WELLSPRING

When shooting in Astoria was completed, the company returned to Los Angeles, for the final scenes to be filmed on soundstages at Universal Studios and LA Center Studios. Water again played an integral role in two of the film's most pivotal sequences. The first was in Max's bathroom, where the water is literally repelled from the presence of Samara. Like an anti-gravity water chamber, water is forced out of the bathtub and coats the ceilings and walls before crashing down in a torrential pool of water. Nakata explains, "Basically, the idea is that Samara, who was kept in the bottom of a well for many years, now has the power to repel water."

To accomplish the scene, special effects coordinator Pete Chesney used two separate bathroom sets. One was an entirely upside-down bathroom, where about 100 thin wires were utilized to hold all the towels and curtains in place. They were then able to flood the "ceiling" in a kind of small pool. Shooting then segued into the right-side-up bathroom set, where the effects team built a series of seven long, skinny dump tanks made out of clear polycarbonate. The tanks were all on latch relay timers that would open in sequence from one end of the room to the other, allowing the team to have a progression of water from one end of the room to the other. Multiple cameras were used to capture the water-drop sequence, several shooting at a high frame rate to capture the scene in slow motion. Betsy Paterson's visual effects team then completed the scene by integrating and augmenting all of the visual elements.

The final days of filming on "The Ring Two" were among the most difficult because they were set in the well where Samara met her terrible end and where she again draws Rachel. The iconic, pixilated well clearing that appears at the beginning of the cursed Ring video was recreated onstage at L.A. Center Studios in Downtown Los Angeles. Production designer Jim Bissell and his crew filled the entirety of Stage 1 with freshly laid sod and 220 alder trees, surrounded by a giant green screen on which the visual effects team crew would later substitute the image of a steep cliff at the edge of the clearing. The well opening looked down into a pit under the stage that allowed the actors to climb up a ladder and into the clearing.

For the climactic well chase sequence, multiple interior well sets-both dry and water-bottomed-were erected on two soundstages at Universal Studios. Nakata says, "For me, it was the third time going back to the well site, which gave me a very claustrophobic feeling and it was very tough to work in, too."

"There's something very spooky about being there, even though you know it's not real," Naomi Watts admits. "It was a great set."

Watts performed most of her own climbing sequences under the guidance of stunt coordinator Keith Campbell. A stunt double was used to work out the sequence and then Watts donned the safety harness and was rigged up for the climb. "Harness work is the most uncomfortable thing to do," Campbell states. "Unfortunately, it was also a very steep angle and those rocks were incredibly hard. It wasn't actual stone, but they were just as hard, and it was also wet, slippery and mossy. It even smelled dank in there, so it was a tough thing to do, but Naomi did a great job."

Samara's unnatural spider-like walk made the chase all the creepier. Nakata reveals, "Samara's movements become more and more weird, so there was a discussion of how to achieve it-maybe even CGI-but I felt it wouldn't work in the scene." Instead, Bonnie Morgan, a professional stuntwoman and contortionist who has lent her unique talents to such films as "Minority Report" and "Men in Black 2," was brought in. As the stunt Samara in the well, Morgan twisted her limbs to perform Samara's bizarre walk.