Ring

During a sleepover, Tomoko and Masami discuss the urban legend of a videotape that curses viewers to die seven days after a foreboding phone call. Tomoko confirms that she and their friends watched a strange videotape the week before and received an inexplicable phone call.

While Masami steps away to the bathroom, Tomoko witnesses the TV turn on by itself and is killed by an unseen force. The room fills with unease as the curse seems to claim its first victim that night.

Reiko Asakawa attends Tomoko's funeral and learns that three of Tomoko's friends who watched the tape died at the same time and in the same way. She later finds an unmarked videotape in a resort cabin used by Tomoko and friends, whose brief, screeching scenes end with an eerie shot of a well.

After watching the tape, Reiko sees an apparition and receives a phone call in which the screeching sounds from the tape are heard again. Disturbed, she takes the tape and leaves the cabin, convinced she has been cursed.

Reiko enlists her psychic ex-husband Ryūji Takayama to investigate the tape's origins. They begin examining a copy of Reiko's recording and start to uncover a cryptic message spoken in the Ōshima dialect.

They prepare to go to Ōshima to research Shizuko Yamamura and the origins of the curse. Their investigation promises to reveal how the videotape and the deaths are connected.

Before they depart, Reiko catches her son Yōichi watching the tape after being peer-pressured by 'Tomoko.' The moment underscores how the curse can reach people who encounter the tape indirectly.

In Ōshima, they learn about Shizuko Yamamura, whose psychic abilities were showcased in an ESP demonstration conducted by Dr. Ikuma, with whom she had an affair. They discover that Sadako, Shizuko's daughter, may have acted during the demonstration, linking the family tragedy to the curse.

A vision reveals that during the demonstration, Sadako psychically killed a journalist who denounced Shizuko's abilities. Reiko and Ryūji realize Sadako's fate is central to the videotape curse and set out to locate Sadako.

They return to the cabin and locate a sealed well in the crawlspace. Through another vision, they deduce that Dr. Ikuma trapped Sadako inside the well, and that Sadako remained alive, giving birth to the curse when the videotape recorded her rage.

They drain the water and find Sadako's remains. By the end of the seven-day deadline, Reiko remains alive, suggesting the curse might be broken.

The next day, Ryūji's TV turns on by itself, showing the well, and Sadako's spirit emerges from the well and leaves the TV to kill him. Reiko tries to call Ryūji and hears his last moments, confirming the curse's reach.

Guided by an apparition, Reiko realizes she can survive by copying the tape and showing it to someone else within seven days. She drives to her father's home to show him the tape, hoping to pass the curse to another victim and save Yōichi.