Samara Morgan
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| The Ring character | ||
|---|---|---|
| Samara Morgan | ||
| Gender: | Female | |
| Appearances: | The Ring, The Ring Two | |
| Family: | Evelyn Osorio (Mother), Anna Morgan (Adoptive mother), Richard Morgan (Adoptive father) | |
| Homes: | Washington, Moesko Island, Saint Mary Magdalen Women's Shelter | |
| Status: | An evil spirit that won't rest. | |
Samara Morgan is a character in the 2002 film The Ring. She is loosely based on Sadako Yamamura from the original Japanese Ring series, who at her turn was inspired by the traditional onryō. Her appearance is fully based on Sadako Yamamura.
Her mother, Evelyn Osorio, gave birth to Samara at a Christian hospital. She always claimed that Samara's father was a monster from the sea and finally tried to drown her when she still was a baby. Afterwards Evelyn was taken to a mental institution and Samara was adopted by Richard and Anna Morgan.
Samara possesses the power of "thoughtography" - she can "burn" images into the mind of other living beings or on any recording media. That's why after taking Samara home, Anna had a hard time concentrating and sleeping - her mind would be filled with gruesome images when her daughter was around. Samara's presence made the horses on the Morgan's farm to go insane and die, which threw her mother into depression. Samara also never slept and her adopted parents soon were terrified of her. Finally Anna Morgan attempted to kill her by pulling a garbage bag over her head, hitting her with a brick and throwing her into a well.
But Samara lived on for seven days, her spirit creating the cursed video tape after her death. After anyone watches this tape their phone rings and Samara will answer and say "seven days". Seven days later the viewer will suffer a terrible death unless they have shown someone else the tape so that Samara still will be heard.
The name "Samara" is actually a Jain term meaning "the wheel of life and death". This term refers to the theme of the movie and the shape of a ring. It remains unconfirmed if the character was intentionally named this way, or if the connection is purely coincidental.
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[edit] In the films
After journalist Rachel Keller's niece fell victim to the curse in the first film, Rachel investigates and discovers the tape and its origins. Towards the end of the first film, Rachel discovers Samara's corpse at the bottom of the well and gives her a proper burial, presumably putting her spirit to rest. Samara, however, cannot sleep, and kills the last person to have watched the tape -- Rachel's ex-boyfriend, Noah. Samara's waterlogged corpse passes into the real world from the nearest reflective surface, and shows her face, paralyzing (and presumably killing) him with fear. Rachel and her son Aidan realize that Samara is not seeking peace or understanding: she wishes only to inflict pain and suffering on a world that had hurt her. So, after Rachel realizes the curse skipped her because she made a copy and showed it to Noah, therefore spreading the curse, she realizes this is the only way to get rid of her. So she has her son make a copy, before his time runs out. In the film, it does not say/show who they show it to. Rachel simply sneaks it into a video store and puts it up on a shelf.
In The Ring Two, Rachel finds out Samara's true origin. Samara's spirit then tries to possess Aidan but is thwarted in the end. In the first movie, Rachel found Samara's body and comforted her, proving, in Samara's eyes, that she could love Samara with the care her own mother didn't have. When Rachel banishes Samara's spirit from her son, she returns again, pulling Rachel through her television down into the well seen on the video. Rachel managed to climb out of the well, pushing the cover over Samara. Rachel is saved when part of the wall breaks off, the water sending Samara down and delaying her. Rachel finally makes it out, just as Samara starts her climb again. Rachel slides the lid on the well, at the exact moment when Samara is going to climb out. Samara is not shown to emerge again from the well, although her eventual fate remains ambiguous.She may have escaped because after Rachel jumps off the cliff and ends up back in her living room with Aidan, without Samara the scene then turns the outside, when there is a high pitched wail which is obviously Samara's; then a light goes off, suggesting that Samara is not completely gone yet.
[edit] Portrayals
In The Ring, Samara is played by Daveigh Chase. Archival footage of Chase was also used in The Ring Two. For the remaining scenes in The Ring Two, Samara is played by Kelly Stables.
The characterization of Samara in The Ring followed very closely that of Sadako Yamamura in the 1998 film. Both intermittently retain the grainy black-and-white texture of the cursed videotape even after they have exited the "real world", and both are seen manifesting only from a TV set. Samara appears to lack Sadako's power of "blacking out" her image from footage taken before her death, presumably because this would have made the hospital footage of her impossible. Samara was also a full decade younger than Sadako when she was killed.
The Samara of the "The Ring Two" has a more conventionally undead appearance, with make-up on her arms suggesting long immersion. She frequently appears without the flickering videotape texture, and in a much more varied range of situations. Her movements are faster and semi-bestial, and she seems to be associated more with water and less with electricity. These movements are very similar to the ghosts in the 2004 movie "The Grudge".
[edit] Continuity errors concerning origins
While Noah is looking through Samara's files in the first film, a birth certificate citing Richard as the father can briefly be seen.[1]
[edit] References
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