In order to promote The Ring Two, two new Web sites were launched and a number of older sites used for the first film were revived. Sites dealing with the American films attempted to pass themselves off as factual, while those focusing on the Japanese series asserted that the stories were fictional but based on an actual urban legend (which is untrue: see here for more).

an open letter  Though containing just a single page of text, anopenletter.com was at one point the most prominent of the promotional sites. Its bizarre ramblings match those of fliers which tended to turn up in concert parking lots during promotion of The Ring, and were part of yet another promotional tool: the so-called "promo tapes." These unmarked videotapes would be left in public locations, sometimes with a sign that read "Watch these or I'll die in seven days" (or something to that effect). Without explanation, the videos leapt straight into the Samara video (the "cursed tape" viewed by Rachel Keller in the film), displaying a single line of text before cutting into static: www.anopenletter.com

For some reason, anopenletter.com disappeared quite early on during the marketing blitz. It reappeared in time to promote The Ring Two (the URL changed to www.an-open-letter.com), and disappeared soon after the film left theaters.

Status: offline.
Read archived contents of anopenletter.com

katie's page  An odd little site that was home to some of the most intense Internet flaming I have ever witnessed. Ostensibly set up by one "Lisa Barden" to make people aware of her friend Katie's death, its message board quickly descended into chaos as fans who knew what was going on duked it out with those attempting to pass the marketing ruse off as truth.

Status: offline.
Read archived selections from katiespage.com

moesko island lighthouse  A slightly different version of the site as it appeared in The Ring (when Rachel was searching for information from her work computer). Differences in the online version include odd misspellings ("Staff Wezer" instead of "Staff Writer"), missing captions (under the group photo), missing text (ellipses where the words "once-rundown landmark" should be) and spelling inconsistent with American English ("harbour" instead of "harbor.")

Status: online (at sweb.cz mirror).
Read archived contents of moeskoislandlighthouse.com

the Morgan ranch  Ostensibly written by an unnamed niece of Anna Morgan, the site discussed Samara and what befell of the ranch that was the Morgans' livelihood. The site, while originally standalone, resurfaced to promote The Ring Two as part of the all-new steven's northwest realty. It disappeared soon thereafter.

Status: offline.
Read a walkthrough of themorganranch.com

seven days to live  The most ambitious of the promotional sites, Seven Days to Live sought to explore the "realities" of the cursed videotape and reveal conspiracies within the media. This site also reappeared to promote The Ring Two (the ".com" replaced with ".net"), and like the others, disappeared soon afterward.

Status: offline.
Read archived selections from Seven Days to Live

what scares me  Another strange site, this one passing itself off as the weblog of one "Josh Brewer." Josh talks about everything from aliens to clowns to the supernatural before stumbling across a rumor of a "killer videotape."

Status: offline.

the horror of ringu  An impressively designed (if somewhat content-challenged) primer on the Japanese films. The site went offline when The Ring left theaters--but then suddenly became active as a mirror for horror.com. Like many of the other sites, the horror of ringu was brought back to promote The Ring Two, this time at www.ringhorror.com. It has since gone offline.

Status: offline.

manga ringu  A small site with a quirky, futuristic design. Gave a brief overview on the comic adaptations of the Ring series.

Status: offline.

sadako is dead  This site was home to three downloadable videos that were ostensibly the webmasters' attempts at nensha. "sadako was a powerful psychic, enough to burn an image on a video tape with her mind," the site stated. "x-rays can burn images on metal, why not thoughts on video? now watch our videos if you dare."

Status: offline.

samara is dead  A re-launch of the earlier sadako is dead. Content-wise the two sites were identical, except that all instances of "Sadako" had been replaced with "Samara." It's also interesting to note that when this site was active, video clips were hosted at she is here.

Status: offline.

she is here  A journal of those who have viewed the cursed video. Also featured a bulletin board, links to other promotional sites, and a profile of Jake (who appeared in The Ring Two). The site has seen a fan-based revival, ostensibly as a "RINGS" online community that deals with those who have seen the cursed videotape.

Status: online.
Visit she-is-here.com

steven's northwest realty  A spurious site whose sole property was the Morgan Ranch.

Status: offline.

st. stephen's woman's shelter  This "woman's" (sic.) shelter provided background information on Evelyn, the character played by Sissy Spacek in The Ring Two.

Status: offline.

the tape  A simple site that hosted a second cursed video.

Status: offline.

THE "GAME"

By July of 2002, rumors abounded that the DreamWorks sites, which contained clues regarding the backstory of the upcoming remake, formed a kind of game similar to the one used to promote A.I.. The rumors were fueled by an article on the movie news / pop-culture site Movie Poop Shoot, wherein author Michael Sampson claimed to have seen the cursed video for himself, and requested the help of his readers to research a few provided links for clues. Among these, naturally, were sevendaystolive.com and anopenletter.com.

After much Internet sleuthing -- both on this site's own forum and the Alternate Reality Gaming Network -- the question was raised as to whether the sites actually formed a game at all.

THE U.K. WEB SITES

In a time when most of the DreamWorks promotional Web sites were already offline, the U.K. stepped up to do a little underground marketing of its own. The sites were far more tongue-in-cheek than their American counterparts; each page featured an animated fly that buzzed angrily when a mouse was moved over it. The sites (all of which are now offline) were:

morganhorseranch.com
moeskoisland.com
sheltermountaininn.com