90 minutes until your VCR becomes a death sentence. Rewind at your own risk.
In different parts of Tokyo, four young and seemingly healthy people suddenly die of heart failure at exactly the same moment. Reporter Kazuyuki Asakawa decides to investigate the deaths, and discovers that the four had stayed at a rural inn together just a week earlier. At the inn, he comes across a strange video that ends with a message saying that anyone who watches it will die exactly seven days later. Now the clock is ticking for Asakawa. Can he break the curse in time?
Practical Effects
Pre-digital effects make the cursed video feel authentically wrong.
Sound
That scraping noise will haunt your ears for weeks.
Director
Chisui Takigawa
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This TV movie predates Nakata's iconic 1998 theatrical version by three years, making it the true forgotten origin of J-horror's VHS panic.
Katsunori Takahashi was primarily a pop idol singer; his casting as a frantic reporter was bizarre stunt casting that accidentally works.
JP
