The Ring of Violence: Stories and Explanations

In The Ring, a film by Gore Verbinski, Rachel Keller is a journalist who is examining a tape that may have killed her niece and three others who viewed it. The folklore behind the tape is that whoever views it will die seven days after. If the lore behind the tape is true Rachel has seven days to save her, her sons and his father’s life. Rachel believes that if she discovers the history of the tape that she can save them. She uses her background in journalism to find out that the tape was created by a girl named Samara. She was murdered by her mother and threw down a well. Rachel believes that if she saves Samara from the well and buries her she can save them all from dying after viewing the tape. Although Samara is exhumed from the watery grave and buried, the violence does not stop. Her son’s father is killed by Samara and she and her son are saved because they both copied the tape and therefore continue the circle of violence that Samara wants. Two specific claims that are taken from Simon Malpas’s “Introduction” that also appear in The Ring are Metanarratives, and the way we categorize films. A metanarrative is a set of rules we use in a specific field. For example the Scientific method is an example of a Metanarrative in science or the rules of a sporting event provide the metanarrative to the narratives or stories told on the field. When watching the movie we use our judgment of film to categorize it. When it starts off with Rachel’s niece in a room with a friend and the background is filled with rain and thunder, it is safe to assume this is a horror flick. Malpas’s other claim is the use of Grand Narratives. Rachel has the Grand narrative view that she has to keep them alive and that the ring of violence will continue ...

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...el’s grand narrative is how she can keep her son and herself alive. Ultimately, throughout The Ring we can see two of Malpas’s claims. Rachel Keller uses journalism in order to find out details of the mysterious tape that killed her niece and we use our judgment of horror movies to judge the category of film. The Rules of Journalism are the metanarratives Rachel uses to figure out the origin of the tape. The other Malpas claim is that of Grand narrative of keeping her family alive and that violence never ends. Rachel realizes that because her and her son made copies of the supernatural video tape that they will not die. The consequence of them living is putting other people who watch the tape at risk. In the end Samara still gets what she wants and the cycle of violence continues like a ring or circle it comes back to where it started.