Pulse (1988 film)

Pulse is a 1988 American science-fiction horror film written and directed by Paul Golding, drawing influence from previous works of science fiction and horror, and starring Cliff De Young, Roxanne Hart, Joseph Lawrence, Matthew Lawrence, and Charles Tyner. The film's title refers to a highly aggressive and intelligent pulse of electricity that terrorizes the occupants of a suburban house in Los Angeles, California. The film was produced through Columbia Pictures and the Aspen Film Society and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The titular Pulse and its accompanying elements were designed by Cinema Research Corporation.

Plot
A highly aggressive, paranormal intelligence thriving within the electrical grid system of Los Angeles, California is moving from house to house. It terrorizes the occupants by taking control of the appliances, killing them or causing them to wreck the house in an effort to destroy it. Once this has been accomplished, it travels along the power lines to the next house, and the terror restarts. Having thus wrecked one household in a quiet, suburban neighborhood, the pulse finds itself in the home of a boy's divorced father whom he is visiting. It gradually takes control of everything, injuring the stepmother, and trapping father and son, who must fight their way out.

Cast
Cliff De Young as Bill Rockland
Roxanne Hart as Ellen Rockland
Joey Lawrence as David Rockland
Matthew Lawrence as Stevie
Charles Tyner as Old Man Holger
Dennis Redfield as Pete
Robert Romanus as Paul
Myron Healey as Howard
Michael Rider as Foreman
Jean Sincere as Ruby
Terry Beaver as Policeman
Greg Norberg as Policeman
Tim Russ as Policeman

Release
The film was promoted by the taglines "It traps you in your house...then pulls the plug," "In every second of every day, it improves our lives. And in a flash, it can end them," and also "the ultimate shocker."

Production
The film was produced by Aspen Film Society, a film production company founded by Steve Martin and William E. McEuen.

Paul Golding got the idea for Pulse from two unrelated events with the first being when the screenwriter Caleb Deschanel spent the night in his house and told him that at night he’d been listening to “the sounds of the house…..the house was alive and it was taking care of me“, and the second was when he heard about a computer that reprogrammed itself . 

Golding wrote the screenplay under the working titles of House, Tract and Currents in 1981 but couldn’t get it made until Columbia eventually took it on seven years later. David Morse and Tommy Lee Jones both auditioned for the role of Bill but lost to Cliff De Young. Production was completed a day early and $1 million dollars under its $6 million dollar budget, and as a result were able to afford Oxford Scientific Films to do many of the special effects.

Release
David V. Picker, the head of Paramount Pictures at the time, was impressed by the film and intended to position it as a wide release, but changes in studio management curtailed this and it was only released theatrically in Texas and Oklahoma, while it went straight to video elsewhere. The movie did however become a success on video.

Reception
Pulse has a 64% approval rating at the online review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 14 reviews.

Music
The musical score for Pulse was composed by Jay Ferguson, who also composed "Pictures of You" from the soundtrack to The Terminator, and the film score to A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child.

References

External links

1980s American films
1980s science fiction horror films
1988 directorial debut films
1988 films
1988 horror films
1980s English-language films
American haunted house films
Columbia Pictures films
Films set in Los Angeles
Techno-horror films