There were so many weird incidents on the set of Naomi Watts' spooky new sequel, The Ring 2, that a Japanese Shinto minister was flown in midway through the shoot to perform a purification ceremony.
The incidents were almost identical to some of the scenes in the thriller's script, freaking
out the cast and crew.
"Naomi was pretty relieved after we had the ceremony," Ring 2 director, Hideo Nakata, said in an interview in Los Angeles.
"The crew was relieved too."
Most of the incidents happened while the Ring 2 was being shot in the scenic US seaside town of Astoria, in the north-west state of Oregon.
The Ring 2 brings back the vengeful Samara, a girl with matted black hair and a method of killing victims through a video tape.
Nakata said the strange incidents on set began on May 20, last year, when the film's production office was flooded after a water pipe inexplicably burst in a wall.
The make-up truck, where Watts and her co-stars including another Australian actor, Simon Baker, sat each day was also flooded.
The floodings were almost identical to scenes in Ring 2 where Samara uses her supernatural powers to fill rooms with water.
"Because we were making a film about cursed water, evil spirited water, when we had the floods the crew freaked out," Nakata said.
"I'm from Japan and my assistant is from Japan so we arranged a Shintoist. It's a traditional way of purification in Japan.
"All the crew felt much better."
However creepy incidents, similar to the script, kept occurring.
A swarm of thousands of bees invaded a prop truck. The prop workers were evacuated, but soon afterwards the bees fled too.
A five gallon water jug, for no known reason, burst in the same production office that flooded weeks earlier.
Then, on the Universal Studios lot in Los Angeles, a costume department employee came face to face with a antlered buck. The buck, just like a scary scene in Ring 2, charged at the employee.
Nakata, who directed the original Japanese Ring horror films, Ringu and Ringu 2 that Watts' American Ring films are based on, is used to weird happenings on set.
"During the shoot of Ringu 2 we think we overheard a ghost's voice," Nakata said.
"Nobody could explain it.
"A microphone was put on the surface of the sea and we could hear a young man's voice calling a woman's name.
"It seemed impossible.
"Maybe there is a scientific explanation, but I don't know."
Ring 2 opens in Australia March 24.
- AAP
There were so many weird incidents on the set of Naomi Watts' spooky new sequel, The Ring 2, that a Japanese Shinto minister was flown in midway through the shoot to perform a purification ceremony.
The incidents were almost identical to some of the scenes in the thriller's script, freaking
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