The Cursed Videotape

The Cursed Videotape is an item in the Ring cycle series of books and films. Seemingly a normal home-recorded videotape, the tape carries a curse that will kill anyone who watches it within seven days. In the earlier Japanese films, it is explained as a traditional curse, though given a far greater explanation in later films and in the novels. The American and Korean versions largely follow that of the earlier Japanese explanations.

The "cursed video tape" plot device was initially used by Christopher Fowler in his 1990 novel Rune, and may have had its origins in an urban legend that sprang up during public concern over "video nasties" during the late 1980s.

In the original Japanese series, the tape is initially created by Sadako Yamamura. In the later Korean and American remakes, the tapes are created by Park Eun-Suh and Samara Morgan, respectively.

The videos
The videos are a series of jumbled images, often grotesque. The Sadako, Eun-Suh, and Samara versions all differ in the particular images, but have the same final image of a well and the disturbing effect. In the American movies, soon after the video is watched, the nearest telephone will ring and, when the watcher answers, a voice will declare, "Seven days," before hanging up. This only happened in the area around Izu in the Japanese movie, due to its proximity to the well into which Sadako was thrown.

Video files of the Sadako and Samara videos can be watched on the official Japanese and American websites, as well as the DVD releases. It is not known if the Eun-Suh version is online.

The curse
Sadako's curse can actually be divided into a few abilities. First, the relatively simple ability to record her memories and imagination to film (earlier in her life she used a similar ability on an undeveloped photo, and also manipulated the image on a television). The second and more disturbing skill is the feat of giving the tape its own psychic abilities to kill whomever watches it, as well as the ability to replicate its curse. Lastly, there is the ability of writing her own DNA and the DNA of smallpox (the "Ring Virus") onto the videos themselves.

Early explanation
In the films Sadako's method of killing with the video curse is not explained, but when someone is killed by it she is seen climbing out of the nearest TV and approaching them. The corpses are discovered with looks of unearthly anguish on their faces, so it could be concluded that they "die of fright", i.e. a heart attack. With minor differences, Ring and The Ring, Rings and The Ring Two use this explanation.

Later clarification
In later installments of the book series, the curse is explained in detail, and is discovered to in fact be a virus. When someone watches the cursed tape (or something else carrying the curse) some of their cells' DNA is psychokinetically infected by the Ring Virus. The virus travels through their body and (in most cases) causes a sarcoma to form on one of the arteries of their heart. If the conditions to cure the virus have not been met by the seventh day, the supernatural portion of the curse calls forth a Sadako clone from the nearest video screen (regardless of whether the tape has been played on it); at the same time, the sarcoma detaches from the artery and clogs it, causing heart failure. It is not known if the clone triggers the detaching of the sarcoma or if this is a separate action. It is also unknown what happens to the clone afterwards.

The curse does not occur if the curse manages to reproduce itself. Originally, the only way for this to happen was to copy the cursed videotape. When the videotape is copied, the Ring Virus is replicated onto the copy. Whether the new copy of the virus comes simply from copying the video tape or from the already infected individual is unknown. However, there are other ways for the virus to reproduce, as mentioned below.

A later way for the virus to reproduce is by infecting a woman who is ovulating. In this case the Ring Virus finds the woman's ovum and inseminates it, acting as a phallic device for Sadako. In the case of Mai Takano her mind was replaced by Sadako's while she was pregnant; however, this may not always be the case, as Mai may have lacked the willpower to resist Sadako, and a stronger individual might have remained in control. When the new Sadako is born it seems the mother dies, as was in the case of Mai. This ability allows Sadako to clone or resurrect herself, albeit in a parasitic fashion.

It also should be noted that the virus itself takes on a life of its own, expanding beyond the initial tapes to anything made about it. During the course of the Japanese series, it infects the following (items followed by an asterisk aren't mentioned, but are implied):


 * medical report
 * A paperback book about the report
 * A TV special based on the paperback
 * A theatrical movie based on the TV special
 * Publicity advertising for the above film's theatrical release and video and DVDs*
 * The actual DVDs and videos*
 * The film's official website*

The tape images
As mentioned above, the images on the cursed tape differ in each version, even in the novel.

The novel, Ringu

 * 1) Written introduction: "Watch this tape until the very end. If you will not, you will be consumed by the dead."
 * 2) Outpouring of red (Symbolizes: Lava flowing, since Shizuko threw herself into a volcano)
 * 3) Mount Mihara (Symbolizes: The mountain into which Shizuko jumped)
 * 4) Mount Mihara erupting (Symbolizes: See above)
 * 5) The Japanese character for mountain. (Symbolizes: This is the same image of the character that Sadako produced at the age of 10 and sent (along with an image of the "chastity" character) to Miura Tetsuzu, who was studying ESP powers. The character is the first character of Sadako's last name, Yamamura.)
 * 6) Dice (Symbolizes: Shizuko knew, by telekinesis, the outcome of rolling dice)
 * 7) An old woman (Symbolizes: Sadako's grandmother)
 * 8) A baby boy (Symbolizes: Sadako's baby brother that died four months after birth)
 * 9) Countless faces (Symbolizes: The crowd that gathered to see Shizuko's use of her powers, then turned into a mob after one of the onlookers declared the woman a fraud)
 * 10) Old TV set (Symbolizes: A member of the Hisho Acting Troupe noticed Sadako using her powers to turn on an unplugged TV)
 * 11) Man's face (Symbolizes: the man who raped Sadako, Nagao Joutarou)
 * 12) Final scene: "You who have watched this tape: In exactly one week, you will die. There is only one way to survive, you must--" (tv commercial is recorded over the rest of final scene)

Ringu (1998)

 * 1) Moon-like view from the well (Symbolizes: The same as the end of the novel's cursed video, only this time, due to the differences in the story about Sadako's end between the novel and the theatrical adaptation, it's her father, Prof. Ikuma Heihachiro looking down the well instead of Nagao Joutarou)
 * 2) Shizuko combing her hair inside a mirror (Symbolizes: The mirror moves to the right, where we see a little Sadako reflected in it - then it goes back to its original position, with Shizuko now looking towards the right and smiling; accompanied by some metallic squeaking. This is an actual event, shown more clearly in Ring 2.)
 * 3) An undulating, impenetrable sea of kanji, used in the Japanese language for writing. This is a jumbled newspaper article - the reorganized article is shown later in the movie, and it says Miharayama ga funka = Mt. Mihara erupts. (Symbolizes: Shizuko's prediction of the Mt. Mihara eruption)
 * 4) An enourmous penis.
 * 5) People shambling and crawling, some also in reverse. They're accompanied by a moaning sound. (Symbolizes: Sadako's interpretation of either the mad reporters at Shizuko's ESP demonstration, or the victims of the Mt. Mihara eruption, which Shizuko predicted)
 * 6) A man with his face covered by a white towel, pointing to something unseen at the left of the screen. Accompanied by the same metallic squeaking as scene 2, only this time, the squeaking is louder. Has a subliminal message: Shoumon bakkari shiteru to, boukon ga kuru zo., seen before in both the novel and in the 1995 TV special Ring: Kanzenban (where it's said, and clearly, by Sadako's grandmother). The phrase itself in the American subtitles of the Japanese film meant, "Playing in brine, Goblins be thine". This is based upon an old Japanese myth that if young children played by the sea, a goblin would rise up and eat them. (Symbolizes: death (white towel) and clues (accusingly pointing finger))
 * 7) A very, very ripe bowl of papayas.
 * 8) An other-worldly eye, with the chastity character, reversed, inside it. It blinks twice. (Symbolizes: Sadako's nensha power, as well as the first two characters in Sadako's name)
 * 9) The well (which Sadako was thrown into in order to kill her)

The Ring Virus (1999)

 * 1) Written introduction: "Watch until the very end, or you will be consumed by the dead."
 * 2) Tsunami crashing down. (Symbolizes: Eun-Suh's prediction of a tsunami when she was a child.)
 * 3) Blinking eye with the name "Eun-Suh" in it. (Symbolizes: Both Eun-Suh's name, and a look into the future. Choe Yol, the Takayama Ryuji character, finds an exact representation on an x-ray file.)
 * 4) Moon-like view from the well. (Symbolizes: What Eun-Suh saw when thrown down the well by her half-brother Kyung-Pil.)
 * 5) Woman standing in front of an ocean cliff. (Symbolizes: Eun-Suh's mother, Jung-Suk, committing suicide.)
 * 6) Blinking eye. (Symbolizes: The same eye from scene three.)
 * 7) Rolling dice. (Symbolizes: The ESP demonstration that drove Eun-Suh's mother to suicide after being called a "fraud".)
 * 8) Countless faces. (Symbolizes: An abstract memory of the angry reporters at Park Jung-Suk's ESP demonstration.)
 * 9) Eun-Suh's grandmother speaking. She says: "How has your health been since last time? Playing in the water summons the monsters. You're going to give birth next year." (Symbolizes: The predicted birth of Eun-Suh's ring virus. Eun-Suh could not give birth because she had Testicular Feminization Syndrome, a rare birth defect where on the outside someone looks like a woman, but genetically, they're a man.)
 * 10) The ring virus. (Symbolizes: What the grandmother was speaking of in the previous scene.)
 * 11) Kyung-Pil raping Eun-Suh. (Eun-Suh's half brother Kyung-Pil raping her after finding out she has TFS.)
 * 12) An old television turning on to static. (Symbolizes: When Eun-Suh was practicing her psychography/nensha on the, later to be discovered, unplugged television set.)
 * 13) An electric storm. (Eun-Suh and her mother, Jung-Suk, used to forcast weather. This scene must be an abstract memory of one of the storms one of them must have predicted.)
 * 14) The well. (Symbolizes: What Eun-Suh was thrown down when she was raped and strangled by her half-brother.)
 * 15) The finale: "Whoever watches this will die exactly one week from now. If you want to live-", then the TV commercial, which then four dead teenagers recorded over it. The missing part of the message is: "- has to copy the tape and show it to someone else within one week."

The Ring (2002)
In the film, Aidan's teacher says to Rachael (Naomi Watts) that children can express themselves in different ways. The events of the tape reveal the horrifying ending of the life of the little girl (Samara) who is trying to tell the world of her story.


 * 1) A glowing white ring (Symbolizes: Sunlight peeking through the crack in the lid of the well Samara was thrown into; the last thing Samara would have seen before dying.)
 * 2) Static (Symbolizes: The other side, hell, purgatory, "her world".)
 * 3) Blood in the water (Symbolizes: Samara was injured and shed blood when she was thrown into the well (we see this in a flashback). This later is seen as a clue when the horse jumps off the ferry and under the propellers.) Also: Red Tide. In the "Don't Watch This" feature, a flickering newspaper clipping features a headline about an unusual red tide algae bloom off the waters of Moesko Island.
 * 4) A chair (Symbolizes: The chair Samara was sitting on while watching TV in the barn; solitude.)
 * 5) Comb through hair (Symbolizes: Samara's face was concealed by her hair.)
 * 6) Anna/Samara mirror switch (Symbolizes: Samara scarring her mother Anna.)
 * 7) Nail: (Symbolizes: The piercing of Samara's fingers.)
 * 8) Richard looking down through the window: (Symbolizes: Possibly Richard's hatred of Samara; his distance from her.)
 * 9) A cliff with a fly near it (Symbolizes: Where Anna killed herself; fly symbolizes corpses.)
 * 10) A mouth vomiting out probes, intestines or food (Symbolizes: Samara's time in a hospital. Rachel later vomits these out herself covered in hair.)
 * 11) Black plastic being shaken around (Symbolizes: The plastic bag Anna wrapped around Samara's face before throwing her down the well.)
 * 12) Flaming tree (Symbolizes: The sun setting behind the red-leafed tree near the well. Later revealed drawn on a wall in the loft where Samara lived that was subsequently covered in wallpaper.)
 * 13) Crescent-shaped "moon" (Symbolizes: The lid of the well being left open; Samara's "only way out".)
 * 14) Finger pushing down on nail (Symbolizes: Samara losing her fingernails while trying to escape.)
 * 15) Maggots turning into people (Symbolizes: Death and her opinion of people.)
 * 16) People swimming under cloth/velvet (Symbolizes: Samara being trapped in the well (swimming under an object with no escape).)
 * 17) Centipede chair & table (Both Rachel and Noah later see a centipede while looking through Samara's files.)
 * 18) Lamb With only three legs going inside the barn (Symbolizes: Innocence or deformity)
 * 19) Horse's eye (Symbolizes: The horses kept Samara awake at night. This same image of the horse's eye is seen by Rachel on the ferry, before the horse commits suicide, like the Morgans' horses were driven to by Samara.)
 * 20) Severed fingers in box (Symbolizes: The wriggling fingers probably symbolize pain. There are seven fingers in a box; one for each day Samara spent in the well before dying.)
 * 21) Anna sees viewer
 * 22) Window w/o Richard (Symbolizes: Possibly symbolizes how Samara's father was never there for her, as he appeared in the previous similar image.)
 * 23) Spinning chair (Symbolizes: The paranormal, something wrong.)
 * 24) Ladder (Symbolizes: The ladder leading up to Samara's room in the barn.)
 * 25) Dead horses (The Morgans' horses, that were driven to suicide by Samara.)
 * 26) Anna jumps (Anna's suicide.)
 * 27) Ladder collapsing (Symbolizes: Samara's way of indicating losing hope, becoming weak, and Richard's infertility.)
 * 28) Ring with one side thicker than the other (Symbolizes: The well about to be closed.)
 * 29) Ladder collapsed (Symbolizes: See previous ladder entries.)
 * 30) The well (What Samara was thrown into in order to kill her.)

These events all relate to Samara's life in the movie and ways of expressing herself to her viewers on the events that lead to her murder.


 * - Sequential order of the images on the tape in 2002's The Ring.

The tape in marketing
During the early stages of promoting The Ring in North America, several unmarked videotapes were 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 leap straight into the "Samara" version of the curse, displaying a single website URL "www.anopenletter.com" before cutting to static.

The Ring was also released in a VHS format with a partially transparent sleeve, which made the cassette resemble the Cursed Videotape (though a standard descriptive/copyright sticker was placed on the tape instead of the small "COPY" sticker seen in the film.)

External references

 * the ringworld - a fansite covering all aspects of the Ring series and movies.
 * - YouTube's archive of 'The Ring'' 's version of the Cursed Videotape.
 * - YouTube's archive of 'Ringu'' 's version of the Cursed Videotape.
 * the Ring AREA - Contains of the cursed videos of the Ring cycle and their scene-by-scene analyses, as well as lots of other useful information.