Ring Two recap for Krss
Mar. 30th, 2005 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silversolitaireTotally do not read if you don't want to get spoiled for the movie RING TWO beyond recovery. If you've watched the movie though I'd be interesting to know whether I could recap the plot accurately ^^;. Whenever I give quotes or times character or places names they're most likely wrong, so don't take my word for it... ^^;;
(I just can't bear reading this again now so it's probably riddled with typos and mistakes -_-;;; sorry)
Ring Two Recap by Silver
The movie starts out with a shot across a body of water, a lake or a sea. Cue spooky music, recognizable as the Ring soundtrack. Then you see a teenage boy talking to his younger girlfriend about a tape, asking her if she's ever seen anything so spooky that she thought she couldn't bear it. He's holding a tape in his hand. The girl is reluctant, but the boy is very insistant of her watching it. He hands it over to her and leaves the room to the kitchen. Inside the kitchen you see him being extremely nervous, pacing around like a wounded animal. He looks at the microwave clock that says 11:58 and hisses "Come on, bitch! I only have 2 minutes left! Watch the damn tape!!!"
Back in the livingroom the girl is walking towards the VCR slowly. After more hesitation she pops the tape in. Meanwhile in the kitchen the boy starts to grow impatient and races for the door. "[whatever her name was], watch the damn tape!!!" But then he hears this sound, white noise, and stops. He calls for her and gets no answer. Suddenly a phone ring interrupts the silence. Reluctantly, the boy picks up the phone and answers. "Hey dude! Just checking on! Looks like you made it, eh? Got someone else to watch it." The boy relaxes visibly, sinks to the floor and says "Yeah... some dumb bitch from school." "Did you, like, tell her about it or are you going to let her find out herself? hehehe" Before the boy can answer he looks up and notices water coming out from under the door. He cuts the line and gets up to investigate. He looks at the clock again and notices that it chances to midnight just now.
Frantically, he races into the livingroom. The TV is on, showing the end of the video. The image of the well is flickering on the screen. The calls out for the girl who's sitting on the couch, motionless. Slowly, he walks around her. She's covering her eyes with both hands. "You didn't watch it???" he yells. "I was covering my eyes the entire time!" The boy stumbles back and turns to the TV. An arms thrusts out of the well... Samara comes crawling out of the well and starts moving towards the screen. The boy cries out and moves backwards, the girl's terrified scream cuts through the room...
Rachel and her son Aidan are sitting at the kitchen table. They're still in the process of moving in. They've left Seattle behind to start a new life. Aidan is still quiet and withdrawn, maybe even more than before. He always insists on calling his mother Rachel because he thinks it suits her personality more. When Rachel feels that her son is feeling guilty about what they did (i.e. making a copy of the tape and dropping it off at a videostore) she tries to calm him down by telling him they didn't do anything wrong. Anybody would have done that.
At work, Rachel is sitting at her desk in a small office. She seems to be the editor of a small newspaper. A colleague reporter, Max, comes in and complains about her rewriting his entire article. He tells her that this isn't Seattle and the biggest news around here is a cat in the tree or similar. Their conversation is interrupted by a commotion in the main newsroom. The reporters are crowding around a police radio where there's a report about a case of suspected homocide. The reporters are thrilled at finally something happening around here. Rachel joins them to find out what this is about. When they tell her that the police keep referring to his face and how horrible it looked and that the livingroom was flooded at the scene of the crime she freezes, already suspecting what this could be about.
She drives to the scene of the crime and sneaks up the the coroner's car and into it. Inside, she fearfully approaches the body bag, opening it with trembling hands. Her fears are confirmed when she reveals the horribly distorted face of the boy. She cries out and collapses into a pile, trembling and weeping. When she hears the coroner get into the car she quickly gets up to close the body bag again. The zipper closes painfully slowly. When it's almost all the way up she notices that hair has caught in the zipper. She pulls at it to get it out. Suddenly a pale decayed arms thrusts out of the body bag and grabs her. Samara emerges and hisses at her "Bring me more..." (or something to the effect) Rachels drops to the floor again, trembling in fear, but the apparition is over.
Rachel rushes to the police station. When she reveals her identity as a reporter she's rebuffed by the police man and told to wait for the press release. A little at a loss, Rachel turns around and notices the girl sitting there. She had seen her being brought out of the house before. Rachel looks around and realizes nobody is looking, so she walks up to the girl and tells her that she knows what happens and needs to know where the tape is. The girl tells her that it's still in the VCR. Rachel rushes to the house and breaks into it with a spare key hidden in the flowerbed. She sneaks through the dark house, across the soaked carped to the VCR. When the recorder finally releases the tape she grabs it and leaves. She drives to a secluded spot near the coast, pours gasoline into a barrel, then yanks out the tape and throws it all in the barrel and sets it on fire. The cassette melts and bends in the fire, releasing a terrible squeal, like someone was screaming. "Leave us alone, Samara! Go away!" Rachel yells at the burning tape.
Meanwhile at home Aidan is sleeping in his bed. He suddenly wakes up with a start and calls out for Rachel. He receives no answer. He gets up and walks through the quiet, dark house. He arrives at the living room and notices the TV being on, showing white noise. He approaches it slowly, stopping right in front of it. Suddenly Samara's arms thrust out of the screen and pull him in.
Aidan wakes up with a terrified scream. His mother is immediately by his side and notices that he's trembling, soaking wet and really cold. When she asks him if he had a bad dream he nods. But when she asks what it was he says he doesn't remember and gets up. Later they both go to an Antique Fair. Aidan walks around taking pictures of the people with his digital camera. At the end of the fair he notices a pair of deers standing there, looking at him in a strange way. He dismisses it and walks over to the restrooms to wash his hands. He turns the first crank, the pipes rattle and groan but no water comes out. He moves to the next one, same thing. A huge close up on the tip of the tab shows a fly crawling out it and flying off. Aidan turns around and suddenly faces a huge mirror at the end of the room. He walks towards it and looks at his reflection. He freezes as he notices Samara standing at the other wall behind him. He turns around but sees nothing. He looks into the mirror again. With shaking hands he lifts his camera and starts taking pictures of his reflection, one after the other.
In the meantime Rachel has started looking for her son, growing increasingly panicky. She finally finds him in the restroom, still taking pictures. He barely reacts to her as she pulls him away. He says he's cold and wants to go home. They drive back home through a deserted forest road. Rachel tries to talk to her son about what's going on and wants to know if he's seen her in his dreams. Before Aidan can answer a stag steps into the street. Aidan yells a warning and Rachel steps on the brakes, managing to swerve the car and avoid hitting the deer. The car comes to a halt right next to the stag who walks around the car, breathing against the window and looking in. Then he turns and disappears into the forest. The entire situation is very bizarre. Rachel pants, trying to calm herself down.
Suddenly Aidan looks at her, terror written all over his face and yells "DON'T STOP!!!!". She looks at him in confusion, wanting to ask why, but before she can there's a huge crashing sound, glass pieces are flying around everywhere and a gigantic pair of antlers thrust through the window. "DON'T STOP!!!!" Aidan yells again. Another stag appears and rams his antlers into the other window and another attacks the car from the front. Rachel searches for the accelerator and steps down on it, bringing the stags to a fall as the car takes off. But more stags appear, one even charges at them at full speed and Rachel runs their car into him with full force. But the number of stags increases and soon they're circled and can no longer move. They all just stand there, staring at them in eerie silence. Rachel looks at her son and says "You said don't stop..." Aidan nods fearfully. "You saw her in your dreams, didn't you?" "We have to leave." Rachel nods and tries to drive off again slowly. This time the deers let her and she quickly leaves the area.
(argh see? I shouldn't have interrupted myself so often, now I'm kinda out of it. Sorry if my memory is a little dodgy now)
They return home and Rachel takes Aidan to bed. She falls asleep and has a disquieting dream. She hears Aidan shout for her and runs to his bed. The bed is empty. As she turns her face she sees Samara standing at the wall at the opposite side of the room, scratching at the wall. She jerks and when she looks again she sees Aidan at the place where Samara was standing before, also scratching at the wall. She runs to him and embraces him, noticing how cold he is. All the fish in his tank have died. She wants to take him back to bed but a sound makes them turn around and they see fire consuming the scratches on the wall. Black lines start spreading out, running across the wall, fire following them. They paint a huge tree across the wall and the ceiling.
Grabbing her son, Rachel flees their house. They drive to the newspaper in their badly beaten up car (which is kinda comedic). She ignores everyone who's trying to talk to her and takes Aidan into her office where she puts him down on the couch. She wants to talk to Aidan but he says "She can hear us. She never sleeps." Max follows her into the office and asks what's wrong. He's also noticed the damaged car and asks if she has had an accident. She tells him he wouldn't believe her anyway and that Aidan is very sick. Max offers that they can stay at his place.
At Max's places Rachel runs Aidan a bath to raise his temperature because it has dropped critically. When she tries to put him in the bath he screams and fights, not wanting to be submerged in the water. After much persuasion he allows being out in the water. Rachel asks Max to take care of Aidan while she goes back to the house to grab some things.
At home she walks through her dark and quiet house and you always fear that something might happen, but of course it doesn't. She grabs some stuff. Then she sees Aidan's camera which he had with him yesterday. She switches it on and looks at the pictures he's taken, scenes from the Fair. Then she sees a picture Aidan has taken of himself through the mirror, the flashlight covering most of the image. She looks closely at the picture and sees a blurred figure standing at the wall behind Aidan. It's Samara. As Rachel scrolls through the picture she sees Samara coming closer to Aidan with every picture until she's standing right on top of him, as if the picture had been taken twice with two different people standing at the same spot.
In the meantime Max is on the phone, calling a friend at the police department to inquire whether an accident has been reported. His back is turned to the bathroom door and he doesn't notice that water starts running out from under the door. When he finally notices he hangs out quickly and rushes to the door. He wants to open it, but it doesn't work. He knocks at the door frantically, yelling for Aidan, but no reaction. Rachel has returned by now and races up the stairs. She joins Max, calling for Aidan. Max runs off for the phone while Rachel keeps trying to open the door.
She finally manages and stumbles into the bathroom. She sees Aidan sitting in the tub, hugging himself, while the water is fleeing him like he was pushing it away from him. It's towering above him left and right, water is running across the ceiling, just staying there as if the room had been turned upside down. Rachel runs to Aidan and starts shaking him. When he finally reacts the water loses its weird property and starts crashing down on them, knocking Rachel flat on the floor under its weight. She gets up quickly, gasping for air as she is drenched with water. She scrambles towards the tub to grab Aidan who has sunk down in the tub. She pulls him up with a yank, but suddenly there's black hair everywhere in the water and as he finally has him out of the water it's Samara reaching out for her. Rachel screams and thrusts her back into the water, wanting to drown her.
Max runs into the bathroom and sees Rachel forcing her son under water. He yells at her and she wakes up as if from a trance, releasing Aidan who shoots up, gasping for air. "Why is she doing this to me?" he yells. Rachel turns around and sees Max stare at her in horror.
At the hospital Aidan is taken care of. The doctors are alarmed because of his hypothermia and try to treat him accordingly. She's sitting down in the waiting area when Max arrives, pouring himself a cup of coffee. He sits down and asks her what has happened. She again says he won't believe him, but then she starts telling him things. She asks him if he's ever experienced something he couldn't explain and other things which I don't remember anymore. When Max seems doubtful she tells him to take a picture of Aidan and he'll notice that Samara will be in every picture.
Rachel sits at Aidan's bedside again, his temperature is slowly normalizing. She talks to him softly, asking him what to do. Suddenly he grabs her arm and broadcasts her a new video, images flashing through her mind. She sees antlers, and a fountain bassin and a woman carrying a screaming baby. Just as the vision ends a psychologist comes into the room. She wants to talk to Aidan, but also Rachel. She asks Rachel if she ever felt angry towards her child and hurt him unvoluntarily. She confronts her with having been depressed after Aidan's birth and asking if it has happened again. Rachel gets angry at the insinuation that she could have hurt her child. The psychologist tells her cruelly that she cannot allow her to be near her son until she has talked to the son and Rachel can explain the bruises on his body. She calls for security and has Rachel removed from the hospital.
Outside, Rachel is desperate. She realizes she has to find out more. She drives to the adoption agency and makes inquiries about Samara's real mother, but the lady refuses to help her. She suggests she should talk to Samara's foster parents. Knowing they are dead, Rachel feels even more hopeless. She drives back to the island where Samara's house was. It's not completely deserted. She climbs the fence and walks towards the door which suddenly opens. A man with a handful of balloons is standing there, looking startled. Turns out he's a real estate agent wanting to see the place. He thinks Rachel is an early visitor and tells her about the house's history, amusingly twisting the facts and making everything sounds a lot better than it is.
To Rachel's benefit he's very busy with preparing the house so he lets her explore on her own. She learns there's a basement, something she hadn't been aware of. She switches on the light and descends down the stairs. Downstairs there are countless antlers hanging down the beams of the basement. She walks through the boxes of stuff, over to the table which is bathed in the light of the only window there. She sees an album lying there and recognizes the image on the cover from her vision. She opens the book and reads "For Samara". It's am album consisting of many scraps and newpaper clippings, various drawings she has seen in her vision. While she's reading the lightbulbs pop one by one, soon leaving her in total darkness, but she doesn't notice because she's sitting at the window. She finds out that Samara's mother's name is Evelyn and that she's given birth at a church run hospital for expectant single mothers. A sound makes her look up and she notices that the entire basement is hidden in darkness now. Scared, she grabs the album and leaves the place hurriedly.
She goes to that place and talks to the nuns about Evelyn who remember her well. They tell her that she's always been mentally unstable and Samara had been a very strange baby, never screaming or crying unless someone tried to bathe her. One night the entire convent was woken up by a baby screaming bloody murder. They looked outside and saw Evelyn walking towards the fountain bassin, wanting to drown Samara. The nuns could stop her in time and Evelyn was put into an asylum where she's now filling books with seemingly pointless article clippings. Rachel looks out of the window and recognizes the bassin from her vision.
Her next stop is the asylum where she insecurely asks for Evelyn. The warden looks her over once and then says dryly "She's been expecting you." Apparently there are mothers showing up, asking for Evelyn once a month or so, hoping for advice about their children. The warden takes her down a corridor and she hears a Evelyn humming a song which seems oddly familiar to her. Inside the cell she sees Evelyn sitting at a table at the window. There are huge stacks of magazines around her and she's frantically cutting out stuff. She has long, pitchblack hair, loosely held up by hairbands. Rachel talks to Evelyn who is positively crazy. When she asks about what to do with Samara she reacts scared, talking herself into a frenzy and yelling at Rachel. This prompts the warden to come in and end the visit. Rachel begs Evelyn to tell her how to help her son and Evelyn tells her that she has to do what her son tells her when the time is ripe and not hesitate to do so then. She hesitated and it has been a big mistake.
Meanwhile at the hospital, Aidan wakes up from his coma. The monitor indicates that his temperature has dropped again significantly. The psychologist comes to talk to him, but Aidan only keeps saying "I want to go home. I want my mommy." The psychologist tries to tell him that he can't go home yet to which he replies calmly "Then there is no other way." The psychologist reaches into the drawer and takes out a glass syringe. You think she wants to sedate the boy, but then you see his intense stare and her strangely absent look. She pulls the syringe all the way down, filling it with air. Then she waits a moment before ramming the syringe into her throat, injecting the air. The bloodied syringe drops to the floor and she sits there, smiling complacantly with her hands in her lap. Aidan continues looking at her until she slumps over, dead.
Aidan walks back to his house. Max finds him there late at night, watching the white noise on the TV. He tells him that cable is on channel 3. Aidan thanks him and switches the channel, watching cartoons. Max looks at him for a while, then he takes out a camera. Aidan gives him a sharp look at says "What are you doing?" "Just taking your picture." "I don't want you to take my picture." "Why don't you tell me what's wrong?" "I will tell you when you promise not to take my picture." Max hesitates, then he says "Okay" and puts the camera on the table. He sits down next to Aidan. Aidan looks at him, then over at the camera where he sees the little red light of the automatic blinking, then the camera clicking. He looks at Max, an eerie expression on his face.
Hours later, Rachel returns home, finding Aidan still on the couch, watching cartoons. She knows that something is wrong. She looks around and sees Max's jacket on the chair. Aidan smiles brightly when he sees her and says "Mommy!" Rachel freezes at him calling her mommy, but doesn't say anything to it. She asks if Max had been there which Aidan denies. Not showing that she realizes it's a lie she tells Aidan that she needs to get something from the car. Aidan nods and smiles happily. Outside, she sees Max's car standing there, the motor running. She approaches it slowly, fearfully. She sees that someone is sitting in the car, slumped over. She opens the door and pushes against Max. As his body rolls back is reveals his face grotesquely distorted like all the other victims of Samara. Rachel screams in terror and starts crying hysterically.
When she comes back into the house again she has calmed herself enough, not showing that she has found the body. She sits down next to Aidan and chats with him some. She asks him if he shouldn't be in bed by now to which he replies that he never sleeps. Rachel excuses herself and goes to her room. She falls asleep curled up on her bed. She dreams of Aidan sitting down next to her. He touches her shoulder and says "Rachel! Listen, we can only talk when you're sleeping. She can't hear us in our sleep. She wants her mommy. You have to get rid of her." "But how?" "What does she fear the most? What is her weakness?" Rachel realizes that he means the water. "But I can't..." "You have to do it, Rachel. You have to show her that she can't stay."
Rachel wakes up with a jerk. It's still dark, Aidan is still watching cartoons. She walks over to him and sits down next to him. She acts like a mommy now, coddling him. She says "Let mommy make some food for you." In the kitchen she makes a peanutbutter jelly sandwich for herself and Aidan. On Aidan's she crushes and couple of sleeping pills. She serves the sandwiches and Aidan takes his happily, eating it. Shortly afterwards he falls asleep.
Rachel grabs his sleeping body and carries him into the bathroom. She runs a bath and puts his sleeping form into the water. The strokes his face and then slowly pushes him down. Aidan wakes up and starts struggling under water. Rachel drags him back up and Aidan gasps "Rachel! What are you doing? Don't do this! I love you!" Rachel whispers "I love you, too... but you can't stay." Then she pushes him down into the water again. Aidan kicks and struggles, but she doesn't let go. Black hair appears in the water again, wind gushes hit her face, Aidan is twitching, then he stops. Suddenly the ghost of Samara rushes out of his body, giving a piercing scream, then it disappears together with the black hair and water.
Quickly, Rachel yanks her son out of the water and starts reanimation. Soon, Aidan starts coughing up the water and wakes up again. She hugs him happily. But then they hear a hissing sound... white noise. They run to the living room and see the TV on, showing the well, partly covered by the big stone. Then Samara's hand thrusts out of the well and she starts walking towards the screen. Aidan urges Rachel to leave but she refuses. She says that it'll never stop. Then she takes a decision and frees herself from her son. "She only wants her mommy," she says and kneels down in front of the TV while Samara approaches. Aidan screams for her to get away, but she stays, eyes closed. "I'm here Samara, take me." Samara's hands thrust out of the TV, grab Rachel's shoulders and pull her into the TV.
Rachel is pulled through a twisting vortex until she lands in dark inky water. She swims to the surface, gasping for air. Panicky, she looks around and notices that she's inside the well. She kicks the water, trying to stay afloat. She looks up and sees the small gap at the opening of the well. "It's always open for her..." Rachel says to herself. Then she grabs the stones and starts climbing up. She's already a couple of feet up when the water starts changing below her, black hair swirling around. Then Samara's hand throughs out of the water. Rachel gasps and starts climbing faster. Samara slips out of the water and starts crawling up the wall. She has a weird, unhuman war of climbing, her joints are crackling while she moves upwards, like a spider, and much faster than Rachel. Rachel is almost at the top when Samara's hand grabs her ankle. She kicks against her and manages to make her fall down a bit. Then Samara picks up her speed and comes up again. Groaning, Rachel squeezes herself through the gap at the top, barely able to fit through it. As she slips out, Samara's hand already reaches for her again. Quickly, Rachel runs around the well and pushes against the stone plate. It slides over the opening with a grinding sound, locking in Samara forever.
Shaking, Rachel looks around, caught in the black and white environment of the video. She walks past the bushes and finds the cliff where Samara's foster mother has thrown herself off in the video. She stands at the edge, looking down into the twirling waters. Then she hears Aidan call for her "Rachel! Rachel!!!" She closes her eyes, spreads her arms and let's herself fall...
She wakes up lying in a puddle of water in front of her TV. Aidan is holding her. When he sees her waking up he hugs her and cries "Mom!" Rachel hugs him back and whispers "It's over. She can never hurt us again." Then she looks at her son and says with a smile "Do me a favor. Don't call my Mom again..."
Okay, that's it o.o. I hope I have recapped faithfully enough. I've probably made a couple of mistakes, but it should give you a good idea of the movie! ^^;
(I just can't bear reading this again now so it's probably riddled with typos and mistakes -_-;;; sorry)
Ring Two Recap by Silver
The movie starts out with a shot across a body of water, a lake or a sea. Cue spooky music, recognizable as the Ring soundtrack. Then you see a teenage boy talking to his younger girlfriend about a tape, asking her if she's ever seen anything so spooky that she thought she couldn't bear it. He's holding a tape in his hand. The girl is reluctant, but the boy is very insistant of her watching it. He hands it over to her and leaves the room to the kitchen. Inside the kitchen you see him being extremely nervous, pacing around like a wounded animal. He looks at the microwave clock that says 11:58 and hisses "Come on, bitch! I only have 2 minutes left! Watch the damn tape!!!"
Back in the livingroom the girl is walking towards the VCR slowly. After more hesitation she pops the tape in. Meanwhile in the kitchen the boy starts to grow impatient and races for the door. "[whatever her name was], watch the damn tape!!!" But then he hears this sound, white noise, and stops. He calls for her and gets no answer. Suddenly a phone ring interrupts the silence. Reluctantly, the boy picks up the phone and answers. "Hey dude! Just checking on! Looks like you made it, eh? Got someone else to watch it." The boy relaxes visibly, sinks to the floor and says "Yeah... some dumb bitch from school." "Did you, like, tell her about it or are you going to let her find out herself? hehehe" Before the boy can answer he looks up and notices water coming out from under the door. He cuts the line and gets up to investigate. He looks at the clock again and notices that it chances to midnight just now.
Frantically, he races into the livingroom. The TV is on, showing the end of the video. The image of the well is flickering on the screen. The calls out for the girl who's sitting on the couch, motionless. Slowly, he walks around her. She's covering her eyes with both hands. "You didn't watch it???" he yells. "I was covering my eyes the entire time!" The boy stumbles back and turns to the TV. An arms thrusts out of the well... Samara comes crawling out of the well and starts moving towards the screen. The boy cries out and moves backwards, the girl's terrified scream cuts through the room...
Rachel and her son Aidan are sitting at the kitchen table. They're still in the process of moving in. They've left Seattle behind to start a new life. Aidan is still quiet and withdrawn, maybe even more than before. He always insists on calling his mother Rachel because he thinks it suits her personality more. When Rachel feels that her son is feeling guilty about what they did (i.e. making a copy of the tape and dropping it off at a videostore) she tries to calm him down by telling him they didn't do anything wrong. Anybody would have done that.
At work, Rachel is sitting at her desk in a small office. She seems to be the editor of a small newspaper. A colleague reporter, Max, comes in and complains about her rewriting his entire article. He tells her that this isn't Seattle and the biggest news around here is a cat in the tree or similar. Their conversation is interrupted by a commotion in the main newsroom. The reporters are crowding around a police radio where there's a report about a case of suspected homocide. The reporters are thrilled at finally something happening around here. Rachel joins them to find out what this is about. When they tell her that the police keep referring to his face and how horrible it looked and that the livingroom was flooded at the scene of the crime she freezes, already suspecting what this could be about.
She drives to the scene of the crime and sneaks up the the coroner's car and into it. Inside, she fearfully approaches the body bag, opening it with trembling hands. Her fears are confirmed when she reveals the horribly distorted face of the boy. She cries out and collapses into a pile, trembling and weeping. When she hears the coroner get into the car she quickly gets up to close the body bag again. The zipper closes painfully slowly. When it's almost all the way up she notices that hair has caught in the zipper. She pulls at it to get it out. Suddenly a pale decayed arms thrusts out of the body bag and grabs her. Samara emerges and hisses at her "Bring me more..." (or something to the effect) Rachels drops to the floor again, trembling in fear, but the apparition is over.
Rachel rushes to the police station. When she reveals her identity as a reporter she's rebuffed by the police man and told to wait for the press release. A little at a loss, Rachel turns around and notices the girl sitting there. She had seen her being brought out of the house before. Rachel looks around and realizes nobody is looking, so she walks up to the girl and tells her that she knows what happens and needs to know where the tape is. The girl tells her that it's still in the VCR. Rachel rushes to the house and breaks into it with a spare key hidden in the flowerbed. She sneaks through the dark house, across the soaked carped to the VCR. When the recorder finally releases the tape she grabs it and leaves. She drives to a secluded spot near the coast, pours gasoline into a barrel, then yanks out the tape and throws it all in the barrel and sets it on fire. The cassette melts and bends in the fire, releasing a terrible squeal, like someone was screaming. "Leave us alone, Samara! Go away!" Rachel yells at the burning tape.
Meanwhile at home Aidan is sleeping in his bed. He suddenly wakes up with a start and calls out for Rachel. He receives no answer. He gets up and walks through the quiet, dark house. He arrives at the living room and notices the TV being on, showing white noise. He approaches it slowly, stopping right in front of it. Suddenly Samara's arms thrust out of the screen and pull him in.
Aidan wakes up with a terrified scream. His mother is immediately by his side and notices that he's trembling, soaking wet and really cold. When she asks him if he had a bad dream he nods. But when she asks what it was he says he doesn't remember and gets up. Later they both go to an Antique Fair. Aidan walks around taking pictures of the people with his digital camera. At the end of the fair he notices a pair of deers standing there, looking at him in a strange way. He dismisses it and walks over to the restrooms to wash his hands. He turns the first crank, the pipes rattle and groan but no water comes out. He moves to the next one, same thing. A huge close up on the tip of the tab shows a fly crawling out it and flying off. Aidan turns around and suddenly faces a huge mirror at the end of the room. He walks towards it and looks at his reflection. He freezes as he notices Samara standing at the other wall behind him. He turns around but sees nothing. He looks into the mirror again. With shaking hands he lifts his camera and starts taking pictures of his reflection, one after the other.
In the meantime Rachel has started looking for her son, growing increasingly panicky. She finally finds him in the restroom, still taking pictures. He barely reacts to her as she pulls him away. He says he's cold and wants to go home. They drive back home through a deserted forest road. Rachel tries to talk to her son about what's going on and wants to know if he's seen her in his dreams. Before Aidan can answer a stag steps into the street. Aidan yells a warning and Rachel steps on the brakes, managing to swerve the car and avoid hitting the deer. The car comes to a halt right next to the stag who walks around the car, breathing against the window and looking in. Then he turns and disappears into the forest. The entire situation is very bizarre. Rachel pants, trying to calm herself down.
Suddenly Aidan looks at her, terror written all over his face and yells "DON'T STOP!!!!". She looks at him in confusion, wanting to ask why, but before she can there's a huge crashing sound, glass pieces are flying around everywhere and a gigantic pair of antlers thrust through the window. "DON'T STOP!!!!" Aidan yells again. Another stag appears and rams his antlers into the other window and another attacks the car from the front. Rachel searches for the accelerator and steps down on it, bringing the stags to a fall as the car takes off. But more stags appear, one even charges at them at full speed and Rachel runs their car into him with full force. But the number of stags increases and soon they're circled and can no longer move. They all just stand there, staring at them in eerie silence. Rachel looks at her son and says "You said don't stop..." Aidan nods fearfully. "You saw her in your dreams, didn't you?" "We have to leave." Rachel nods and tries to drive off again slowly. This time the deers let her and she quickly leaves the area.
(argh see? I shouldn't have interrupted myself so often, now I'm kinda out of it. Sorry if my memory is a little dodgy now)
They return home and Rachel takes Aidan to bed. She falls asleep and has a disquieting dream. She hears Aidan shout for her and runs to his bed. The bed is empty. As she turns her face she sees Samara standing at the wall at the opposite side of the room, scratching at the wall. She jerks and when she looks again she sees Aidan at the place where Samara was standing before, also scratching at the wall. She runs to him and embraces him, noticing how cold he is. All the fish in his tank have died. She wants to take him back to bed but a sound makes them turn around and they see fire consuming the scratches on the wall. Black lines start spreading out, running across the wall, fire following them. They paint a huge tree across the wall and the ceiling.
Grabbing her son, Rachel flees their house. They drive to the newspaper in their badly beaten up car (which is kinda comedic). She ignores everyone who's trying to talk to her and takes Aidan into her office where she puts him down on the couch. She wants to talk to Aidan but he says "She can hear us. She never sleeps." Max follows her into the office and asks what's wrong. He's also noticed the damaged car and asks if she has had an accident. She tells him he wouldn't believe her anyway and that Aidan is very sick. Max offers that they can stay at his place.
At Max's places Rachel runs Aidan a bath to raise his temperature because it has dropped critically. When she tries to put him in the bath he screams and fights, not wanting to be submerged in the water. After much persuasion he allows being out in the water. Rachel asks Max to take care of Aidan while she goes back to the house to grab some things.
At home she walks through her dark and quiet house and you always fear that something might happen, but of course it doesn't. She grabs some stuff. Then she sees Aidan's camera which he had with him yesterday. She switches it on and looks at the pictures he's taken, scenes from the Fair. Then she sees a picture Aidan has taken of himself through the mirror, the flashlight covering most of the image. She looks closely at the picture and sees a blurred figure standing at the wall behind Aidan. It's Samara. As Rachel scrolls through the picture she sees Samara coming closer to Aidan with every picture until she's standing right on top of him, as if the picture had been taken twice with two different people standing at the same spot.
In the meantime Max is on the phone, calling a friend at the police department to inquire whether an accident has been reported. His back is turned to the bathroom door and he doesn't notice that water starts running out from under the door. When he finally notices he hangs out quickly and rushes to the door. He wants to open it, but it doesn't work. He knocks at the door frantically, yelling for Aidan, but no reaction. Rachel has returned by now and races up the stairs. She joins Max, calling for Aidan. Max runs off for the phone while Rachel keeps trying to open the door.
She finally manages and stumbles into the bathroom. She sees Aidan sitting in the tub, hugging himself, while the water is fleeing him like he was pushing it away from him. It's towering above him left and right, water is running across the ceiling, just staying there as if the room had been turned upside down. Rachel runs to Aidan and starts shaking him. When he finally reacts the water loses its weird property and starts crashing down on them, knocking Rachel flat on the floor under its weight. She gets up quickly, gasping for air as she is drenched with water. She scrambles towards the tub to grab Aidan who has sunk down in the tub. She pulls him up with a yank, but suddenly there's black hair everywhere in the water and as he finally has him out of the water it's Samara reaching out for her. Rachel screams and thrusts her back into the water, wanting to drown her.
Max runs into the bathroom and sees Rachel forcing her son under water. He yells at her and she wakes up as if from a trance, releasing Aidan who shoots up, gasping for air. "Why is she doing this to me?" he yells. Rachel turns around and sees Max stare at her in horror.
At the hospital Aidan is taken care of. The doctors are alarmed because of his hypothermia and try to treat him accordingly. She's sitting down in the waiting area when Max arrives, pouring himself a cup of coffee. He sits down and asks her what has happened. She again says he won't believe him, but then she starts telling him things. She asks him if he's ever experienced something he couldn't explain and other things which I don't remember anymore. When Max seems doubtful she tells him to take a picture of Aidan and he'll notice that Samara will be in every picture.
Rachel sits at Aidan's bedside again, his temperature is slowly normalizing. She talks to him softly, asking him what to do. Suddenly he grabs her arm and broadcasts her a new video, images flashing through her mind. She sees antlers, and a fountain bassin and a woman carrying a screaming baby. Just as the vision ends a psychologist comes into the room. She wants to talk to Aidan, but also Rachel. She asks Rachel if she ever felt angry towards her child and hurt him unvoluntarily. She confronts her with having been depressed after Aidan's birth and asking if it has happened again. Rachel gets angry at the insinuation that she could have hurt her child. The psychologist tells her cruelly that she cannot allow her to be near her son until she has talked to the son and Rachel can explain the bruises on his body. She calls for security and has Rachel removed from the hospital.
Outside, Rachel is desperate. She realizes she has to find out more. She drives to the adoption agency and makes inquiries about Samara's real mother, but the lady refuses to help her. She suggests she should talk to Samara's foster parents. Knowing they are dead, Rachel feels even more hopeless. She drives back to the island where Samara's house was. It's not completely deserted. She climbs the fence and walks towards the door which suddenly opens. A man with a handful of balloons is standing there, looking startled. Turns out he's a real estate agent wanting to see the place. He thinks Rachel is an early visitor and tells her about the house's history, amusingly twisting the facts and making everything sounds a lot better than it is.
To Rachel's benefit he's very busy with preparing the house so he lets her explore on her own. She learns there's a basement, something she hadn't been aware of. She switches on the light and descends down the stairs. Downstairs there are countless antlers hanging down the beams of the basement. She walks through the boxes of stuff, over to the table which is bathed in the light of the only window there. She sees an album lying there and recognizes the image on the cover from her vision. She opens the book and reads "For Samara". It's am album consisting of many scraps and newpaper clippings, various drawings she has seen in her vision. While she's reading the lightbulbs pop one by one, soon leaving her in total darkness, but she doesn't notice because she's sitting at the window. She finds out that Samara's mother's name is Evelyn and that she's given birth at a church run hospital for expectant single mothers. A sound makes her look up and she notices that the entire basement is hidden in darkness now. Scared, she grabs the album and leaves the place hurriedly.
She goes to that place and talks to the nuns about Evelyn who remember her well. They tell her that she's always been mentally unstable and Samara had been a very strange baby, never screaming or crying unless someone tried to bathe her. One night the entire convent was woken up by a baby screaming bloody murder. They looked outside and saw Evelyn walking towards the fountain bassin, wanting to drown Samara. The nuns could stop her in time and Evelyn was put into an asylum where she's now filling books with seemingly pointless article clippings. Rachel looks out of the window and recognizes the bassin from her vision.
Her next stop is the asylum where she insecurely asks for Evelyn. The warden looks her over once and then says dryly "She's been expecting you." Apparently there are mothers showing up, asking for Evelyn once a month or so, hoping for advice about their children. The warden takes her down a corridor and she hears a Evelyn humming a song which seems oddly familiar to her. Inside the cell she sees Evelyn sitting at a table at the window. There are huge stacks of magazines around her and she's frantically cutting out stuff. She has long, pitchblack hair, loosely held up by hairbands. Rachel talks to Evelyn who is positively crazy. When she asks about what to do with Samara she reacts scared, talking herself into a frenzy and yelling at Rachel. This prompts the warden to come in and end the visit. Rachel begs Evelyn to tell her how to help her son and Evelyn tells her that she has to do what her son tells her when the time is ripe and not hesitate to do so then. She hesitated and it has been a big mistake.
Meanwhile at the hospital, Aidan wakes up from his coma. The monitor indicates that his temperature has dropped again significantly. The psychologist comes to talk to him, but Aidan only keeps saying "I want to go home. I want my mommy." The psychologist tries to tell him that he can't go home yet to which he replies calmly "Then there is no other way." The psychologist reaches into the drawer and takes out a glass syringe. You think she wants to sedate the boy, but then you see his intense stare and her strangely absent look. She pulls the syringe all the way down, filling it with air. Then she waits a moment before ramming the syringe into her throat, injecting the air. The bloodied syringe drops to the floor and she sits there, smiling complacantly with her hands in her lap. Aidan continues looking at her until she slumps over, dead.
Aidan walks back to his house. Max finds him there late at night, watching the white noise on the TV. He tells him that cable is on channel 3. Aidan thanks him and switches the channel, watching cartoons. Max looks at him for a while, then he takes out a camera. Aidan gives him a sharp look at says "What are you doing?" "Just taking your picture." "I don't want you to take my picture." "Why don't you tell me what's wrong?" "I will tell you when you promise not to take my picture." Max hesitates, then he says "Okay" and puts the camera on the table. He sits down next to Aidan. Aidan looks at him, then over at the camera where he sees the little red light of the automatic blinking, then the camera clicking. He looks at Max, an eerie expression on his face.
Hours later, Rachel returns home, finding Aidan still on the couch, watching cartoons. She knows that something is wrong. She looks around and sees Max's jacket on the chair. Aidan smiles brightly when he sees her and says "Mommy!" Rachel freezes at him calling her mommy, but doesn't say anything to it. She asks if Max had been there which Aidan denies. Not showing that she realizes it's a lie she tells Aidan that she needs to get something from the car. Aidan nods and smiles happily. Outside, she sees Max's car standing there, the motor running. She approaches it slowly, fearfully. She sees that someone is sitting in the car, slumped over. She opens the door and pushes against Max. As his body rolls back is reveals his face grotesquely distorted like all the other victims of Samara. Rachel screams in terror and starts crying hysterically.
When she comes back into the house again she has calmed herself enough, not showing that she has found the body. She sits down next to Aidan and chats with him some. She asks him if he shouldn't be in bed by now to which he replies that he never sleeps. Rachel excuses herself and goes to her room. She falls asleep curled up on her bed. She dreams of Aidan sitting down next to her. He touches her shoulder and says "Rachel! Listen, we can only talk when you're sleeping. She can't hear us in our sleep. She wants her mommy. You have to get rid of her." "But how?" "What does she fear the most? What is her weakness?" Rachel realizes that he means the water. "But I can't..." "You have to do it, Rachel. You have to show her that she can't stay."
Rachel wakes up with a jerk. It's still dark, Aidan is still watching cartoons. She walks over to him and sits down next to him. She acts like a mommy now, coddling him. She says "Let mommy make some food for you." In the kitchen she makes a peanutbutter jelly sandwich for herself and Aidan. On Aidan's she crushes and couple of sleeping pills. She serves the sandwiches and Aidan takes his happily, eating it. Shortly afterwards he falls asleep.
Rachel grabs his sleeping body and carries him into the bathroom. She runs a bath and puts his sleeping form into the water. The strokes his face and then slowly pushes him down. Aidan wakes up and starts struggling under water. Rachel drags him back up and Aidan gasps "Rachel! What are you doing? Don't do this! I love you!" Rachel whispers "I love you, too... but you can't stay." Then she pushes him down into the water again. Aidan kicks and struggles, but she doesn't let go. Black hair appears in the water again, wind gushes hit her face, Aidan is twitching, then he stops. Suddenly the ghost of Samara rushes out of his body, giving a piercing scream, then it disappears together with the black hair and water.
Quickly, Rachel yanks her son out of the water and starts reanimation. Soon, Aidan starts coughing up the water and wakes up again. She hugs him happily. But then they hear a hissing sound... white noise. They run to the living room and see the TV on, showing the well, partly covered by the big stone. Then Samara's hand thrusts out of the well and she starts walking towards the screen. Aidan urges Rachel to leave but she refuses. She says that it'll never stop. Then she takes a decision and frees herself from her son. "She only wants her mommy," she says and kneels down in front of the TV while Samara approaches. Aidan screams for her to get away, but she stays, eyes closed. "I'm here Samara, take me." Samara's hands thrust out of the TV, grab Rachel's shoulders and pull her into the TV.
Rachel is pulled through a twisting vortex until she lands in dark inky water. She swims to the surface, gasping for air. Panicky, she looks around and notices that she's inside the well. She kicks the water, trying to stay afloat. She looks up and sees the small gap at the opening of the well. "It's always open for her..." Rachel says to herself. Then she grabs the stones and starts climbing up. She's already a couple of feet up when the water starts changing below her, black hair swirling around. Then Samara's hand throughs out of the water. Rachel gasps and starts climbing faster. Samara slips out of the water and starts crawling up the wall. She has a weird, unhuman war of climbing, her joints are crackling while she moves upwards, like a spider, and much faster than Rachel. Rachel is almost at the top when Samara's hand grabs her ankle. She kicks against her and manages to make her fall down a bit. Then Samara picks up her speed and comes up again. Groaning, Rachel squeezes herself through the gap at the top, barely able to fit through it. As she slips out, Samara's hand already reaches for her again. Quickly, Rachel runs around the well and pushes against the stone plate. It slides over the opening with a grinding sound, locking in Samara forever.
Shaking, Rachel looks around, caught in the black and white environment of the video. She walks past the bushes and finds the cliff where Samara's foster mother has thrown herself off in the video. She stands at the edge, looking down into the twirling waters. Then she hears Aidan call for her "Rachel! Rachel!!!" She closes her eyes, spreads her arms and let's herself fall...
She wakes up lying in a puddle of water in front of her TV. Aidan is holding her. When he sees her waking up he hugs her and cries "Mom!" Rachel hugs him back and whispers "It's over. She can never hurt us again." Then she looks at her son and says with a smile "Do me a favor. Don't call my Mom again..."
The End
Okay, that's it o.o. I hope I have recapped faithfully enough. I've probably made a couple of mistakes, but it should give you a good idea of the movie! ^^;
