MovieChat Forums > The Ring (2002) Discussion > Origins of the tape?

Origins of the tape?

posted 4 years ago by SoZi (103)
8 replies | jump to latest

What has a dead girl in a well got to do with a videotape? Why nobody cares about the origins of the first tape? Who made it? How cut it? Who shot the footage?

Naomi Watts nicely wraps up the story of Samara, but how all this connected to the creation of the video? Seems nobody bothered by it... Characters and viewers alike.
(Noah does say something about the "fingerprint" of the recorder once, but never act on it)

I could say it's not important for the story pow, but the last twist with the copying puts the whole tape storyline back to the center again.

[–] spacecomedy (2046) 4 years ago

The origin of the tape is never made clear, but here's my best guess...When we see Samara's barn loft there's not much more than a bed, a chair, and a TV. She must have spent most of her time watching TV so that became her "medium" in a sense. After she died in the well, her spirit "imprinted" her thoughts onto a tape in the cabin later built above...where it waited for someone to watch it on TV and unleash the curse.

Fantastic film that still gives me a good scare.

[–] jasonbourne (1027) 3 years ago

That's a good theory. Samara made a tape because it was her way to continue to do evil. It's better than waiting for someone to look into or visit the well.

[–] spacecomedy (2046) 3 years ago

One of the best things about the movie is the mystery that surrounds Samara's creation and how she continues to haunt the present. Still gives me goosebumps when Mr. Morgan yells: My wife was not supposed to have a child!

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 3 years ago

Dude...that line delivery is like still one of my favorite lines in a movie. When something else comes up that has to do with unplanned pregnancies or mystical pregnancies (lol), I want to shout out that line but I know no one's gonna get it XD

[–] spacecomedy (2046) 3 years ago

Would be a great line to use at a Halloween party if you ever saw someone dressed as Samara.

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 3 years ago

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[–] acidraindrop (3055) 3 years ago

That is the total explanation!

The movie already establishes very early on that the tape was not created through normal means ("it's like being born without fingerprints"). Samara was later established to have the ability to create physical images using her mind. And then the closing note is as you observed: the cabin/origin of the tape's geographic position above the well was no coincidence. The imprinted her images into a videotape there.

I didn't realize there were still people running around in 2021 who didn't put that together.

[–] Druff (1796) 4 months ago

When the Naomi Watts character steals Samara's old medical file, among the documents are some weird creepy images on x-ray film. They never come right out and state it, but they were trying to convey that Samara has the supernatural ability to "burn" images from her mind onto objects. She burned the image of a tree onto her bedroom loft wall in the barn. She burned images onto x-ray film at the mental hospital. And she burned the footage onto the video tape.

>(Noah does say something about the "fingerprint" of the recorder once, but never act on it)

He says that it has no fingerprint, meaning the footage was not recorded in a normal way. There's nothing to "act on."

[–] SoZi (103) 3 months ago

I like that! I love when subtext is there to find. Thanks!