Rings : The new tape looks AWFUL!

Why did they change the tape?? The original is far better tan this one!!!
I don't like the snake, i don't like the flies, i don't like the church with the books flying and i don't like that creepy door :c

I think this is the "tape within the tape" maybe? Either that, or Samara made a new tape somehow. In The Ring, the original tape contained images that Rachel connected to in the real world, so they probably wanted to do something similar here with Julia finding connections to the tape in the real world but didn't want to copy the ones used in the first.

Has it been confirmed there's a new tape?

I remember I didn't like when they made a new tape for the ring two. The original is creepy enough, just don't change it!

I know that in the second one, the new tape was just used for marketing. I think they're actually using a new tape in this one though. Johnny Galecki was promoting the movie on Colbert this week and they showed a clip of his character putting in the tape and watching and this new version was the one that was shown before he got the phone call.

How long was the clip of him? I missed the show. I was looking online but only saw the interview he had with Colbert.

It was probably under a minute. He looks at a tape that's labeled "WATCH ME", puts it in the VCR and watches the tape, and then gets the phone call and you hear Samara say "seven days". If you live in the US and go to the CBS website, they have the episode up, and the clip is included (but I think it will only be up another few days for free).

Here are some screencaps from the scene (minus the tape because that's already online):
http://imgur.com/a/NqXor

I could only find the interview on the CBS website, I didn't see the clip on there even though I live in the US. Can't wait though It's interesting that it was him that digitalization the tape; I really hope they have an explanation as to how Samara gets out of the sealed well.

Long story short: You don't even know how creepy it can get.

Long story (from the entire Ring universe all the way back to the first book in Japan, SPOILERS marked):

1) It's NOT a tape, it's a video. Online. Sent by email.

2) You won't see the whole cursed video until you see the movie. They never show the whole thing in trailers. The cursed videos can be pretty gross and disturbing for some viewers.
b) Hearing the sounds in a big theater (or in HD with headphones) is an important part of the experience. It's so EWW.

3) The Ring curse evolves, mutates. Spreading it online accelerates the mutations. Think of a computer virus. A very, very persistent computer virus. The WORST. So the video mutates as well.
a) The snake eating its tail is an "ouroboros" just a Celtic symbol that means forever, infinity. Important, from the first Ring: She never sleeps. "And it WON'T stop."

4) What we see in Ring movies is what the lead character sees, NOT what's actually in the video. That explains how there can be a "video in a video" now, that Rachel and Aiden never saw. There can be infinite variations (see 3a).

5) New technology means new ways of spreading the curse. Think about the airplane scene in the long trailer. We take those screens for granted now, but Samara started as a little girl with merely thinking at (Ring SPOILER) x-ray film plates in the mental hospital and is working her way up the technology ladder.
b) I do NOT want Samara to find an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive VR viewer!! Okay, I admit I do

6) We may not even see the full cursed video until the DVD release. They added Easter eggs to both Ring and Ring Two, so you could play what the characters in the movie saw exactly. I hope they stick with this!
a) The most fun egg IMO was on the first Ring's DVD release. You could NOT stop the cursed video once you hit play. It took over your DVD player. Lots of fun pranking friends just to see them banging the stop button!

7) Unfortunately it is 2017, so the promos will never be near as creepy/scary as the first two American remakes:
b) In 2001, Dreamworks promoted the first Ring by dropping VHS tapes with no labels all over the LA area. Nearly everyone still had a VCR somewhere, or would play them on a VCR at school or a library. Who could resist playing it?? At the end was a website address to Katie's diary, which led to several other "real" sites. People actually mailed the tapes back and forth to prank family and friends! It was awesome. How would they do that today?
b) For the 2005 Ring Two, they trolled the otaku (obsessed fan) Ringu/Ring sites, and dropped for us links that led to a page giving a REAL mail address in Oregon. It said if you wanted an actual copy of the cursed tape, to email your address. About 100 of us took the chance and were rewarded: in the mail, in a padded envelope with no return address, an Oregon postmark, an unmarked VHS tape. Duh, I played it. Well, like the Ring DVD easter egg, you could NOT stop the cursed video while it was playing! I couldn't just turn off the VCR. I forget how exactly they did that It was awesomely creepy AF Again, fun to prank friends.

FINALLY. For this movie, they did none of this, as far as I know. Which is monumentally stupid. All they had to do was randomly email out the cursed video, like in the trailers, and let people spread it online.

OR they could have simply put up the "Rings" short film, from the Ring Two DVD, which explains how the video spread to (short film SPOILERS) digital media and how it spread by teens playing Russian roulette with it to see who could get closest to their death hour without showing it to someone else which is exactly how the Ring Two started. (Ring Two SPOILER His friend closed her eyes after he hit play.) If you just read those spoilers, this new Rings makes SO much more sense, doesn't it?! And I don't think it would spoil the plot of this new movie at all.

tl;dr They done frakked up the promotion of this movie bigtime.

__________
7even days

Disturbingly concise

Great write - up. Love these movies.

To answer the OP directly,
It's like a code, and most of it isn't spoilers. But I will spoiler the previous two movie's plot points. (If you want to see Rings without watching the first two, you might want to read them, it's some of Samara's back story.)

If you just want to see a horror movie that may not truly be horror but is definitely creepy, ignore all this and just go see the damn movie

Snake: Celtic infinty symbol. Not a spoiler.

Flies: Symbol of death. In first Ring, but not a spoiler.

Church: Refers to sequel, Ring Two: [MAJOR spoiler]Samara's real mom gave birth to her in an old Catholic home for pregnant girls.[/spoiler]. Trust me, church imagery IS relevant in the (American remake) Ring story.

Door: Symbol of both birth and death, travel. See Church, because it looks like an old church door.

Books: Ring: not a spoiler, could be Rachel's basic research. She's a reporter. Ring Two: Oh boy, levels of spoilers! Split up for those with big thumbs. I suspect this is really what the books mean:

(Samara backstory) Samara's mom hoards stacks of books and newspapers in the

(church reference) mental hospital the Catholic mother's home became where

(bigger spoiler) Rachel visits her and sees her clipping out articles and learns that

(MAJOR spoiler)Samara's mom has gone crazy but is both wise and psychic, she collects articles about

(MEGA spoiler) women killing their children and that

(SUPERMEGA plot spoiler, vital to Samara backstory) women from all over have been coming to her bio-mom for advice for many years, because they have children like Samara. It's not said how they all find her (but hints at visions), only how Rachel got there.

Holy *beep* that looks like a classified CIA report That last spoiler is the ending to Ring Two.

Hope this helps make sense of things. Knowing all of this is why I'm so excited from the trailers, a lot was left unsolved. It sets up the "video within a video" perfectly. I understand most people won't see the Ring Two before Rings, though.

So if you just want to know some of who/what Samara might be, read the spoilers at your own risk! My hope is people can enjoy this movie as a whole story and not just a horror movie, because the studio promotions have been stupid AF! Samara became a horror icon but her origins, in the American remakes we are WAY far away from learning her origins. I hope they go there in Rings! No spoilers, things from the original Japanese books, and from the first Ring (non-spoiler) cursed video in the trailers: water. the sea. Samara through a video monitor. Samara wearing electrodes connected to something. electrical sounds. PLEASE GO THERE, Rings!

Your otaku Ringu/Ring fan.
__________
7even days

Wow. You remind me of the professor in the movie Candyman. I love it!

All your credibility went flying out the door at the end with "Your Otaku Ringu/Ring fan"

I bet you have a neck beard

"Think of it. 90% of the population united against a common enemy. We'll be unstoppable!"

Nitpicky *but* the ourobouros actually dates back to ancient Egypt. It can be either a serpeant or a dragon, and it represents the infinite cycle of creation and destruction (life and death).

Sorry but I briefly majored in Art History.

You know what's weird? I dont like the new tape either but right after I saw that marketing video showing the tape, I got a phone call saying 7 daysand then they hung up.


I'm the guy who makes the "worst movie ever" thread in your favorite movie board