A video that has not been made, but watched

Rating: 10/10 (21 September 2009)

I would like to suggest a solution of what the ring in "The Ring" is, around which two long movies circle. Many watchers may have asked themselves WHO after all has made the mysterious video-tape with this "freaky stuff" in it (quotation). In "The Ring" I, Noah wonders in the presence of Rachel that their copy isn't a copy (because of the scrambled code-numbers), moreover, in the scene where the lady is combing her hair one does not see the shadow of the camera, which one would expect. Not even the filmed persons' shadows can be seen in the pictured mirrors, etc. The worst thing, however, is, that the fly that appears in the tape is mirror-inverted when Rachel sees her the first time. When she sees her the second time, she comes even out of the picture. It is clear, that the latter event is meant to prepare what will happen in "The Ring II" (2005), namely persons being able to transcend the con-texture-border between screen-inside and screen-outside reality. Actually, this phenomenon will be THE horror motive of the Ring II. But therefore, let us stick with the lacking shadows and the "inverted" fly. Another most interesting question is that obviously, Samara's father was not the film-maker, since there will be more films after his suicide, especially during the whole "Ring II".
I therefore suggest as a solution that the authors of "The Ring" have used a seldom semiotic paradox, namely a sign without "thetic" introduction. Normally, every sign has to be "thetically" introduced, i.e. declared as a sign (the knot in your handkerchief, f.ex.). A sign is only a sign when there is somebody who declares it a sign. Sign do not exist in nature like eggs, boulders of water. Now, theoretically, one could think of a sign that consists only of a sign-carrier, an object, and, instead of the introducer of the sign, of at least one interpreter. Such a sign-model, at least in theory, fulfills the requirement of Peirce that a triadic sign relation is established. In other words: The mysterious video-tape in "The Ring" is a film that has never been made - but only watched. Consequently, what is shown on the tape cannot concern the past (like in normal movies), but must concern the future. And this is exactly what is happening in "The Ring": Rachel sees the lady, the mirror, the man standing on the upper level of the house, the burning tree, the worms ... and at the end the "ring" itself.
If this interpretation of mine is correct - and I have no doubts that it is allowed to impute such a high form of metaphysics to whoever wrote the script - , then this movie deserves not only 10 points but needs to be welcomed in the exclusive club of those seldom products of entertainment industry which have truly brought forward scientific thinking.