What will happen when you watch a cursed tape?

Answer 1

By "cursed tape", I am assuming that you mean the cursed videotape from the Ring series of books, movies, manga, etc.

Well, in the books, there are multiple things that can happen. What happens to everybody who watches the videotape is that they all acquire the deadly "Ring virus". Normally, when one watches the videotape, after exactly 168 hours he or she has a sarcoma in his or her coronary artery, resulting in a heart attack that kills him or her. This is what happened to Ryuji, Asakawa's wife and daughter, and the four teenagers. However, if Sadako Yamamura, the creator of the Ring virus, decides to use a viewer in her plan, then other things can happen.

If a female watches the videotape while she is ovulating, then the virus will inseminate her ovum, replacing an egg's nucleus with Sadako's DNA. After a week, the female will give birth to a new Sadako, and die as a result. However, she does not die of a sarcoma in the coronary artery, unlike most victims. This is the case for Mai Takano. (Pity, she was my favorite character)

If a male watches the videotape and Sadako decides to use him for her own nefarious purposes, then the Ring virus can do a number of different things. It could enter the male's brain and manipulate him into helping Sadako, such as how the Ring virus manipulated Asakawa into writing a report entitled "Ring" that carried the virus. In this case, this might just prolong the remaining lifespan of the male, because Asakawa already had a tumor growing in his coronary artery when he died.

Or, it could just stay in the male's system and wait for Sadako to give it the command to give the male a heart attack, acting as a form of blackmail for Sadako to manipulate others. This is what happened to Ando and Miyashita. Although they contracted the virus from Asawaka's report, they did not die because Sadako blackmailed them into helping her.

Note 1: Contrary to what Asakawa believed, copying the videotape will not save one from getting a sarcoma in seven days. It will only spread the virus. Asakawa managed to live longer than seven days only because Sadako had uses for him. Although he did get in that nasty car accident that rendered him catatonic for the last 2-3 months of his life.

Note 2: This information comes from 'Spiral' only. Not 'Ring', not 'Loop', not 'Birthday', not the movies, and not the TV shows. I haven't read 'Loop' yet, so I can't go into the what that book brings.

Note 3: As far as we know, the cursed videotape does not exist in real life. Unless Koji Suzuki is actually Ryuji Takayama in disguise and is trying to make the virus spread (or something along those lines).

Note 4: Is this too long?