Cursed Digicam story and ending, explained

A narrative reminiscent of Heavy Rain, with a cursed camera that feels like a modern-day version of Fatal Frame, Cursed Digicam‘s story is as morbid as it is creepy. As you explore the last place you saw your daughter alive through the camera’s eye, you discover the disturbing truth about the local park.

Developed by the masters of indie horror (known for The Closing Shift, Shinkansen 0, Parasocial, and The Bathhouse), here is our rundown of Chilla’s Art’s Cursed Digicam: its story and ending, explained.

Warning for major spoilers and dark themes throughout.

Cursed Digicam plot, summarized

The story follows a father looking for the soul of his lost daughter, Mitsuka. After suddenly passing away in the park an unspecified amount of time prior to the start of the game, our protagonist is guilt-ridden and tormented by the loss. He feels an urge to find her soul and free it. But how? Finding a strange website that promises liberation to any lingering spirits, he receives a camera created by a medium. This gives us the core objective of Cursed Digicam: Take 15 photos of a spirit to receive a message from them.

The gameplay unfolds at the local park, the place where Mitsuka was last seen alive. Looking for answers and a means to free her from purgatory, our protagonist sets out to the park, greeted by the paranormal, those desperately trying to cling to life as they’re trapped at the place of their death. But will we find Mitsuka so easily?

Cursed Digicam story, explained

Cursed Digicam begins with a glimpse into what we presume to be the final moments with Mitsuka. A shot of a quiet park with rides in the distance, our story opens with the daughter’s voice: “I can play on the swing by myself, I’ll show you. Okay, from here to the slide, let’s see who will get there first.” The camera cracks, and we learn that Mitsuka died in that very park, hearing those words that were likely her last as our intro into Cursed Digicam. The choice of camera is interesting here, as it implies that someone was recording the events. The sound and visual of the crack against the lens could hint at Mitsuka falling and hitting her head or the exact moment when tragedy struck.

The park

We’re told that our protagonist is tormented by his daughter’s death. Therefore, her one-way communication with him likely existed long before he had the cursed camera in his possession. She speaks to him through the payphone inside the park, asking him to come home because her head hurts. It’s clear from the jump that our protagonist regrets his neglectful actions that led to his daughter’s death, as we’re told he was too busy to go to the neighborhood park with her. From very early on, the dialogue hints that the daughter likely died following brain trauma after falling off the slide.

We see a lot of imagery of the girl submerged in water or stuffed into objects. This likely links to her current confinement as a ghost and her desperation to be seen and freed. Alternatively, the level of water we see could indicate how she died, and her being confined into a tight space could be how her body was disposed of. Announced on a news report, we learn that a girl went missing at 8pm. What we initially thought was an accident may have been foul play. Could it be that the recording at the start was actually Mitsuka talking to the man in the mouse costume and not her father?

The mouse mascot

Child spirits aren’t the only entities trapped within the purgatory. A humanoid figure in a mouse mascot costume stalks our protagonist. And the worst part? He doesn’t count towards the 15 pictures you need to progress. So the question arises: Is the mouse mascot a real person? Could it be that something more nefarious happened to the girl? He vanishes when you get close, shifting our perspective of his identity from a stalker to an imaginary friend or ghost, but with posters scattered around the park with the mascot on them, it’s clear that the girl is trying to show you what happened to her. Your introduction to this character is through children’s drawings, indicating that Mitsuka likely interacted with this mascot long before the parents were made aware of his existence.

Following you around the park, the mouse appears more and more often, but never in scenes where the girl is submerged in water. Rather, it seems the mouse shows up when he is trying to lure her. From rolling a football out of the park rides to peering through the bathroom entrance, the mouse tried whatever he could to draw her in. The girl knew this and tried to call for help, dialing the only number she knew: 110.

Home alone

After taking the 15 pictures and uploading them to the Spirit Liberation Center, you receive a mp4 file that lets you view a memory. The girl is seen running into the park toilets, crying in the stall, as a figure (shown in first-person perspective) follows her inside. You return home. It looks just like the building you saw next to the park, where the mouse mascot was pictured on the balcony. Are you and the mouse the same person?

The more pictures you take, the more terrifying its contents become, as the girl’s spirit begins to transform into a tall, slender entity. A strange combination of the mouse mascot and a tall, thin version of the deceased girl, the entity tries to make contact, growing faster and more aggressive with each picture you take of them. Mitsuka’s bedroom is covered in mouse drawing segments, with a decapitated mouse plushie and bloody school clothes laid on the floor. The photos from the intense fight against the hostile force alter into a single, repeated picture of your daughter holding up a mouse plushie next to her face.

The second video reveals Mitsuka actually died at home after collapsing in the middle of the night, where her father finds her shortly after. A missing person’s poster shows a different name on the face we believed was our daughter. Were we capturing images of the wrong girl?

It turns out that Manami Koudan, the kidnapped girl, was murdered by Mitsuka’s father, the protagonist. The game ends following Mitsuka’s call to the police. As the credits roll, sirens can be heard, with the police arriving at his apartment. Instead of going to prison, the father leaps off the balcony, and we see another crack on the cursed camera, this time indicating the death of our protagonist. A girl in purple pajamas follows behind him as the mouse’s hand picks up the camera.

Cursed Digicam ending, explained

While it’s somewhat confusing to make sense of the narrative, we can piece together that the girl we were photographing in the park was actually Manami Koudan. We know this as these images could be uploaded onto the Spirit Liberation Center. It is only upon uploading images of Mitsuka, your daughter, that an error pops up, stating the deceased loved one died over 13 days ago.

The missing person’s poster at the start and end of the game was Manami, not Mitsuka. Her name is redacted, and we only see the image of a little girl at the start of the game, making us believe it is his daughter as it’s the only information he gives us at the time. He sets out to free Manami, having forgotten what his real daughter looked like. But what does this mean? As the story concludes rather abruptly following Mitsuka’s call, we question the legitimacy of this final event. Mitsuka emerges from the bathtub, covered in bloody pajamas, the same she wore when she collapsed earlier. It appears that both children wore the same nightwear, but only one was murdered by the father.

What happened to Mitsuka?

Based on the cryptic events, our interpretation of Cursed Digicam is that Mitsuka died at home, and the protagonist tried to replace her by kidnapping Manami (the girl we take pictures of in the park). Her image couldn’t be taken nor her soul liberated, as she died over 13 days ago. Therefore, the camera wouldn’t work on capturing her image. What we believe happened was Mitsuka went to the park on her own, playing with her imaginary friend in the form of the mouse plushie. She went on the slide and fell, hitting her head on the ground. She tried calling her father for help, telling him her head hurt when she got home, but he didn’t take this seriously enough because of his work schedule. Mitsuka succumbed to the brain trauma, collapsed, and died (likely from swelling).

What happened to Manami?

In the throes of grief, the father dresses as the character Mitsuka loved, keeping on his suit he’d use for work, and lured Manami to himself. While we can assume he was trying to replace his daughter, the events turn more shocking as she is killed by him. Based on the images shown, Manami was kidnapped at the park and died at the protagonist’s home, likely by drowning. The cursed camera haunts the father, reminding him of his horrifying actions. It’s clear he wasn’t just tormented by his daughter’s passing but also by the guilt of taking another life, one as innocent as his daughter’s.

His reasons for killing the other girl are unknown, but based on the opening, we interpret that he tried to replace Mitsuka with Manami. But the guilt could never go away. He couldn’t take the constant reminder as Manami walked around the house in Mitsuka’s pajamas and stayed in her bedroom with his deceased daughter’s name on the door. As he already kidnapped her, he felt trapped, his only option (in his tormented mind) to drown Manami and cut her body up, disposing pieces of her into trash bags.

Who called the police?

While the daughter is seen making the phone call, this cannot be real as she died before Manami. What’s more likely is that the father gave in to his guilt, confessed to the crime, and jumped from his apartment, ending his own life.

Why did the girl jump off the balcony?

The most cryptic part of Cursed Digicam however, was the girl following the protagonist after jumping off the balcony. While the mouse picking up the cursed camera implies the spirits live on, haunting through the lens, it’s a wonder why the girl in purple pajamas followed him to the ground. Our guess is that the girl was Mitsuka, following her father to the afterlife as she was the last ghost he saw. This makes sense as his guilt followed him wherever he went. His ending his life was the liberation Mitsuka needed to peacefully pass on, having brought justice to Manami’s shocking end and having her father confess to his neglect and killing.