The entire narrative contents of the "cursed" tape, as described by Alva Keel:
Scene 1: Some strange static comes on the screen. The tape alternates between a black screen, and the static, in a very jarring manner.
Scene 2: Suddenly, the image of a lit circle appears on the TV screen. It is hard to tell exactly what it is, but it seems to be moving, like sunlight passing around a circular object, maybe some sort of eclipse. In the background, strange sound effects can be heard that are hard to describe. The ones that can be identified will be discussed at the end of this document.
Scene 3: The circle changes to the image of a hairbrush going through a woman's dark hair.
Scene 4: The next image is of a woman and her daughter reflected in a mirror, hanging on a wall. The woman is brushing the little girl's hair. The blonde child is smiling as if she enjoys this time with her mother. Nothing else of the two people can be seen, only their reflections in the mirror. Suddenly, they both look up a little, as if someone else has come into the room. The mirror shakes, and seems to migrate to the other side of the wall. It now reflects a young girl with dark hair that has been brushed over her face. This girl walks away from the mirror, back into the darkness. The mirror switches back to its original position, reflecting the girl and her mother looking to their right at where the mirror had reflected the other child. We are assuming here that the blonde child and the dark-haired woman are mother and child; that could be wrong.
Scene 5: Continuing, the tape now shows a very dark room. The barest of details can be made out as the door opens, and something black and hunched over crawls in. It could be a person with a blanket over their head; it's hard to tell. Out in the hallway, through the open door, the viewer can see a large painting of a western ranch, complete with horse corral, on the wall.
Scene 6: A person (male?) in black pants and a white shirt is standing before the ocean with a white cloth draped over his head so you cannot see his face. He points at something off camera.
Scene 7: The image of a round necklace with a mirror inlaid into the silver setting appears, being held out by a womanly, youthful hand. It dangles and spins, reflecting the sunlight.
Scene 8: Next, there is a teenage girl with dark hair sitting inside a very large wooden box. Her hair covers her face. The doors on the box abruptly close. This could be the dark-haired child from earlier, only older.
Scene 9: A couple of quick flashes of a tree go by. The tree is burning in one shot, and in the other, it looks like a shadowbox. Very artistic shot.
Scene 10: The dark bedroom is shown again. A door cracks open (the closet door?) and a glowing eye peers out.
Scene 11: Next comes the image of two dead horses laying on the ocean shore, with a lighthouse up on the cliff in the background. The ocean laps at the animal carcasses.
Scene 12: There is a window with a bush outside it, and suddenly a teenage boy appears, looking in the window. He knocks on it, cautiously looks behind him, and abruptly changes into a much older man. The older man looks around, then peers in the window.
Scene 13: A young girl, estimated age 16, with blonde hair, sits on her knees crying over a dead horse. The horse is light in color. It appears that this horse died the same way the others did, as it is lying only a few feet from the ocean surf.
Scene 14: The mother figure comes on the screen again, fixing her hair in the previously seen mirror. She slowly turns and looks right at the camera, as if she can see the viewer through their TV screen. She looks quite haggard now, whereas before, the mother appeared much happier and youthful.
Scene 15: The viewer is now assaulted with the image of a pile of writhing maggots. They fill the entire TV screen. The maggots suddenly change into a pile of writhing people, climbing all over each other, each trying to get to some unknown destination.
Scene 16: The tape continues with a rather artsy shot of the outside of a wooden box, a much smaller one than was shown before. The viewer is not shown the contents of this box just yet.
Scene 17: The next shot is of a half-eaten meal on a plate. It looks like some type of baked fish, green beans, and red potatoes. Next to the plate is an almost empty glass of water.
Scene 18: A man rocks in a rocking chair on a porch; his face cannot be seen. He resembles the older man seen earlier, looking in the window.
Scene 19: The outside of the small box is shown again. Another image repeats, that of the doors closing on the girl in the larger box.
Scene 20: A chair next to a table strangely moves, though no one is sitting in it. The glass of water seen a couple of scenes back is on the table. An extremely large centipede crawls out from under the table, revealing that it was responsible for moving the chair. If one takes the scale of the table to be life-size, then the centipede would have to be about 10-15 feet long. (Probably a special effect.)
Scene 21: Finally, the viewer is allowed to see inside the small wooden box. It contains an old-fashioned straight razor with a black handle.
Scene 22: A woman standing on a cliff, overlooking the ocean, stretches out her arms and falls gracefully over the side. She is only seen from the back, but judging from her hair color, she could be the mother figure from earlier in the tape.
Scene 23: A close-up of fabric that looks like burlap changes color as what seems to be blood soaks through it. One cannot be exact on this image because it is in black and white.
Scene 24: The man rocking in the chair is seen again while a voice says, very faintly, "Get me out of here! I'm not dead!" The voice sounds like it is down inside a tunnel.
Scene 25: The final scene. There is nothing but silence, and just the image of a well in a quiet forest glade. After a few seconds, the tape goes to static.
Sounds:
In different spots on the tape, a child's voice, possibly female, can be heard singing the following song -
"Here we go, the world is spinning. When it stops, it's just beginning. Sun comes up, we laugh and we cry. Sun goes down, and then we all die." (Frustratingly vague, isn't it?)
Other noises include watery echo sounds, like rocks being thrown inside a damp cave; a four-note piece of music that repeats throughout the entire tape; ringing noises, like metal scraping on metal; and a high-pitched whine that lasts from Scene 9 to Scene 14.
When the audio of the tape is played backwards, the following can be heard:
A deep, male voice speaks the words, "Frolic in brine, goblins be thine."
A female voice instructs, "Feed the tree."
Snippets of two songs can also be made out. The first song is Journey's "Separate Ways." The second is a song by Deep Purple called, "Perfect Strangers."
Lyrics from "Separate Ways" that can be heard:
Lyrics from "Perfect Strangers" that can be heard:
Deep Purple, "Perfect Strangers," is (c) 1984.