Samara Morgan

"But I do, and I am sorry. It won't stop."

- Samara's infamous response after her psychiatrist states that she doesn't want to hurt anyone.

Samara Morgan is the primary antagonist of ''The Ring and The Ring 2. ''

Though Samara is a sympathetic character for most audiences, she is truly morally ambiguous as at one stage, Samara is clearly shown to be a misunderstood girl who had little and no control over her powers due to her abusive parents while on the other hand, she rejected all the help from other protagonists, especially Rachel Keller, and decided to continue her evil doing without any remorse.

Her character is a remake of Sadako Yamamura from the 1998 Japanese horror film Ringu which also spawned several sequels and international remakes. She is portrayed by Daveigh Chase.

Birth
In 1970, a pregnant woman named Evelyn went to a Christian hospital and gave birth to a baby girl named Samara, who ceased to cry. The identity of the biological father remained unknown though it was assumed that he was some form of sea demon. However, Evelyn began to voices which told her to drown Samara to release the demon inside of her. Finally, she went outside and attempted to drown Samara in a pond but a group of nuns caught her and took her baby girl away. Samara was held for adoption whilst Evelyn was locked up in a mental hospital.

Adoption
Eventually, Samara was adopted by Anna and Richard Morgan, who were avid horse breeders from Moesko Island. While Anna loved her unconditionally, possibly because of her several miscarriages, Samara began to develop strange supernatural powers, which she had no control over, resulting her to become an outcast in the community. She probably inherited her powers from her mysterious biological father. Her relationship with Anna began to sour as she unintentionally burnt gruesome and disturbing images into her mind, causing her to slowly become insane.

Eola Psychiatric Hospital
Anna consulted a local problem about the gruesome images in her mind and the doctor sent both her and Samara into Eola Psychiatric Hospital, where they were under 24/7 surveillance. Anna was treated for depression and suicidal thoughts while Samara was studied by Doctor Scott on her ability to burn images into minds and objects. Doctor Scott later filmed a medical interview of Samara and told her that her father planned to leave her there. Provoked, Samara killed him with her powers and on the contrary, her father decided to release Anna and Samara from the hospital and return to their normal lives.

The Horse Epidemic
Richard decided to isolate Samara in the horse barn, which only had a TV set for entertainment. Samara never slept due to the noises that the horses made and out of rage, she drove them mad and forced them to commit suicide by jumping off a nearby cliff. About 27 horses died, which made Anna and Richard the centre of unwanted attention, though none were aware of the presence of Samara. Anna was heavily affected by the epidemic and was sent back to Eola Psychiatric Hospital.

Trapped in the Well
Having enough of Samara's constant abuse towards her and her horses, the family decided to have a vacation in Shelter Mountain Inn. While Samara stood near an open well and sung her lullaby, Anna walked behind her and unexpectedly suffocated her with a black garbage bag. She later felt remorse of what she had done but nevertheless continued to throw Samara into the well. Samara watched as she saw her adoptive mother closing the lid of the well. Even when she had temporarily stopped Samara from killing, Anna proceeded to commit suicide by jumping off a nearby cliff. Whilst in the well, Samara tried to crawl out but she broke her fingernails and eventually drowned after 7 days.

Resurrection
Many years after the event, holiday cabins were built in Shelter Mountain Inn and Cabin 12 was built directly above the well. Inside Cabin 12 was a television set and a blank videotape and Samara, as a vengeful ghost, used this opportunity to use her powers for revenge by mentally transferring all the gruesome images from her twisted mind and her own miserable life into the blank videotape. She also placed a curse on the videotape and vowed to kill anyone who watched the videotape after 7 days. The only way they could escape that fate was by copying the videotape and sending it to another person who hasn't seen it under the 7 day deadline. One day, a group of teenagers stayed in Cabin 12 to record a football match with the blank videotape. They were shocked that the cursed videotape played instead of the football match and ran out of the cabin without notifying the owner of the cabins.

Samara's Killing Spree
After 7 days, one of the teenagers named Katie Embry had a sleepover with her friend Becca and suddenly, several supernatural occurances occur in her house downstairs. Katie investigates downstairs and becomes frightened and runs upstairs to find Becca. However, she discovered that the doorknob of her bedroom door was leaking with water and as soon as she opened it, she saw the cursed videotape playing on her TV, causing her to scream as an unseen force, presumably the vengeful ghost of Samara, seemingly causes her face to eventually distort and mutilate by itself. Katie's other friends were also killed on the same night and they driven insane by Samara's presence on the spot causing them to kill themselves. This was an alternative way for Samara to kill people if her victims weren't near a TV after 7 days.

Everyone Will Suffer
Katie's death brought the attention of a troubled journalist named Rachel Keller, whose son Aidan eerily predicted Katie's death. Aidan was also the only one who knew how truly evil Samara was and how she wasn't supposed to help her, especially after Rachel and her ex-boyfriend Noah tried to appease Samara's spirit in the well and as a result, gave her a proper burial. As a result, Noah, who didn't copy the videotape and send it to another person, was killed by Samara after she crawled out of his TV screen and killed him by frightening him to death. Rachel finally realised why she was spared as she had sent the videotape to Noah previously and does the same thing for Aidan, who has also seen the videotape as well. She also receives flashbacks from the time when she visited Richard Morgan telling her how "his wife wasn't supposed to have a child" moments before killing himself after realising that Samara has returned to the world for no good, which causes her to change the way she views Samara.

Defeat
Meanwhile, a subculture that was dedicated to the cursed videotape rises in popularity as more people watch the cursed videotape but many of them send it to another person before 7 days to avoid being killed. However, a teenager named Jake failed to send the videotape to his girlfriend who has never seen it before and was killed that night. Rachel and her son Aidan move to the same town where Jake was killed and is deeply horrified that Samara is still existing. Samara, who is attracted to Rachel's motherly personality, attempts to be her daughter by possessing Aidan. Under Samara's possession, Aidan kills several people including a man named Max who tried to help Rachel from her past experiences and a doctor named Dr. Temple who is unaware that Aidan is possessed. However, Rachel already knew that Aidan was possessed and successfully drowns him to release Samara. Moments later, the vengeful Samara tries to return to Rachel by emerging out of her TV screen and Rachel decides to sacrifice herself by allowing herself to be dragged into the well by Samara so that Aidan won't be endangered by Samara ever again. Looking up from the well, Rachel realises that the well has always been open, which had freely allowed Samara to enter and exit into the world to kill people. Suddenly, Rachel notices Samara emerging from the water. Rachel manages to crawl out of the well in time and as Samara calls out "MOMMY!" in a deep demonic voice, Rachel replies "I'M NOT YOUR FUCKING MOMMY!" and proceeds to close the well with a stone lid, eternally trapping Samara inside the well where she is tormented with misery forever.

The Cursed Videotape
1. You see the ring. It is blue light in a round shape that Samara saw when she was at the bottom of the well and saw the top of the well appear like this. You see a chair and then a ladder.

2. A mirror on the right shows Anna Morgan combing her hair, then another mirror on the left seconds later shows Samara, then the mirror on the right shows Anna Morgan again smiling. (if you turn up the volume, you can hear Samara singing the song that she sung before she was thrown in the well)

3. Richard Morgan, Samara's father, is seen on the top story window looking at outside.

4. The cliff where the Morgans lived next to. A fly is seen walking on the screen as if it was not part of the tape.

5. A person's mouth having a metal wire pulled out with regurgitating sound.

6. The top of the well being closed by a lid and seeing the remainder of the open top with bright light.

7. A tree is on fire.

8. A finger is impaled by a nail.

9. Numerous maggots bound together before turning into a picture with many humans overlapping in water.

10. A millipede walks from under a table where there was a glass of water and a chair next to the table.

11. The behind of a goat is shown.

12. A close up on a horse's eye

13. The top of the well being closed by a lid again and seeing the remainder of the open top with bright light.

14. Seven detached human fingers in a box that are twitching.

15. The tree is again shown on fire.

16. Anna Morgan is turning around and frowning looking at Samara when it looks like she's looking at the viewer.

17. The carcasses of dead horses on the beach.

18. Anna Morgan on the cliff slowly falling off to commit suicide.

19. The ladder falls down to the ground and the lid on the well is completely closed.

20. The well Samara's corpse is in is shown. This is the most significant picture of the tape.

Ella
Ella is a fan character whose appearence is based on Samara Morgan. She was made for the M.U.G.E.N. engine by the creator AIDUZZI as a horror-type character, with bloody moves that resemble some horror movie characters. She is very strong and can use chainsaws, knives, firearms, cursed teddy bears, cursed crows, her claws, alongside her own fighting skills.

Samara's Victims

 * Doctor Scott - The doctor who interviews Samara in the tape Rachel finds at the Morgan house. He was killed shortly afterwards by Samara.


 * Morgan Ranch Horses - Driven insane by Samara's powers and killed themselves.


 * Katie Embry - Killed by Samara who directly killed her by coming out of her television. Her body was found in a closet by her mother Ruth. Her friend Becca Kohtler was affected and sent to a psychiatric hospital.


 * Josh Turnadot - Katie's boyfriend. He was reported to have jumped off a roof, perhaps to escape Samara.


 * Scott Conroy - Killed in a car crash.


 * Stacey Nyugen - Killed in a car crash.


 * Shelter Mountain Innkeeper - Noah finds him dead in a canoe at Shelter Mountain's lake. This is only included in the deleted scenes of the first film's DVD.


 * Ferry Horse - The horse is frightened by Rachel and falls off the ferry and is killed by the ship's propellers.


 * Richard Morgan - Samara's adoptive father. He commits suicide via electrocution to escape Samara.


 * Noah Clay - Rachel's ex-boyfriend. He was unaware he had to copy the tape, and is killed by Samara directly.


 * Numerous viewers in Rings.


 * Jake - Killed by Samara directly.


 * Doctor Emma Temple - Murdered by Samara during her possession of Aidan. She forced Temple to inject a lethal injection into her neck, making her look like she killed herself.


 * Max Rourke - A journalist who is killed by Samara when he tries to photograph her in Aidan's body.

Trivia

 * It is highly likely that Samara inherited her supernatural abilities from her biological father as she managed to manipulate and control the movement of water despite the fact that she was aquaphobic (fear of water).
 * Samara's name means "protected by God" in Hebrew, hinting that her biological father is indeed from a supernatural realm. One of her victims' name was Noah and Noah is of Hebrew origin as well and Noah is a well-known character in the Bible who suffered in a great flood (a nod to the major theme of water in the films) and was one of the victims forced to endure the wrath of God, in contrast to Samara's name.
 * Although both Samara and her Japanese counterpart have similar tragic backstories, Samara is far less sympathetic than Sadako as after her tragedy, she continued to kill and never wanted to fix her mistakes unlike Sadako, who attempted to revert to her kind-hearted persona. Even when one of the protagonists try to help Samara (e.g. when Rachel sacrificed her safety to be her mother), Samara will often refuse it and continue to be the deranged psychopath that she unfortunately became.
 * Another theory about how Samara killed her victims is that she mentally projects all the horror from her life and the cursed videotape into the victim's mind in a short amount of time, which literally blows their mind to the point that their faces and eventually bodies become bloated and distorted. This is why a series of images from the cursed tape is shown briefly, followed by static, before he/she dies.