by Julius Albert Custodio

Created on: June 30, 2009

Red Room is a horrifying Flash animation based on an urban legend of the same name. In a short span of time, it reached a high-level of fame among tech-savvy teens and urban legend fanatics alike. Its rise to notoriety can be equated to the period wherein the infamous "Ring" movie phenomenon swept the globe. But unlike those movies, Red Room had disturbing real-life repercussions which haunted the world.

The most serious of these repercussions happened during 2004, when the animated feature made the rounds in major newspapers and tabloids in Japan. It was rumored to have inspired a young girl to brutally murder her own classmate during lunch period. The incident which was then labeled as the 2004 "Sasebo Slashing" challenged the Japanese public's opinion about the impressionable nature of teenagers and raised the question of whether a website's content should be regulated or not.

The animated feature itself is a mixed bag of childish pranks, subliminal messages, and harrowing imagery.

It tells of the story of two boys who are discussing an internet urban legend about a mysterious pop-up advertisement. This pop-up ad features a weird voice uttering the words "Do you like -?" and it's said that anyone who would choose to close the ad will die a horrible death. Being highly skeptical about this rumor, one of them tries to find the deadly pop-up ad upon arriving at home. The boy searched and searched to no avail. Deciding that it was just a harmless prank, he then went on to browse other sites.

Moments later, a pop-up advertisement appears on his computer screen and it asks: "Do you like -?". Shocked by this development, the boy tries to close the window only for it to keep on replicating itself. He then notices a new word appended on the message: Red. Confused and scared, the boy ponders on the question for a while: "Do you like red?". He then proceeds to close the window again, but it keeps on reloading until it finally forms one final message. A horrible-sounding voice then wails: "Do you like the red room?". This time, a new window opens up containing the names of the dead people who closed the advertisement. He then notices his friend's name at the bottom of the list. Now, more paranoid than ever, he feels that somebody has been in his room all this time. In one shocking moment, two hands clutch on to the boy and the scene ends.

The day after, rumors spread around the campus about the suicidal deaths of two school boys. Apparently, they have painted the walls of their room red with their own blood before finally killing themselves. The scene then cuts to the boy's room. The computer is still turned on and the window containing the names is open but this time the boy's own name is at the bottom of the pile. The window then closes and leaves a strange hiss.

Now, if you haven't activated any pop-up blocker, a window containing the same ominous message will then pop-up on your own screen after the video finishes.

If you're really up for it, you can watch the whole thing here. I will not recommend watching this video if you're easily spooked or have a serious heart condition. The entire content of the video is in Japanese though, so I guess it won't really have the same effect if you have no knowledge about the language.

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