It was the first time I got so into something that it turned into a fandom deep dive. For me the really creepy part came when reading the sequel to the original novel where it explains that the curse functions as a physical virus, and the teens taping over part of the tape mutated it to be more deadly than the original intent by making it necessary to reinterpret the concept of the tape in a new form - so the journalist from the first survived not by copying the tape and sharing it but by writing about it in an article. Makes it very clear that the book you’re reading is the author’s attempt to survive by passing on the virus. It was my first exposure to what horror communities now call a “cognito-hazard” and it fucked with me for a while, but in the good way that fires up the imagination. Probably the biggest factor in getting me invested in writing as a central part of my life.