Behind the Scenes: Designing Samara’s Costume

Bringing the terror of a ringing phone that spells your demise back this Halloween. 

Samara is back with her hauntingly devious actions to own the spooky season. The unfairly wronged child has turned into a malicious spirit, on the hunt for her next victim. Her vitriol-filled aspirations to exact revenge and harm to everyone and anyone she can reach make her one of the most terrifying villains. 

Samara isn’t solely iconic for her tragic story but also for her haunting appearance. Samara’s Halloween Costume, albeit simple, invokes a certain kind of fear in the mind, heart and eyes of her victim that they can’t even bring themselves to move from their position.  

So, let’s talk about why Samara continues to haunt the cinema with her ghostly impression.

Terrorizing Tapes: Samara Morgan’s Story

Samara is the main spiritual antagonist in the The Ring franchise. The franchise spans three American movies, five Japanese movies, and a novel series. 

Samara Morgan’s story is one of severe tragedy and consequential torment. Let me elaborate on the role she played in each of the films in the American adaptation of the franchise. 

The Ring (2002)

In the first installment, Samara haunts people through the means of a videotape. Whoever watches the cursed videotape receives a phone call that delivers an eerie, clipped warning of death. 

“Seven days.” That is all the untraceable, creepy call gives to the viewer. The caller has a child-like voice, which is believed to belong to Samara herself. The call sets the premise of the most disturbing seven days of the life of the viewer, which would end with a torturous death unless the viewer finds another person to watch the videotape. Thus, continuing the cycle of fear and torment. 

The first movie even begins with a young couple, where the guy is trying to make his girlfriend watch the tape in hopes of having the curse lifted from him. Despite his loving coaxing, which was just desperation under a guise, his girlfriend doesn’t watch the tape. Samara then climbs out of the TV, leaving a wet trail behind her and kills the guy in a gruesome manner as his numbered days are over.

The film then shifts to Rachel, a journalist and single mother to her adopted son, Aiden. She investigates these horrifying deaths and ends up becoming Samara’s victim by watching the tape. The film continues to show Rachel’s struggle against time to figure out what Samara wants to end the curse. She ends up living past her one-week deadline, which makes her believe the curse is over, but she finds out that her son had watched the tape within her time. 

Rachel makes Aiden make a copy of the tape and passes it on. Despite her struggles in unearthing Samara’s past, she fails against the vicious ghost.

The Ring Two (2005)

In the sequel, we see Rachel starting a new life with her son in Oregon. Things are going smoothly with Rachel being promoted to a reporter. That is, until Samara strikes again. 

This time, she takes a more direct approach. Samara takes possession of Aiden in an attempt to get closer to Rachel. This film shows us another aspect of Samara’s haunting. Struggling to save her son from Samara’s evil influence, Rachel delves further into Samara’s past.

Through her investigation, she finds that her adoptive mother, Anna Morgan, suffocated Samara. Samara was born with a unique ability to burn images into the minds of anyone living around her. She wasn’t great at controlling them and unintentionally drove Anna mad and into depression through her powers. 

Anna suffocated Samara and threw her in the well. Horrified at her actions, she also jumps off a cliff nearby. Samara, on the other hand, remains alive for seven days in the well and then dies. Her vengeful spirit is thus born.

We see from this that Samara lacked any familial and motherly contact all her life. Everyone around her always abhorred her and hurt her. In a twisted way, she saw Rachel’s efforts in uncovering Samara’s past as a sign of affection that she tried to hold on to. Samara takes a liking to Rachel and wishes to live with her son so she could have Rachel as her mother. 

Despite everything, Samara was just a child after all. 

Rachel defeats Samara through the power of motherly love and saves her son from her influence, and the movie ends there.

Rings (2017)

The last part in the franchise serves as an ending to Samara Morgan’s entire lore. 

Years later, Samara’s hauntings begin again. When Julia’s boyfriend goes mysteriously missing, it is revealed that the cursed videotape has surfaced again and is making its rounds. 

Julia watches the tape to save her boyfriend and then begins to try to understand the cause behind the curse. This movie gives us some special insight. The videotape has an extended scene in which Julia gathers the clues needed for her investigation. 

Julia is led to a mental facility where she finds out that Samara’s birth mother, Evelyn, resided. However, Evelyn died through suicide before she could help. In the past, she had also proved to be of little assistance when Rachel approached her for the same issue. Evelyn said that Samara is the child of a sea demon and needs to be killed. Evelyn tried that when she gave birth to Samara, but nuns took Samara away That is where the Morgans adopted her from. 

Julia discovers that Samara never received a proper burial, which also causes her soul to linger around. She finds out that her remains are with a blind, retired priest. That priest turns out to be Samara’s biological father. Stories unravel, and it is revealed that the priest abducted Evelyn when she was young, assaulted her and locked her in the bell tower of the church he taught. 

It can be interpreted that Evelyn was traumatized to the point that she believed her aggressor to be a sea demon. This reveals another horrifying aspect of Samara’s life. Not only was she never loved because of her abilities, but she was also born into such violence. Samara restores her father’s eyesight and kills him and her spirit finally rests.

The Idea Behind Samara’s Costume 

Now you can see the story from Samara’s perspective. You see how she came to be and why. Understanding her lore is crucial to explaining how the movie designers crafted her costume. We are through with the first part, so let’s talk about how Samara Morgan’s Halloween Costume came to be.

Deathly Fashion—Samara Morgan’s Appearance

Samara’s look from an untrained perspective is basic. Samara’s Halloween Costume is an easy look to recreate for a reason. Despite that simplicity, her look holds grave meaning that delivers exactly the effect you need from a haunted figure. 

Starting from the basics, Samara Morgan wears a tattered and waterlogged white gown. The dress sticks to her body and drips everywhere she moves. Mud caked into the fabric of the torn dress, giving it a dull, greyish look. 

Next comes her hair. Samara has long, dark hair that is styled in a spooky manner, covering her entire front. The hair, just like the dress, is dripping wet and is clotted together by the looks of it. Her skin is a sick, mottled grey. Her eyes, which show only in the second she’s about to end her victim’s life, are a milky, blurry iris. In some scenes, you can also see her disfigured face as if ruined or cut. 

Technically speaking, the costume was designed to convey a haunting, vengeful spirit through a tattered, water-stained white nightgown and a long, dark, wet wig that obscures her face. The dress and wig were heavily distressed with dyeing and water-damaged textures to create a murky, unnatural appearance, reflecting her waterlogged and deformed form. The visual degradation of the costume symbolizes her tragic past and transformation into a vengeful spirit. 

The Symbolism Behind the Scare

Samara’s The Ring costume looks basic and simple, but holds grave meaning in every thread. 

The waterlogged dress and drenched appearance aren’t solely for the scare factor. It denotes the awfully long time Samara had to spend in the well. Samara didn’t die when she was thrown into the well by her adoptive mother, Anna. She stayed alive for seven days and suffered. 

When she died, her vengeful spirit surfaced. This is why even the videotape shows Samara climbing out of the well and then eventually from the TV screen to get to her victims. 

The drenched hair also points to the painfully long time Samara spent helpless in the well, drowning and dying in agony. The greying skin is the result of being in the water for so long and losing life through such a horrifying death. 

The milky eyes show the lack of life, and the disfigured face was the result of her corpse rotting in the well, barely alive. 

A costume isn’t just the clothes on the back of the character, but the story behind them, too. A dripping white nightgown that is ruined from all around, dark hair covering the entire front as the body crawls towards you by twisting and bending its limbs unnaturally to the point you hear bones and joints cracking, isn’t just a costume but a character.

It is a child with uncanny and dangerous abilities who was hated and killed for them and is returning to exact revenge on anyone and everyone she gets her hands on. It is Samara Morgan.

Horror Hollywood: Samara’s Enduring Popularity

Samara Morgan is a horror icon, and this is the hill I’m willing to die on—just like Anna. 

Samara Morgan is famous for multiple reasons within the horror cinema. Talking exclusively from the looks perspective, Samara kills—literally. Her ghastly impression, combined with her tragic and depressingly unfair backstory, makes for a bone-chilling experience. 

Samara is not an aimless ghost lady in white, just killing left and right. She is a ghoul with a grudge. She was wronged for something she didn’t know how to control and was hurt in an extremely torturous manner. Imagine having to die, slowly and gradually, while you’re drowning helplessly in a deep well. That works you up for some serious revenge, and you cannot be faulted for it. 

Samara was a reclusive young girl with pretty brown eyes and hair, and was characteristically seen wearing a white dress. This identity of hers was tarnished and maliciously transformed into a grudging ghost. 

Another element that really draws viewers in to this day is her intention behind Aiden’s possession. She saw Rachel’s desperate attempts to unearth her past as a sign of motherly love. And then, in her own twisted fashion, she tries to get closer to Rachel in the form she most desired. This concept was as heartbreaking as corrupt and scary. 

Unloved by both the mother figures she had in life and eventually killed by one, really sets you up for some serious abandonment issues, and Samara was a crawling, contorted case of abandonment issues. 

This heartbreaking aspect of her story appealed to the audience and added a certain depth to the character. It reminded the audience in a rather painful fashion that Samara Morgan was still a child, even if she was cursing videotapes and taking lives. It reminds you she’s still a little girl, a girl who was never loved and only scorned for forces beyond her control.

Gravely Insights

Halloween without Samara would be only a smidge less tragic than the vengeful ghost herself. So embrace the darkness of the grudge she held on with dear life—or death—and unleash the horror of a child’s scorn this Halloween. 

American Jacket Store is a ridiculously amazing place for Halloween attire at awesome prices. From classic Horror Costumes to screen-accurate get-ups, everything is available. So, get your gear and prepare for the spooky season promptly. Tag us on socials with your iconic looks!