays. As Ryuji watches in confusion, a hand emerges from the well. His confusion gradually turns into stupified horror as Sadako pulls herself out of the well and slowly ambles towards the screen, before physically crawling out of the television screen.

Ring 2

• The "why won't this delete?" scene is widely considered the single most terrifying moment in the whole film (in addition with Sadako's well ascent during the climax). Okazaki really shouldn't have chickened out of watching and passing on the tape.
• At the Yamamura guest house, Mai experiences a psychic episode causing her to see a live-action flashback of the "hair combing" scene from the tape - in the very room where it happened. Sadako's shuffling past Mai from behind is bad enough but, after a few loops of the teleporting-mirror sequence, Shizuko stops combing, pauses, and then turns to look at Mai.

Ring 0: Birthday

• The original's simple twitchy movement by Sadako. Movement-moment: when most of the victims are dead, the final women, Akiko and Etsuko, take shelter in the old clinic; Sadako is some distance behind them at the time they attempt to hide in the building. Akiko then runs back to barricade the entrance… holy shit, Sadako's suddenly appeared right in the doorway. A terrified Akiko then runs around the corner back to Etsuko and they both cower, too frightened to move. Nothing happens for several seconds… then Sadako suddenly appears around the corner, her limbs contorting in a horrifying manner, complete with bone-crunching sounds because the theater troupe HAD broken every bone in her body when they killed her. This is Sadako re-arranging herself and moving on sheer psychic power alone. Which is probably even worse.
  • The bit just before where the Akiko and Etsuko are running through the forest and you can SEE Sadako just standing in the background, watching, waiting. One fall later, they get back up and she's gone. Sets your teeth on edge.

Sadako 3D 2

• The subway scene has an entire train being haunted and slaughtered by Sadako instantly. The aftermath is even more scary as it looks like how an actual disaster might happen - people in a panic or shock, paramedics running in with stretchers, etc.

The American films

The Ring

• The two jump scenes with the corpse and the horrible electronic shriek when Samara's victims are revealed.
• The "scared-to-death-face" can also freak one out.
• The original tape was supposedly created when someone taped a mysterious broadcast late at night from an unlisted TV station.
• The line from Aidan: "You weren't supposed to help her!".
• The Reveal of Samara's face is pretty damn terrifying◊. It's not so much the rotted, undead nature of the face, it's the amount of raw, seething hatred in her expression.
  • In fact, the second time Samara delivers the lines with a different context, as revenge than apology:
    Dr. Scott: You don't want to hurt anyone.
    Samara: (angry) But I do, and I'm sorry. It won't stop.
  • At first hearing, Samara's innocent answer can be interpreted as "I don't want to hurt anyone, but I do anyway." but her murderous nature is further revealed, it can instead be interpreted as "I DO want to hurt people."
• The video itself. Even when each of the surreal shots were given context. In some cases, especially when given context.
  • Somehow, in all the macabre and surreal images on the tape, it's the repeated clear shots of the empty chair in various places in an empty room that are the most chilling...and then come the Wham Shots of the chair floating and spinning in mid air right before the tape cuts off.
  • The sudden shot of what looks like an umbilical cord being pulled out of a human mouth. With appropriately disgusting noises.
  • The split-second shot of a nail puncturing a human fingernail.
  • The brief shot of a three-legged lamb limping into a barn door. Everything about it is just upsetting.
  • Then when Rachel first looks at the photographs of the teens post-videotape watching, with the screech of the monorail above adding a spine-tingling chill.
• The horse suicide forced some people to turn the film off or leave the theater.
• The Reveal at the end: Rachel was spared by Samara because Rachel made a copy of the VHS tape to show Noah. The only way Samara won't kill you is to spread her evil. In the end, Rachel shows Aidan how to copy the tape as well, and that saves his life, but the next person might not be so lucky.

  Aidan: What about the person we show it to? What happens to them?

  Rachel: ...You're going to be fine, honey.

  • The Deleted Scene for the ending: In the end, Rachel left the VHS she made on a random shelf in a video rental store somewhere. It's in an unmarked box, but there's still a chance someone will watch it...
• On the VHS release of this movie, the full Ring video plays before the FBI warning.
  • Meanwhile the DVD version just offers the full video as one of the options on the bonus feature menu... After you watch it, you're brought back to the main menu, but now the sound of a ringing phone is playing in the background.

The Ring Two

• The part when Rachel is climbing out of the well while Samara is creeping UP the wall below her. It's the legs. The way they suddenly step in front in a logically spine breaking way (that and the constant slow speed of the "walk").

Rings

• The trailer seems to indicate that this will be chock full of this.
  • The premise that this movie is set in the present (i.e mid 2010's) is terrifying enough. Think about it: when the original novel and films were made, the only way the Tape could be passed on was by copying a VHS, because that was the only reliable method of sharing videos back then.

Now we have the internet, and videos can be streamed onto our computers, cell phones, cars...in other words, exactly the environment Samara would need to make sure she reaches a wide audience.

• Though internet has existed many years before 2010, though video tapes were more common back then. 2010 isn't that long ago, and files could be shared in e-mail.
  • The trailer opens with the latest victim of the tape frantically destroying her TV as Samara appears, shouting "YOU'RE NOT REAL!" It doesn't help.
  • In the last two films the tape was received via VHS. How is it received this time? Email.
  • At one point, someone who's on his 7th day is on an airplane when his time runs out. Cue the video appearing on the in-flight video screens and cockpit displays. That's right, Samara hijacked a plane.
  • What makes it even worse is that in this movie's case, the protagonist might be turning into Samara, because the first movie definitely didn't have everything happening to her in it.
• The second trailer doesn't have much in terms of new scares, but it more than makes up for it with an absolutely chilling nursery rhyme...sung by (presumably) Samara herself.
  There once was a girl
  No one dares speak her name
  In death she seeks vengeance
  For a life filled with pain
  Once you see her story
  You have seven days to live
  Because she does not forget
  And she does not forgive.

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