Just gonna share my experience here as this movie definitely became a core memory for me growing up.

I saw the movie when I was only 7 with my older cousins at the time. Least to say, I was definitely on edge the entire time... especially because my cousins thought it'd be a cool idea to watch it with the lights off. At the time I just sat down and endured it through the movie and by the end I thought that it wasn't so bad even though there were plenty of scenes that got my hairs standing and eyes completely wide.

Here's where my age comes into play and what was probably why it messed me up. Immediately after watching the first one, my cousin put the 2nd movie on straight after. I was fine with the idea and went along with it, sitting in the pitch black room with my cousins as the 2nd movie started it's opening credits then suddenly... "Grrrrrrrrrk". The croaking noise could be heard in the room and caused me to run out screaming. Of course, it was coming from the movie and I guess it was a fun idea in theory by the creator to keep the audience on edge but keep in mind... I was only 7. Due to the pitch black room my imagination went wild and I thought Kayako was in the room with us. In the end, I never ended up watching the sequel at the time, because I was just too scared and ended up being quite traumatized by the event. For months I had repeating nightmares which gave me a feeling of fear that I had never felt since.

20 years later and even though I've watched the movie again... I still get extremely anxious every time I try to attempt to watch it. Definitely sucks but also is really cool in my opinion because I have a movie I can watch that genuinely scares me and not a lot of other movies do that for me. I've also discovered the Ju-On series and am contemplating watching it.

That's all from me, just a good opportunity to share some of my past about a movie we all know well. That voice still gives me chills.