A nervous teenage boy attempts to get his date to watch a supposedly "scary" video. After a friend calls to check in, it has been seven days since the screening, and water begins to seep into the room. To his horror, he finds his date with her eyes covered, only to witness the chilling moment when Samara crawls out of the TV, causing both teens, played by Kelly Stables and Daveigh Chase, to scream in terror.
Meanwhile, newspaper reporter Rachel Keller and her son Aidan (David Dorfman) have relocated to a small town in Astoria, Oregon, hoping to escape the haunting events that still linger from their past in Seattle. Rachel has taken a job with the local publication, The Astoria Gazette, when she hears on the police scanner about a young teenager's mysterious death.
Upon arriving at the crime scene, Rachel soon realizes that the malevolent force of Samara Morgan has resurfaced, initiating a new wave of terror in Astoria. In a desperate attempt to break the cycle of violence, she sneaks into the home of the deceased teenager, retrieves the cursed VHS tape, and destroys it. However, Aidan experiences a vivid dream where he is sucked into the horrific video, and Samara attacks him as a consequence of Rachel’s actions.
On their day out at a funfair, Aidan captures unsettling photographs of Samara reflected in a nearby mirror. Their day takes a darker turn when they encounter an unexpected herd of deer on the road. As Aidan’s health begins to deteriorate, Rachel rushes him to her office. She seeks assistance from Max, a local reporter, and prepares a hot bath to help stabilize Aidan’s body temperature. However, when Rachel steps out to gather supplies, she returns to find the bathroom door locked and water flooding out. Breaking in, she finds Aidan trapped in a reverse whirlpool. In a frantic moment, Rachel manages to disrupt the vortex, only for Max to whisk Aidan away to the hospital.
At the hospital, Aidan displays alarming signs of physical distress with bruises on his body, prompting Dr. Emma Temple (played by Elizabeth Perkins) to suspect Rachel of abuse. Despite Aidan’s cries for his "mommy," he remains under the care of the hospital staff. In a shocking turn of events, he forces Dr. Temple into giving herself an air embolism, declaring, "it won't stop."
Determined to save her son from the clutches of Samara, Rachel makes her way back to Seattle, where the truth about Samara's dark origins awaits. Understanding that Samara had been adopted, she sets out to locate her biological mother, Evelyn, who resides in a mental health facility. Evelyn reveals the torment of her past, discussing the difficulties she faced during pregnancy and telling Rachel the horrific truth: the only way to save Aidan is by drowning him.
Meanwhile, Aidan escapes the hospital and returns home alone. Rachel grows suspicious when he begins referring to her as "mommy," and after discovering that Max has mysteriously vanished and is found dead in his car, her fears intensify. Aidan's behavior continues to worsen as he remains glued to the TV, barely sleeping and communicating with Rachel through dreams.
In a chilling revelation, Aidan informs Rachel that to rid him of Samara's spirit, he must be drowned. With a heavy heart, Rachel sedates Aidan, preparing him for the inevitable drowning that she believes is the only way to save him. In a desperate struggle to find her son amid the terror, she starts to submerge him in the water. Although he protests, she pushes forward, realizing that Samara is the true entity they are fighting against.
As Aidan's life hangs in the balance, Samara's spirit rises from him, but Rachel's love compels her to revive her son. In a tense moment, she sees Samara on the TV, realizing that all Samara desires is maternal love. In a selfless act, Rachel sacrifices herself, getting pulled into the TV and dragged down to the well where Samara originally perished.
While struggling in the well, Rachel fights to climb out as Samara desperately grips at her, but in a powerful moment, Rachel manages to escape, closing the heavy stone lid over the well. Lost in a foggy forest and guided by Aidan's voice, she arrives at the cliff where Samara's adoptive mother took her life. In a poignant moment of reckoning, Rachel leaps from the cliff, the screen fading to black. She awakens on the living room floor, close to Aidan, promising him that their haunted past has finally concluded while asking him to refer to her as Rachel "at least for a while."
