The Ring Two (2005)

There were some bizarre happenings off-camera as well. Throughout production on “The Ring Two,” a sequence of unsettling occurrences repeatedly affected the production.

The strange events began May 20, 2004, coincidentally the “seventh day” of production. Early in the morning, the office staff arrived to discover that the production office had been flooded overnight. Though the reason turned out to be a burst water pipe in the wall, for some the pooling of water—so closely tied to a major theme of the movie—was an omen of possible things to come.

In an effort to forestall any future problems, director Hideo Nakata requested that a Japanese purification ceremony, conducted by Shinto Minister Reverend Igawa, be conducted at both the production office where the flooding occurred, as well as on set. Walter Parkes recalls, “I looked at the call sheet, and it said, ‘8:30 p.m. – Purification Ceremony.’ I’ve worked on more than 30 movies, and that was a first. I said, ‘I’ll be there for that,’” he laughs. “It was great. I think it bonded the cast and crew early on.”

Although the production was now officially blessed, nevertheless a string of strange coincidences continued: While on location, a swarm of thousands of bees suddenly descended on the prop truck, prompting the immediate evacuation of the prop department, before the bees left just as quickly as they arrived.

For no apparent reason, a five-gallon water jug burst open in the production office kitchen, once again flooding the room that had flooded only weeks earlier.

One morning at the lot at Universal Studios, a set costumer stepped out of the parking garage to discover an antlered buck charging across the asphalt in her direction. Though it’s a regular occurrence for deer to descend onto the lot from the surrounding hills, the similarity to the deer attack in the film was uncanny.

These incidents sparked many in the cast and crew to speculate that somehow Samara was making her presence known.

Nakata observes, “The idea of a threshold between reality and another world can be very frightening, and I think Samara’s presence is much closer in this movie than in the previous films. Samara is not just inside the TV; she is right beside you. That is probably the biggest fear for audiences in this movie.”

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