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From HouseofHorrors.com Recent Reviews Pulse. Instantly stigmatized by falling into the J-horror remake category, I got a chance to check out this movie barely having such knowledge. In fact I had no idea when or where its predecessor had previously exsisted - much less the societal, copycat suicidal implications within the plot as injected by Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa and the novel upon which all of it has been based, Kairo. Going in, to me, it was another new horror movie, so lets just look at how it stands as just that - a horror film. To understand what critics find lacking about Pulse's retelling, you just have to read this passage as explained in Wikipedia, as to the hidden messages and influences of the original Japanese film: Kiyoshi Kurosawa attempted to criticize Japanese culture's susceptibility to faddism as well as technology's negative impact on Japanese people. Kurosawa suggested that technology distanced and disconnected people emotionally instead of uniting them. Kurosawa also attempted to deter people from suicide by creating an unsettling atmosphere which viewed death as a very lonely and depressing end, and depicted suicide as an empty, perilous act. This was done in direct relation to the Japanese phenomena, Hikikomori (extreme social withdrawal), and to the number of copycat suicides and suicide pacts which are formed within Japan. Although the stereotypical prey stalking is ala mode, some of the soul-sucking scenes are visually pleasing. The spectres once unleashed attempt to hunt the living - and once confrontation occurs, these dark twisted spirits actually suck the will to live from their victims. It leaves each person a hollow shell, blackened to the core with darkness, uninspired and even hellbent on ending it all. Kind of how Ive lived most of my life. Kristen Bell (who also plays Veronica Mars) is undenyably hot as Mattie Webber and is hard to look away from the entire film. She plays the central character who attempts to unravel the mystery of her boyfriend's suicide, only to end up front row to the destruction of civilization all around her. Along the way she befriends computer geek Dexter McCarthy, played by Ian Somerhalder who some may recognize as Boone Carlyle from the TV series Lost. This unrated version being released this coming Tuesday, December 5th will contain some footage left out of the PG-13 version that censors found a little too controversial - including a friend's suicidal plunge off a local tower to the street below, and the crashing of a commuter airliner into the city's buildings - both previously omitted due to September 11 sensitivites. Final analysis: Its pretty "teenage", with a lot of over efforted attempts to be scary. If youve seen and admire the original Japanese version, chances are you will not like the plasticity of this English version of Pulse. But if you are not privy to such speculation and analyzation of plot depth, and are looking for an almost Wes Cravish apocalypse of depression and death induced by ghosts to an almost "Lifeforce" (the film) level, then you'll get a kick out of this. On its own, Pulse was no worse than par for the course - it holds interest although vaguely familiar to ten other films youve probably seen, and the life-eating scene are gothicly CGItastic, but brief. Nothing extreme - in fact you could say its lacking a lot of horror staples, like gore, suspense, or even creativity - defintely lacking intelligence and depth. Its what we all expected would happen - the internet is the new fear factor from which to make monsters appear. In the 80's it was cable TV. If you come across Pulse, give it a rent or a whirl on the unrated side. Its familiar, but for the most part, fairly watchable, as long as you dont expect very much from it.
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