Trivia: In the evidence depository in the beginning you can see Jason Voorhees' hockey mask (Friday the 13th), Leatherface's chainsaw (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Michael Myers' mask (Halloween), and Freddy Krueger's glove (Nightmare on Elm Street). (00:00:45)
Trivia: The trivia and in jokes abound in this film. Firstly, you have Janet Leigh (Jamie Lee Curtis' mother) playing Norma (reference to Psycho) and complaining that the "showers are blocked again" (second reference to Psycho). In her last scene in the film, Janet Leigh is about to get into and drive away in the same car that she used in Psycho.
Trivia: In the Marvel Comic series where the characters originate from, Deacon Frost was actually an elder man, and an alchemist who dabbled in vampirism and - via one of his experiments - turned himself into a unique vampire who could create doppelgangers of his victims.
Trivia: The bees in the dome scene are real (there were about 30,000 of them). David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were actually in the dome with them, and neither of them wore protective gear, but weren't stung nonetheless.
Trivia: At the very end of the movie when the new kids are telling the story, they make a sarcastic comment about the killer being the girl from the Noxzema commercials. The girl who played the killer, Rebecca Gayheart, really was the girl from the Noxzema commercials.
Trivia: The film's cover of "Another Brick in the Wall" (Parts 1 and 2) were performed by a band called "Class of '99." The band was a super-group made up of members from prominent 80's and 90's rock bands. (Including members of Alice in Chains, Rage Against the Machine, and Jane's Addiction.) The band was formed exclusively to record the covers for the soundtrack, and disbanded immediately after the film's release.
Trivia: Co-star Michael Madsen, whom also appeared in the first film, has stated his distaste with this sequel, especially in comparison to the original. He once referred to it in an interview as a "crock of s***."
Trivia: The original director's cut of the film ran nearly two hours. The studio, however, severely trimmed the movie down to to just over 80 minutes, cutting out much of the character and story development in order to make the plot move faster. The director considered removing his name from the film and going with "Alan Smithee" (the name directors used to use when they are displeased with a film) as he was devastated by all the edits, but ultimately chose not to.
Trivia: The original script was titled "Tentacle." It was written in the mid-90's by Stephen Sommers, with some uncredited re-writes by "Karate Kid" writer Robert Mark Kamen. The ambiguous ending was meant to serve as a lead-in to a sequel, with rumors that it would have been either a loose adaptation of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" or a "King Kong" remake, given the Island resembles "Skull Island."
Trivia: Director Gus van Sant has a cameo at the beginning of the movie when Marion enters the office after her lunch break - he is talking to someone looking just like Alfred Hitchcock.
Trivia: The film is loosely based on an ongoing series of novels by Japanese author Koji Suzuki. While the film shares the basic premise of the novels, the details are vastly different. (Notably, the books feature heavy and increasing science-fiction overtones that are absent from the films.) The American remake, "The Ring," is based more directly on this film and its sequel "Ringu 2" than the novels.
Trivia: This sequel was filmed and released at the same time in 1998 as the first film - "Ringu." As the films were based on an incredibly popular book series, the studio thought that releasing the first movie and its sequel simultaneously would drastically increase profits - fans could see the first movie, then immediately pay for another ticket to see the sequel right after. Unfortunately, this tactic backfired. Few people saw this sequel in theaters and it garnered poor word-of-mouth, despite the fact the first film became incredibly popular. As a result, one year later, a new sequel - "Ringu 2" was produced that ignored this film entirely.