At a suburban home in Seattle, Washington, two friends – Katie Embry and Becca Kotler – discuss their town’s resident legend of a cursed videotape in Katie’s room; whoever watches it dies seven days later. Katie claims she watched the tape a week ago with her boyfriend, Josh Turandot, and two other friends, Stacey Miller, and Scott Conduroy. Minutes later, she is killed by an unseen force.
At Katie’s funeral, her aunt, Rachel Keller, speaks to Katie’s mother, Ruth Embry, about her death, and both are clueless as to why she died so suddenly. Thus, Rachel begins to investigate her death. Rachel lives with her young son, Aidan. Rachel learns that Josh, Stacey, and Scott, who also viewed the tape, all died on the same night as Katie, all with disfigured appearances, and all at the same time of 10 PM. Rachel travels to Shelter Mountain Inn where the four stayed, discovering the cursed videotape. In the cabin where the four stayed, Cabin 12, Rachel watches the tape, which contains monotone, disturbing imagery. Once the tape ends, Rachel receives a phone call from an unknown caller who whispers “seven days”.
Rachel recruits Noah Clay, her ex-boyfriend and Aidan’s father, to study the tape, making a copy after he watches the original. Rachel begins to experience supernatural phenomena as the week passes, haunted by a young girl with soaking wet long black hair. Investigation into the tape’s imagery leads Rachel to Anna Morgan, a horse breeder from Moesko Island, who committed suicide after her prize-winning horses drowned themselves. After a strange nightmare, she awakens to having a hand-shaped burn mark on her left arm. Once out of bed, Rachel finds Aidan has seen the tape, and discovers that Noah is also experiencing supernatural occurrences.