LogFAQs > #891944817

9. Samara Morgan (26.5 points)
Nominated by: V_charon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw70E71G8Z8

Importance: 8
Fear: 9.5
Snake: 9

Along with Candyman and Pennywise the Dancing Clown, Samara Morgan was one of my biggest fears as a kid. Her unnatural movements and abilities shook me to the core. Older now, I still find her pretty scary, but I also better understand the tragedy surrounding her character now. From her birth, Samara was tortured and abused by her parents, especially her bastard of her father. When she was transferred over to foster care, Samara unwillingly tortured her new parents with psychic abilities, driving her foster mother to insanity. Samara was locked away in a barn and even a psychiatric hospital couldn't help her. Her foster mother eventually cracked and threw her down in a well, where Samara lasted for seven days before succumbing to her death. However, Samara lives on through a cursed videotape, inflicting death on anyone who watches it after seven days are up. Despite her apparent malicious intents and hatred for humanity, Samara merely seeks a mother's love again, showing that beneath her terrifying exterior, she's still an innocent little girl at heart. With this backstory in mind, Samara's actions become a lot more impact in both fear factor and the sympathy department.

Samara has been one of the defining characters in popularizing the common J-horror vengeful ghost for Western audiences, along with The Grudge's Kayako. From a pure visual stand-point, Samara is instantly unsettling, and The Ring does an incredible job in crafting horror scenes through unique and memorable imagery with Samara as their strong centerpiece. Samara crawling out from a TV set, dripping wet and appearing ragged with long hair and dirty white dress, is burned into my mind and one of my absolute favorite horror scenes of all time. It's creative and a good use of the viewer/fiction relationship. What if Samara could crawl out of your TV set next? Maybe you'll jump at the first phone call you get after watching the movie. Maybe it sounds silly and unrational, but it worked on me as a kid and I wouldn't be surprised if there were others out there with the same experience.

Samara's mix of tragedy and terror is one that has gripped American audiences since The Ring was released. She's still a vital part of western horror and character with similar design will always be compared to Samara. Whether she terrifies you, makes you feel bad for her, or hey, maybe even brings you some sort of amusement, Samara's curse will live on in one form or another.
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The first monster you have to scare the audience with is yourself.
http://tinyurl.com/zqwzc9a - http://i.imgur.com/e6kIv3X.png - https://i.imgur.com/ecJSilM.png