The Most Haunting Scene In The Ring Two Didn't Need Any CGI
Few horror villains are as nightmare-inducing as Samara from "The Ring” movie franchise. The vengeful ghost of a young girl who harbors a tragic past, she is known for brutally murdering her victims seven days after they've watched the infamous tape, a playback of her own life. Samara resembles a Japanese onryo (a wrathful spirit focused on vengeance) who is a staple of J-horror films. She has long black hair which is always soaking wet, and it conceals most of her waterlogged face that has turned grey.
"The Ring" and its sequel, "The Ring Two" are both packed with seriously chilling scenes that will scare the daylights out of anyone. I still remember when I watched it for the first time; seeing Samara crawl out of the television haunted me for days. But there's another scene in the film's sequel that is a lot more frightening, and equally implausible to believe because, at first glance, anyone would assume it's CGI. As it turns out, it's not.
Meet Bonnie Morgan, The Woman Behind The Spider Walk
In the first two films, different actresses portrayed Samara. While Daveigh Chase took on the role in "The Ring" (2002), Kelly Stables played the part in "The Ring Two" (2005). But neither actress could pull off the scene that unfolds during Rachel's (Naomi Watts) confrontation with Samara in the well, after she witnesses a flashback of the ghost as a little girl, who struggled to stay alive in the very same well for seven days. Samara "spider walks" up the well in an eerie, gruesome manner, following Rachel as she attempts to escape.
Here's the scene (if you're lucky enough not to remember it every day):
While the film's director, Japanese filmmaker Hideo Nakata wanted to use CGI to depict the spider walk, stunt contortionist Bonnie Morgan was eventually brought in to portray Samara for the scene, thanks to her experience as a hypermobile contortionist. Her performance was unforgettable, and over a decade later, landed her the role of Samara in 2017's "Rings," the third installment in the film franchise helmed by F. Javier Gutiérrez.
In an interview with BloodyDisgusting, Morgan said, "It's been a thrill for me to go from creating Samara's iconic spider crawl as stunt contortionist in The Ring Two to now being brought in to take over the role of Samara in her entirety in Rings and introduce her to a whole new generation of horror fans."
"I'm honored to be a part of her iconic history, and it's exciting and challenging to step back into Samara's soggy skin and bring her from the analog to the digital age," she added.
"The Ring" subverted audience's expectations of what a horror movie looks like. It doesn't have as many jump-scares as say, "The Conjuring," but what it does excel in is building suspense, an atmosphere of fear, and an unnerving feeling of the impending doom that awaits its characters.