Red Room Curse or The Curse of The Red Room is a Japanese urban legend about an internet pop-up circulating around the web in the late 1990s all the way to the early 2000s. It is said to be cursed and it is alleged that whomever is unfortunate enough to receive the pop-up is doomed to a horrifying fate. In addition, it will not be able to escape from the room because the doors and windows are locked by themselves.
History[]
Origin[]
It is unknown what or where this mysterious internet pop-up originated from, however, it made waves in 1998 but was originally thought to be an adware however, the urban legend is initiated with the flash animation of a boy being cursed after facing the internet pop-up and from there many people have been alleged to have either committed suicide or committed acts of murder and ended up incarcerated at mental asylums.
The Alleged Curse[]
The cursed internet pop-up consists of a red window with Japanese writing, “Do you like ……..?” along with an ominous and deep voice reading it aloud. The pop-up window cannot be closed at all, no matter what is done to prevent it. It gets worse with each and every click of the mouse and/or keyboard which unveiled more letters until the message says, “Do you like The Red Room?” The computer screen is enveloped in black with lists of the names of the previous victims of the Red Room.
All of a sudden, the victim senses an unknown presence in the room and is slowly driven to commit suicide by the supernatural forces, and the walls of the room are painted with their own blood. Those who survive are driven insane and are most likely incarcerated at mental institutions or at a regular prison. However, it is widely believed that the pop-up is real in the form of an adware/prank and that the curse is false.
The Nevada-Tan Incident[]
The Murder of Satomi Mitarai[]
On June 1st, 2004, an 11-year-old girl known as "Girl A" brutally murdered her classmate Satomi Mitarai by slitting her throat with a box-cutter. Reactions to the incident included Internet memes and a discussion of lowering the age of criminal responsibility in Japan. The killer's name has not been released to the press as per Japanese legal procedures prohibiting the identification of juvenile offenders. Note: on Wikipedia, it states her name was Tsuji Natsumi.
After being taken into custody, Girl A was reported to have confessed to the crime, repeatedly apologizing to the police. She spent the night at the police station, often crying, and refused to eat. Girl A initially mentioned no motive for the killing. Shortly afterward, she confessed to police that she and Mitarai had quarreled due to messages left on the Internet. Girl A claimed that Mitarai slandered her by commenting on her weight and calling her a "goody-goody".
Aftermath[]
When the police raided her home and scavaged through the family's computer, it is alleged that the Red Room pop-up was present amongst the tabs, hence the resurgence of the urban legend. There are currently no reports of the Red Room adware popping up anywhere and it is unlikely to resurface again.