MovieChat Forums > The Ring (2002) Discussion > "You don't want to hurt anyone." || "But...

"You don't want to hurt anyone." || "But I do..."


When Samara says this, is she saying:


"But I do hurt people, and I'm sorry. It won't stop."

OR

"But I do want to hurt people, and I'm sorry. It won't stop."


Just curious if Samara feels she is wronging others, but the demon inside her keeps hurting others relentlessly... or if the individual is equally as guilty as the demon which torments.

** Rest in peace, Timothy Volkert (1988 - 2003) **

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This has been discussed a lot. I don't think there is an obvious answer, maybe it was meant to be ambiguous?

I mean, the question whether Samara was (fully) evil or an abused (murdered) child, seemed to be a big part of the movie. We got the answer at the end, I guess, which might answer your question as well.


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"The best fairytale is one where you believe the people" -Irvin Kershner

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Probably a combination of both. The little girl is evil, yes, but at the end of the day, she's still a little girl. I think that was the whole point.

Evil walking in a land of good. She loved her adopted mother, but still wanted to hurt others.

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I rewatched the ending of the movie. Part of the reason this movie is good is that it's subtle, it doesn't always spoonfeed us with the details. We have to draw the conclusion ourselves sometimes.

Still, I don't know why I didn't catch this before. The whole twist of the movie is Rachel realizing that Samara wasn't a victim (or just a victim), she was actually evil. Aidan knew it all along and that's why freeing the body doesn't help.

The recording of Samara saying those ambiguous lines relates to this twist. Rachels watches it twice, the first time she interprets it the
"But I do hurt people (even though I don't want to)" way, therefore she doesn't realize Samara is evil.

After she has realized it, she rewatches the recording. The angle is different, we see Samara's face now (which shouldn't really be possible, but ok), and the lines are juxtaposed with chilling flashes of dead Katie and dead Noah.

I think it's pretty obvious that Rachel misunderstood the first time (otherwise why would they replay it like this, at this time?) and that the correct interpretation is

"But I do want to hurt people, and I'm sorry. It won't stop."


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"The best fairytale is one where you believe the people" -Irvin Kershner

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That is beautiful. I agree with that insight, thank you.

I'm going to miss IMDb.

** Rest in peace, Timothy Volkert (1988 - 2003) **

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[deleted]

When Rachel first watches her in the video, it's the first one. But when it comes together and the twist revealed, it's the second way. Up to a point we were meant to believe she was an innocent girl with powers she couldn't control, but she actually was evil and wanted the death curse to spread.

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