Then, of course, Rachel watches the tape, which means that you, the viewer, have to watch the tape. That right there adds in an additional element of fear because the entire premise of the movie is that seven days after you watch the tape, you die. Even though you know it's only a movie, there's still a part of your mind that won't shut down as the tape starts playing on the TV set in The Ring. It happened to me as I rewatched the movie for this story. "What are you doing? That's the tape everyone is warning Rachel not to watch!," the irrational part of my brain was screaming in this weird fight-or-flight moment. I almost wanted to cover my eyes, but I also remembered from my original viewing of the movie in 2002 that the rest of the film would be spent analyzing the video frame by frame, so there really isn't a way to avoid seeing it. Plus, I'm an adult (I told myself repeatedly) who knows that this is just a movie (again, this was said on repeat).