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Rachel Keller was the main protagonist of The Ring and The Ring Two, being portrayed by Naomi Watts. She was a survivor from watching the deadly tape of Samara Morgan, which portrays the tough life that she lived. She is the mother of Aidan Keller.

Biography[]

Death in the Family[]

Rachel's first appearance shows her as a caring mother and a tough yet dedicated journalist. After being informed of neice Katie Embry's death, Rachel and Aiden has been invited to her wake by Katie's mother, Ruth. Before attending, Rachel picked up Aiden from school, when she learned of Aiden's school drawings and their depiction of death and a mysterious girl.

Once arriving at the Embry residence, Rachel and Aiden spoke their sorrows until they separated to different loctions in the house. Rachel first spoke with Ruth and expressed her sympathies. Ruth informed Rachel that Katie's appearance post-mortem looked strane and asked if Rachel could investigate on what happened to Katie. Rachel then spoke with Katie's friend and they informed Rachel that Katie, her boyfriend, and their friends have all died after watching a videotape that kills you after you watch it. Rachel also learned that Becca Kotler was the last person to see Katie alive.

After some time, Rachel searched for Aiden and found him upstairs in Katie's old room. After reassuring him that they will be alright, Rachel found Katie's personal binder that contained fashion magizine clippings of women with their faces vertically scribbed over with a black pen. Rachel also found a ticket to a photo processing store. The next day, Rachel visited the store with her ticket and revieved photos of Katie and her friend at Shelter Mountain Inn. Some of the photos has the children's faces bluried.

While at home one night, Rachel dig up newspapers featuring articles on Katie and her friends and discovered some of them died at 10:00pm. At work, Rachel speaks with either pathologists or coroners and discovered that all of the children died at the exact same time and date. Upon realising this, Rachel decides to visit the location on where they watched this rumored videotape.

Upon arriving at the Inn, Rachel was greeted by the innkeeper and told her that the children stayed at Cabin 12. Rachel viewed the selection on VHS tapes the inn housed and noticed one unmarked/unlabeled videotape. After providing the innkeeper with her American Express card, she grabbed the videotape and proceeded to Cabin 12.

Cursed[]

Upon viewing the tape, the phone rings, and a child's voice says "seven days", upsetting Rachel. The next day, Rachel calls Noah, an ex-boyfriend (who also happens to be Aidan's father), to show him the video and asks for his assistance based upon his media-related skills. He asks her to make a copy for further investigation, which she does, but later takes it home herself.

To Rachel's horror, she discovers Aidan watching the copy a few days later. Rachel experiences many nightmares of Samara and nose bleeds. Rachel discovers that the tape's overscan does not include time code, which hints that the tape was not made using electronic equipment.

The woman on the tape turns out to be Anna Morgan, who lived on the island off the coast of Washington, many years prior with her husband Richard. Rachel discovers that, after bringing home an adopted daughter, tragedy befell the Morgan ranch – the horses raised on the ranch went mad and killed themselves, which in turn supposedly caused Anna (who loved her horses) to become depressed and commit suicide.

Rachel goes to the Morgan house and finds Richard, who refuses to talk about the video or his daughter and sends Rachel away.

Search for Samara[]

A local doctor tells Rachel that Anna could not carry a baby to term and adopted Samara Morgan. The doctor recounts that Anna soon complained about gruesome visions that only happened when Samara was around, so both were sent to a mental institution.

While Rachel is investigating on Moesko Island, Noah is investigating the mental institution, where he finds Anna's file and discovers that there was a video of Samara, but the video is missing. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Rachel sneaks back to the Morgan house where she discovers this missing video, watches it, and is confronted by Richard who says that the girl was evil. He then electrocutes himself in the bathtub, sending Rachel running out of the room screaming. Noah arrives and goes to the barn with Rachel, only to discover an attic where Samara was kept by her father.

Behind the wallpaper they discover an image of a tree (the exact image seen on the tape), which grows near the Shelter Mountain Inn. At the inn, they discover a well underneath the floor, in which Rachel finds Samara's body, experiencing a vision of how her mother pushed her into it.

The Last Discovery[]

Rachel notifies the authorities and gives Samara a proper burial. Rachel informs Aidan that they will no longer be troubled by Samara. However, Aidan is horrified, telling his mother she had freed her body, and that Samara "never sleeps". In his apartment, Noah's TV turns on, revealing an image in which a decaying Samara crawls from the well and out of the TV into the room. Horrified, Noah trips backward and tries to crawl away from Samara. Samara faces him, exposing her true self while directly staring at him; killing him with fear, which Rachel discovers after racing to his apartment and seeing his face distorted like Katie's was.

Upon returning to her apartment, Rachel destroys and burns the original tape. Wondering why she had not died like the others, she remembers that she made a copy of the tape. She soon notices the copy underneath the couch. Rachel realizes the only way to escape and save Aidan is to have him copy the tape and show it to someone else, continuing the cycle. Rachel helps Aidan copy the tape, prompting Aidan to ask what is going to happen to the person they give the tape to. She does not respond as the film ends.

The Ring Two[]

One year after the events of the first film, Rachel Keller and her son Aidan (David Dorfman) have moved from Seattle to the quiet coastal community of Astoria. Rachel begins a new job at the Daily Astorian, a local newspaper, working for Max Rourke. Before long, there is news of a teenage homicide in town. Rachel investigates, finding the dead boy's face shows a deformed expression of horror just like the previous victims of Samara Morgan's cursed tape.

Upon finding the boy's corpse, she also has a vision of Samara grabbing her and declaring "I found you." She then goes to the police station in order to talk to the girl who witnessed the boy's death, and after persuading the girl to tell her, she finds out where the tape is. She takes the tape deep into the woods and burns it. Aidan has a dream in which he comes down to the T.V. room without Rachel home, and is pulled into the screen by Samara when the videotape starts. Back at home, Aidan starts to develop hypothermia, and his body is suddenly covered with bruises. At a county fair, Aidan takes pictures of himself in the bathroom mirror, with a blurred Samara standing behind him.

His behavior grows increasingly odd and distant, and whilst driving back from the fair, the car carrying Aidan and Rachel is repeatedly attacked by deer, nearly killing them. This event was apparently mysteriously foreseen by Aidan, who warned Rachel of impending danger seconds before the deer came out of nowhere. Strange occurrences within their house (including visions of Samara, a burn mark in the wall which resembles the tree from the cursed video, and seeming poltergeist activity) frighten Rachel, leading her and Aidan to flee. Rachel subsequently asks Max if he can take care of the increasingly sick Aidan at his house. Max says that Aidan's condition merits a trip to the hospital, but Rachel, knowing that his illness is unnatural, is adamant that traditional doctors cannot help him.

When Rachel attempts to give Aidan (who suddenly develops a mysterious fear of water) a warm bath at Max's, a series of paranormal events leads to Rachel seeing Aidan's body replaced by Samara. Max walks in when she attempts to drown Samara, and sees her trying to drown Aidan instead. Suspicious, he insists on taking Aidan to the hospital against her wishes, stating, "You wanted my help, now you're getting it." Based on the bruises on Aidan's body, the hospital staff, particularly psychiatrist Dr. Emma Temple (Elizabeth Perkins), suspect child abuse on Rachel's part, because Rachel reveals she suffered from Postpartum Depression, and won't allow her to be near her son.

Desperate for answers, Rachel flees the hospital and travels to Seattle to dig deeper into Samara's past. Knowing that Samara was not Richard and Anna Morgan's biological child, she tracks down Samara's birth mother, Evelyn (Sissy Spacek), who tried to drown Samara as an infant and has been living in a mental institution ever since. Meanwhile, Samara (in Aidan's body) inflicts a psychic assault on Dr. Temple, forcing Dr. Temple to commit suicide so that Samara (in Aidan's body) can escape the hospital. Evelyn advises Rachel to "listen to her baby" when she seeks advice on how to deal with Samara. Max goes to Rachel's house to check on her, only to find Aidan watching TV alone. He attempts to surreptitiously capture Aidan on film in order to reveal Samara, as Aidan had before Samara possessed him. Aidan/Samara notices the camera.

When Rachel returns home, she finds Max's car parked outside and his dead body inside with the same warped expression of Samara's other victims. Disturbed and unsure of what to do, Rachel then goes inside to face her possessed son. Rachel tells Aidan/Samara that he should go to sleep. Aidan responds that he never sleeps. She suggests she make him something to eat. Rachel goes into the kitchen, preparing two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. On one sandwich, she puts sleeping medication, intended to make Aidan unconscious. After eating the sandwich, Aidan soon falls asleep. Rachel fills the upstairs bathtub with water and holds an unconscious Aidan underwater. Samara's spirit leaves his body, and Rachel is then able to revive him.

However, Samara attempts to come back into the house through the TV set. Rachel grabs onto Samara as she is emerging, and is pulled into Samara's well inside the world of the cursed video. Looking up, Rachel realizes that the well lid is always left open. Rachel begins climbing the side of the well. Halfway up, Samara emerges from the water below and also ascends in a very inhuman fashion. As Rachel is climbing out of the well, Samara grabs her leg. Rachel manages to shake her off and then causes a jet of water to come out of the side of the well. Samara loses her grip and falls back down the well, however, she begins climbing again at a rapid rate. Rachel climbs out of the well just as Samara cries '"Mommy!"' in a deep voice. Rachel then responds I'm not your fucking mommy! and pushes the lid shut just as Samara is about to escape, trapping her in the well.

As Rachel wanders the monochromatic world of the cursed tape, she hears Aidan's voice and walks toward it, only to come to the cliff where Anna jumped to her death. She hears Aidan calling her name below. Determined to follow Aidan's voice, Rachel jumps off the cliff and ends up back in her living room with Aidan, where they embrace. Aidan calls Rachel '"Mommy"', and she asks him to just call her Rachel.

Rings[]

Rachel didn't appear in Rings, although her name appears in a brief shot, but she is not directly mentioned by name, and now she is passed away from lung cancer.

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