The titular "ring" from the novels and films refers to a ring-like visual that appears on the cursed videotape, which actually depicts the top of the well as seen by Sadako from its bottom.

Two film adaptations largely differ from her traditional depictions: Ring 0: Birthday (2000), in which she is portrayed by Yukie Nakama, follows the events leading to her death and features her as main protagonist rather than as an antagonist, while Sadako vs. Kayako (2016), in which is portrayed by Elly Nanami, is a crossover pitching her against Ju-On and The Grudge antagonist Kayako Saeki.

Meanwhile, Ikuma attempted to unlock psychic powers of his own by meditating beneath a waterfall, which ended up causing him to contract tuberculosis, requiring him to recuperate in a sanatorium in the Izu Peninsula, leaving Sadako to be raised by Shizuko's relatives.

Eventually, Sadako visits Ikuma in the Izu sanatorium, only to be raped by a doctor named Jotaro Nagao, who is unknowingly infected with smallpox.

When a vacationing family forgets to bring home their videotape after one night, Sadako projects the new virus onto the TV screen, taking the form of a video, and the VCR records it into the tape.

Tomoko's uncle, journalist Kazuyuki Asakawa, begins investigating her death and watches the tape, leading to him being cursed by Sadako.

As revealed in Spiral, the ring virus originally had an escape clause that allowed it to propagate itself, but Tomoko and her friends, not believing any of it, mischievously overwrote the part where the tape gave the solution as a prank.

Finally, though the original tape and its copies had been disposed of by the events of Spiral, the virus found its way into a new media: Kazuyuki's journal, which his brother published after his death in a car accident.

The dormant virus infects the ovulating Mai Takano when she watches the tape, causing her to give birth to a Sadako clone who assumes the name Masako.

She then blackmails Ando: in exchange for not activating the dormant ring virus that he contracted when he read Kazuyuki's journal, he would refrain from stopping it from being published.

As an incentive, Sadako, who has the ability to clone a person by implanting their genes into her, will birth his deceased son, Takanori, back to life.

The cloned Ryuji, who is raised as Kaoru Futami and has no memories of his life in LOOP, eventually has to reenter the virtual reality to get the cure for both the ring virus and the MHC.

Meanwhile, Ryuji tries to stop the ring virus from propagating through Kazuyuki's journal but relents to allow four Sadako clones to continue existing, thinking that they have short lives and therefore pose no threat.

Ultimately, after killing the last hairdresser on the planet after having their hair done and meeting with Okiku, Sadako reluctantly elects to take both girls' lives on the seventh day, ending her own curse and reuniting with them in the afterlife.

Shizuko's brother Takashi later learns of her psychic prediction of Mount Mihara's eruption and tells everyone about it, making her an instant celebrity.

The good Sadako grew into an adult and became an actress, while the evil twin was locked up by Ikuma and drugged to stunt her growth.

She is also shown to be much stronger and more violent this time, forcing people who try to hinder her curse or escape to kill themselves in brutal ways.

The two ghosts battle each other to kill two women who are under both of their respective curses, they are lured to an old well with the help of psychics Keizo Tokiwa and Tamao in an attempt to destroy them both.

Sadako appears as a young woman whose face is hidden under her long black hair, and she wears a white dress that has water stains on it that is also frayed at the end.

She is shown similarly as a young woman, yet her hair barely covers her face, and is frequently portrayed nude as opposed to a white garment.

[7] The final shot of the tape is of the well, which extends with each viewing, until the deadline of the curse where Sadako emerges from the well and then crawls out of the nearest reflective surface to kill her victim.

An alternate version of the tape was featured in Ring: The Final Chapter, portrayed as being recorded during pop singer Nao Matsuzaki's music video, and the deadline for the curse was extended to thirteen days.

Samara Morgan is depicted as an otherworldly little girl, responsible for the creation of the cursed videotape from the American version of the Ring story.

The Ring states that Anna and Richard Morgan (Shannon Cochran and Brian Cox), who own a horse ranch on Moesko Island, Washington, claimed to have adopted Samara from unknown parents on the mainland after numerous unsuccessful attempts to have a child on their own.

Richard banishes Samara to live in the ranch's barn, but she uses her powers to drive Anna's beloved horses to suicide after they "kept her up at night".

Samara's curse kills Katie (Amber Tamblyn), the niece of journalist Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), who investigates the tape's origins.

Rachel destroys the original videocassette in a fit of rage but uses a copied version of the video to continue the curse in order to save Aidan.

Years after his daughter's death, Burke sealed Samara's remains in a wall of his house at some point after the events of the first film, knowing her spirit would still plague those who have encountered her.

The Movie Book describes Sadako as influencing the whole Japanese horror genre, making the mythological image of the yurei popular in film.

[12] Empire's Mark Dinning described Samara as one of the film industry's most "unrelenting, unreasonable, plain uncontrollable baddies ever".