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This is the first film in the series that the makeup effects were not done by Rick Baker, who had the previous two. Rick retired from the industry in early 2015 and left his studio, Cinovation, to his protégée Arjen Tuiten, who had worked with him on Maleficent. While Rick had no involvement with this project, some of his crew, who had worked on the previous two with him, worked on this film with Arjen at his studio now called R-E-N.
According to the special makeup effects designer on the film, Arjen Tuiten, it took about 6 and a half hours to complete Samara's makeup and her costume featured a water rig under the dress that allowed the character to constantly drip water.
Before starring as Samara in this film, Bonnie Morgan was also featured in The Ring Two (2005) as Samara in the well crawling sequence, though she was uncredited.
Although Naomi Watts' character from the first two films, Rachel Keller, is never mentioned by name, her name appears underneath one of the icons on Gabriel's computer in a brief shot.
Bonnie Morgan, who plays Samara, stated that to bring the character to life, it took over 45 special makeup appliances, including the wig and special contact lenses.
In the over one year delay in this film's theatrical release since October 2015, nearly 20 minutes of footage was altered and deleted which significantly altered some plot elements. Some of these deleted scenes can still be seen in the film's handful of trailers. Most of this footage was included as deleted scenes on the Blu-ray and DVD save for a few like the ring scar on Julia's back, which was also a promotional poster for the film.