From: (No Email available)

Date: 2002-11-12 19:30:04

Comment:

From what I understood of the story:

Samara was evil in and of herself.  The parents knew it, as she placed horrible images in their minds when they were around.  Also, I doubt she was human, or at least an average one.  She never slept.  Not insomnia, she literally NEVER slept.  I *THINK* there is suposed to be an element of mystery in regards to where she came from; obviously, she wasn't born from Anna Morgan, and the only explanation the Morgans ever gave was that they "went away one winter and came back with Samara."  

Secondly, Anna killed Samara because, well, Samara was evil, and admittedly malicious.  ("You don't want to hurt people, do you?"  "But I do...")  Samara put tormenting images in the minds of her parents and the horses, the images were too intense for the horses, horses kill themselves.  Same result with her parents, even though Anna tries to stop the images by killing Samara.  Didn't work, of course because (say it with me) Samara never sleeps.  Anyway, Samara finds a way to spread her pain and malice even after she's dead, using her supernatural power to implant images in one's mind.

Basically, in the American release at least, the storyline is supposed to seem fairly predictable.  The hackneyed plot is that someone is direly wronged in life, murdered or betrayed or so forth, the deceased return as  ghosts to leave clues about their untimely demise, and usually these stories end with the protagonist finding the corpse of the victim buried in some half-assed attempt by the murderer.  The remains are given a proper burial, sometimes the murderer punished, and suddenly the ghost goes home happy.  Hurray.

This movie gives way to a false climax (generally not a good thing) in what I thought was a good way to create a really frightening and suspensful conclusion.  ("Don't you understand Rachel?"   "She never sleeps.")

I'll try and cover some of the details that may have been misunderstood-

Blurry photgraphs:
Face as seen underwater (Where Samara was...)

Becca in mental hospital:
Must be divided from television because she must have seen Samara come through Katie's (in the beginning.)  Samara did not kill her because she had not watched the film.

Scratching photo faces out in pen:
Similarity to Samara's hair covering her face (best seen in Aiden's drawing.)

Flaming tree:
The tree with red leaves outside the cabin; at sunset the sun filtering through the leaves made it seem like it was ablaze (I just wanted to use the word 'ablaze.')

Aiden's encounter:
The guy Aiden saw in the street on the way to school was Noah (his father.)

Choking:
After taking a sip of water, Rachel begins choking and pulls an electrode out of her throat.  Electrodes were placed all over Samara during her psychiatry session to monitor brain activity.

I can't think of anything else at the moment...  sorry.  Hope I cleared something up for someone.