Focus on the minor details to appreciate a general perfection

Rating: Null/10 (19 October 2002)

I think before judging it, one should focus on the minor details to appreciate a general perfection: -----LOTS OF SPOILERS: READ THEM AFTER YOU WATCH THE MOVIE----- If you get these spoilers while watching, it is indeed a great movie: 1) After watching the video tape, all the victims turn into Samarra Morgan. In that sense, they live the very last week of Samarra she lived in the well. The coolest part is that the victims' images in cameras and pictures appear blurry and shaky because they are in water in the well, and that is how someone looks like when in water. And that is how Samarra looked like in the water before she died. Another fact that they turn into Samarra is that all the victims draw randomly with pencils on faces of themselves of other victims (Remember the journal of the first victims, all the faces were drawn on). This is in fact Samarra with her hair covering up her face. They become Samarra with the fact that Samarra's hair covers their faces in these pencil-drawings.
Therefore, they have only 1 week to get out of the well and to tell what happened (that Samarra's mom killed her as she did not have any other chance) to other people if they want to survive (As in one point of the movie, Rachel clearly states that one can only survive a week in a well, and that is the time Samarra survived before dying in the well)As they become Samarra, the last thing they see would be the ring before they die after 1 week, as in the case of Samarra. And all the victims saw the ring just before they die. Another cool trick: Look at the faces of both the victims after they die (The first girl and Rachel's ex-husband at the end): They are drowned in the well, and that is why their hearts stop to beat. Their faces are blue as in the case of someone drowned in the water. And that is exactly what happened to Samarra. Remember before they die, water starts to appear in the rooms. 2) What we see in the video is everything what happened after Samarra died. Basically after she died in a week, her ghost comes out of the well and goes back to the island (and we see that in the video that the picture is first approaching the lighthouse from a distance that she is coming back). Then she brought pest to all the horses of his dad and here mom started to see her images and she commits suicide by jumping from the cliffs. The mirror image of her mom in the video is in fact looking into the camera at one point in horror, as in fact the mom sees (or notices) Samarra's ghost at that point around her. Her presence back at the island farm can also be seen in the tree carving in her barn-room. Again at one point in the movie, it was stated that in perpendicular shots towards the mirror, the camera does not appear. Basically, all these shots are what Samarra's ghost sees after she dies back in the farm. 3) The reason why she cannot sleep (the little boy repeats it continously) has also that explanation: Because she simply is in the well with water and if she sleeps, she will die. 4) Most importantly, maybe, whether Rachel and her husband uncover the truth about Samarra changed anything. My interpretation is it did not: That is exactly how the first girl died (water on the floor before she died) and that is how the ex-husband dies at the end. In both cases, they drown and in both cases Samarra walks out of the image (but the first one when the girl dies we do not see). Actually, that is also how the first other 3 victims died but when they tried to escape from that image they committed suicide.
The fact is that Samarra walking out of the well happened anyway because her ghost traveled back to the island. Even though, Rachel and the ex-husband had not uncovered the truth, the ex-husband would have died the exactly the same way as it happened. ---As a non-American, I think that this movie was a great movie because of these reasons. I am not sure what you guys look in a great movie but I think if you find out the small great details after watching, the movie becomes perfect.