Image: tmdb
About This Quiz
After a decade of teens-in-suburbia horror movies like the Scream franchise, The Ring arrived in theaters to scare the crap out of complacent early-2000s audiences. Fifteen years later, test your Ring recall here. And don't worry -- no one has ever died seven days after taking our quiz!
The "Ring" phenomenon began in which country?
South Korea
Japan
The Japanese original was called "Ringu," based on the novel by Koji Suzuki. In that version, the girl "Samara" is "Sadako." Fun fact: in Japan, there's even an amusement park based on the "Ring" phenomenon.
Finland
Spain
In what city is "The Ring" set?
New York City
San Francisco
Seattle
Like Tokyo, it's a Pacific Rim city -- just a different rim! Many shots in the film focus on its crowded high-rises, drawing a parallel with the Tokyo that Japan's "Ringu" centered on.
Portland
Who calls Katie Embry's house on the night of the sleepover?
the childlike "seven days" caller
Katie's mother
As the movie opens, Katie tells her friend Becca the story of the creepy videotape, but then pretends it's all a joke. When the phone rings, both girls are scared all over again. With, ultimately, good reason.
Katie's boyfriend Josh
an unknown caller
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What is Rachel Keller's relationship to Katie?
her older sister
her cousin
her aunt
We learn that Rachel's son Aidan and Katie were very close. Katie watched him several nights a week, because of Rachel's demanding job as a reporter.
her childhood babysitter
What is disturbing about the pictures Aidan drew of Katie in her grave?
Katie's face is scratched out
Samara is in the picture
Aidan drew them before Katie died
Aidan is implied to have some psychic ability, but he didn't need it to foresee his cousin's death. Aidan tells his mother that Katie told him she was going to die. "She said she didn't have enough time," he says.
the pictures include images from the cursed video
Where was Katie's body found?
in a closet
We see Katie's body in a disturbing flashback. Her skin is greenish, like that of a drowning victim long submerged in water.
in a well
on her bed
in the living room by the TV
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How does Rachel know to investigate Shelter Mountain Inn?
she finds a receipt among Katie's things
she sees Katie posing next to its sign in a recent photograph
The photograph of Katie next to the sign is normal. Later, after she and her friends watch the video, their faces are distorted in pictures.
the smoking girls at the funeral reception tell her about it
she finds a Shelter Mountain Inn matchbook in Katie's room
Which of the following is NOT an image from the cursed video?
a spinning chair
a pit full of used syringes
Some of the images in the movie are disturbing for no literal reason, like the ladder against the wall. It's also not true that the video is monochromatic (as many people remember it). The tree on fire appears in bright, vivid orange.
dead horses in the surf
Samara seen in an oval mirror
Noah Clay is an audiovisual technician that Rachel calls for help in understanding the video. What is his other role in Rachel's life?
he's her stepbrother
he's Aidan's father
We don't learn this until after Aidan watches the video. Rachel calls Noah in distress, saying "our son" watched the tape.
they work together at the Post-Intelligencer
she's nursing a secret crush on him
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Pauley Perrette, who played Noah's assistant Beth, is better known for her role on which series?
ER
Grey's Anatomy
NCIS
Perrette plays Abby Sciuto, the forensic scientist with a goth style, on "NCIS." She's also blessed with a perpetually youthful appearance, although her IMDb listing gives her birthdate as 1969!
CSI
What physical symptom does Rachel (and later Noah) manifest on Day 3?
blurred vision
severe headache
a nosebleed
Fun fact: In Japanese anime, a nosebleed is often code for sexual arousal. We doubt that's what writer Ehren Kruger intended here, despite the movie's Japan connection.
vomiting
What does Rachel pull out of the screen as she's copying the video?
a fly
Alert viewers will already have noticed that the fly appears to be "right side up," that is, its top side and wings facing the viewer. This shouldn't be the case if the fly is crawling across a camera lens.
a centipede
a maple leaf
wet black hair
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What does Rachel see on the video that allows her to identify the island the Morgans lived on?
the unique shape of the coastline
a lighthouse
It's the "Moesko Island" lighthouse in the movie, but Yaquina Island Lighthouse in real life. Located in Oregon, it is reputed to be haunted -- of course! -- by a former keeper.
the name of the ferry in the foreground
the tree with flame-red leaves
Where does Becca go after her friend Katie is killed?
boarding school
England for a semester
a mental hospital
Rachel later goes to visit her there. In these scenes, we see Becca creeping through the halls, hiding from any exposure to a television set. (We feel the same way during reruns season, Becca!)
to her grandparents' home
On the ferry, when the horse breaks out of its trailer, what does it do?
destroys several cars with its hooves
jumps over the side of the ferry
The horse's suicide might be the most disturbing moment in a movie with not a few disturbing scenes. The horse doesn't quite clear the railing, tumbles into the water, goes under the ship ... and moments later, the boat's wake turns red.
calms down
tries to trample Rachel to death
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Who played Richard Morgan, Samara's father?
Brian Cox
Brian Cox played Hannibal Lecter opposite William Petersen in "Manhunter." His performance was pretty much wiped from public memory after Anthony Hopkins took over the role in "The Silence of the Lambs." Cheer up, Brian: You were the first choice for this role!
Ted Raimi
Ron Perlman
Ted Danson
What is it that Samara does not do? (Aidan mentions this prominently near the end of the movie).
blink
love
breathe
sleep
Aidan's line, "Don't you understand? She never sleeps," isn't exactly clear in its meaning. But Rachel later realizes that it has to do with the fact that the video must be replicated and passed on and on. As Samara says, "It won't stop."
How exactly did the Morgans get Samara?
they adopted her
they abducted her from an unfit mother
they conjured her up through black magic
we never learn this
When Rachel talks to the island's doctor, the woman says that the Morgans went away, then came back with Samara. "Adopted, they said." Her tone leads us to believe she's skeptical about that.
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Why didn't Samara like the horses at the Morgan ranch?
one of them bit her
they take up too much of her mother's time
their size scares her
they keep her up at night
Aidan tells his mother that Samara told him this. There also might have been an element of jealousy. When a psychiatrist tells Samara her father loves her, she says, "Daddy likes the horses," as if implying he doesn't like her as much.
Where did the Morgans keep Samara after her mother started going mad?
their attic
down the well
in the loft of the barn
Rachel and Noah go up into the loft and find the wooden chair featured in the video. There's also a bed, a rocking chair, and of course, a TV set.
at Shelter Mountain Inn
What was the fate of Samara's mother, Anna Morgan?
she disappeared
she committed suicide
Suicide is a recurring theme in the film. Anna's horses jumped off a cliff, presumably to escape Samara and her evil aura.
she lives in a psychiatric hospital
it's implied Samara killed her
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Who stole the video of Samara's session with the psychiatrist?
Anna Morgan
RIchard Morgan
While Noah is at the hospital, getting a dressing-down from the orderly who maintains the records room, Rachel finds the videotape at the Morgan house. In it, Samara is a sympathetic figure (mostly), who says she misses her mother. This leads Rachel to demand to know what the Morgans did with their daughter.
Noah
Samara herself
What did Richard Morgan do after he caught Rachel watching Samara's session with the psychiatrist?
tried to kill her
broke down and begged forgiveness
told her the whole story of how he and Anna got Samara
committed suicide
Morgan chooses the most complicated way possible to do this, strapping a power strip and extension cords to his chest, stepping into a full bathtub, and -- well, you probably remember. To be fair to the film's makers, the actual death is filmed indirectly, with the camera on Rachel's reaction.
Why did Rachel go down in the well?
she thought she heard someone down there
she was determined to find Samara's body
she just lost her balance and fell
a TV set knocked her in there
As Noah and Rachel uncover the well, supernatural forces begin to move objects in the room. One of them is in the TV set, which slides across the room to knock Rachel in.
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What does Aidan say after Rachel tells him she set Samara free?
"That's good."
"I had a nosebleed last night."
"She's still in my nightmares."
"You weren't supposed to help her."
For a moment, it seems as if Rachel's compassionate act has fixed everything, including her flawed relationship with AIdan's father, Noah, who suggests that Rachel call him sometime. That's one date he's not going to make.
What proves to be the key to surviving the video?
finding Samara's remains
making a weird video of one's own
making a duplicate of the tape
Largely unexplained in the film, this has to do -- in the novel "Ringu" -- with the fact that the little girl died in a well on a sanatorium for infectious-disease sufferers. Her video is therefore like a virus, which wants to replicate itself.
watching it again every few days, so the seven-day period never runs out
When Aidan asks Rachel what happens to the person who watches the tape he's making, what does Rachel say?
"I don't know."
"They'll be all right, sweetie."
"They'll die. But you'll live, which is what matters."
nothing
The screen turns to static before we can hear Rachel's answer, if she made any. "The Ring" originally had a subplot about a child murderer who Rachel talked to as part of her newspaper job. At the movie's end, she was to give him Aidan's video, suggesting the curse would end with someone who deserved to die. Ultimately, the writers and director rejected such a semi-happy ending for an ambiguous one.
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Samara had a psychic ability to imprint thoughts onto physical media like film or walls. What is this called?
projected thermography
thoughtography
nensha
nengraphy
all of these
"Nensha" is a Japanese term. "Thoughtography" was used in the UK and North America. "Projected thermography" was a new term coined by "The Ring" itself.
How exactly did Samara kill her victims?
she strangles them with her hair
she drowns them in the nearest water
she simply frightens them to death
this is never made exactly clear
Saying that Samara frightens people to death isn't a bad guess. We know that Katie's heart simply stopped. That doesn't explain, though, why her victims look badly decomposed right away.
Who played Noah Clay?
Ryan Gosling
Martin Henderson
Though Rachel is a reporter, Noah served as the film's skeptical voice, saying the video is "very student film" and "I'm sure it's a lot scarier at night." Ironically, he's killed at midmorning (and is sufficiently scared at the time).
Jake Gyllenhaal
Owen Wilson
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Who played Katie Embry?
Amanda Seyfried
Amber Tamblyn
You might know Tamblyn as the gifted, nerdy intern Martha Masters on "House M.D." Several years ago. she married David Cross, a respected actor twice her age.
Liv Tyler
Michelle Trachtenberg
David Dorfman, who played Aidan, appeared with Amber Tamblyn in which TV show?
Heroes
Las Vegas
Joan of Arcadia
If you haven't seen Dorfman in anything lately, please don't worry about him. He went on to graduate from UCLA at 17 and then Harvard Law School at just 21. Acting's a little below his paygrade now!
House M.D.
Which of the following actresses was NOT considered for the role of Rachel Keller?
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Jennifer Connelly
Kate Beckinsale
Gywneth Paltrow
they were all considered
Gywneth Paltrow was at that time still Hollywood's It Girl -- if the role was a female over 17 and under 50, directors wanted her for it. Jennifer Connelly, who also worked steadily at that time, later took a role in a similar J-horror remake, "Dark Water."
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"The Ring" started a wave of J-horror remakes. Which of the following was NOT one of them?
Pulse
Hostel
American Eli Roth made "Hostel." Incidentally, following the "J-horror" craze was a "K-horror" trend. Korean movies were, if anything, darker and more disturbing than their Japanese predecessors.
Dark Water
One Missed Call
According to novelist Koji Suzuki, the title "Ring" refers to what?
the ringing of the phone after someone watches the video
the ring of light around the well cover
the circularity of events in the story
In the U.S., though, the movie was strongly identified with the scribbly white "ring" image that represented the light showing around the well cover. Naysayers complained that there shouldn't have been a perfect circle of light, or the well capstone would have been too small and fallen in. But more scientific minds prevailed, explaining that light refracts, allowing a perfect circle. Oh good -- we'd hate to think that everything in this movie wasn't scientifically possible!
a wedding ring
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