The deeper they delved, the more they discovered that Samara, a young girl with a tragic past, was the epicenter of the curse. The tape was essentially a warning, left by Samara herself or through her spirit, to prevent the curse from spreading by making the viewer aware of her tragic death.

: Journalist Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) investigates a mysterious urban legend about a cursed videotape that causes anyone who watches it to die seven days later. After she and her young son watch the tape, it becomes a desperate race to uncover the dark history of a girl named Samara Morgan to break the curse.