Pulse
Tags: psychological, gothic, paranormal, flashback, psychedelic, suspenseful

Plot synopsis:
The plot centers on ghosts invading the world of the living via the Internet. It features two parallel story lines.
=== First Story ===
Kudo Michi (Kumiko Aso), an employee at a plant shop, has recently moved to Tokyo. Her co-workers include Sasano Junko, Toshio Yabe and Taguchi, who has been missing for some days working on a computer disk. Michi goes to visit Taguchi's apartment and finds him distracted and aloof; in the middle of their conversation, he casually makes a noose, leaves, and hangs himself. Michi and her friends inspect the disk he left behind and discover it contains an image of Taguchi staring at his own computer monitor, creating an endless series of images. In the other monitor on his desk, they discover a ghostly face staring out into Taguchi's room.
Yabe receives a mysterious phone call of a distorted voice repeatedly saying, "Help me." Upon checking his phone, Yabe sees the same image found on Taguchi's disk. He goes to Taguchi's apartment and sees a ghostly black stain on the wall where he hanged himself, before finding a crumpled piece of printer paper bearing the words, "The forbidden room." Upon leaving, he notices a door sealed up with red tape and enters, encountering a ghost. Yabe becomes depressed and uncommunicative, and eventually begins hiding in a storage room. He tells Michi that he had seen something horrible in "the forbidden room." On her way home, Michi sees a woman hurriedly sealing a door with red tape. Michi later witnesses the woman jump to her death from a silo at a cement factory.
Michi receives a call like the one Yabe had received, prompting her to check on him in the storage room. Upon entering, she sees a black stain on the wall similar to the one in Taguchi's apartment. Michi leaves to find Junko and panics when she realizes Junko has unsealed and entered a red-taped door. Inside, Michi witnesses Junko being cornered by a ghost. Michi rescues Junko, who becomes catatonic as a result of the encounter. Later, Michi is asked by Junko if she "will die this way," to which Michi assures her she would not prompt her to reply that she would just "keep living all alone." Upon saying this, Junko steps towards the wall and becomes a black stain. Michi calls her mother for solace, but gets no reply. Becoming worried, Michi goes to check on her mother and meets Ryosuke Kawashima.
=== Second Story ===
Ryosuke (Haruhiko Katô), an economics student, has recently signed up to a new Internet Service Provider. His computer accesses a website by itself, showing him disturbing images of people alone in dark rooms, exhibiting bizarre behavior. That night, Ryosuke wakes up to find his computer on again; the site now shows a man with his face obscured by shadows, then a man with a plastic bag over his head. Before he pulls it off, Ryosuke unplugs his computer in a panic. The next day, Harue Karasawa (Koyuki), a post-graduate computer science student, suggests he either bookmark the page or print the images for her to examine. Ryosuke attempts to do so, but finds that his computer will not follow his commands. Instead, a video plays of the man in the plastic bag standing in a room with the words "HELP ME" written all over the walls.
A classmate mentions the appearance of ghostly-looking people around campus and explains his theory that souls have begun to invade the physical world. Karasawa begins exhibiting strange behavior and suggests that ghosts would want to save humans from the loneliness of the afterlife by bestowing immortality on them. Later that night, Ryosuke visits Harue to find her acting even stranger; the two try to escape to a faraway place using the subway. However, the train stops and Harue is seized by a desire to return home and flees. Upon returning to her apartment, she claims that she is "not alone". When Ryosuke bursts into her apartment later, she is gone.
As more and more people begin to vanish, evacuations of Tokyo begin. There are ghosts appearing everywhere. Ryosuke meets Michi and they find Harue in an abandoned factory, where she shoots herself. Ryosuke later wanders through a door sealed up with red tape and encounters a ghost who explains that "death was eternal loneliness." Ryosuke loses the will to live, and Michi has to drag him to safety. They drive through a burning Tokyo, encountering numerous apocalyptic scenes: the sky turns black, a US Army cargo plane crashes out of the sky, and people leap to their deaths from tall buildings. The pair find a ship about to depart Tokyo, crewed by a small group of survivors who tell them that similar events are happening all over the world. As the ship heads for Latin America, Ryosuke and Michi go below deck, where Ryosuke disintegrates into ash.

Review: The soundtrack is also good, many low frequency noises, kind of electric ones (reminds me of "The Ring").For a remake of a J horror movie, this one does a pretty good job.
I had just went to see a pre-screening of pulse last night, and I must say that it was not all that bad compared to recent horror films.
The movie gets a boost in points for breaking away from the normal horror films we have been seeing as of late.
To continue on the scares were another part that bothered me..once again we see a pg13 movie relying on loud noises and crashes to make the audience jump...but on a brighter side there are a few scenes (the laundry room scene, and the car attack scene towards the end) that were actually pretty scary.
I went to see Pulse knowing it was PG13, so I didn't expect much gore, but couldn't the writer of this story at least have done something more with it?Pulse is a movie about a hacker who releases a strange computer virus which immediately affects computers everywhere as well as cell phones and even TV screens.
This is more of a simple shock film like so many other horror movies that have been filling our theaters for about three years.
If you want to see one of the best horror movies in the past couple years, go see that one instead and forget about Pulse..
deer.The movie that inspired this one, 'Kairo' (aka 'Pulse'), had a very complex plot line with real suspense, real attachment of audience feeling, and real take-home messages.
Wow." Twenty minutes later, the script for an 'original' Pulse was created where certain events were directly copied but liberated from all that 'plot' baggage.Honestly, I cannot find an ounce of merit for this film.
"Pulse" has the laziest of horror film ambitions: an endless series of characters making slow, deliberate walks to some sort of random objective (in this movie, it is usually a computer screen) with the steadily rising score beneath their paces.
At times, it has the disorienting sensation of watching a film student's class project titled "How To Make Creepy Images Like What Was Used In That Video In The Ring".Throughout the movie, characters go through the motions as if they've just been locked in a room watching a marathon of awful teen horror films.
Towards the end of Pulse, a US remake of the hit Asian horror Kairo, there was a moment which actually made me jump.
And I was grateful that it did, because it stopped me from lapsing fully into a coma.After the dreadful American remakes of other J-horror hits such as The Ring, The Grudge and Dark Water, all of which did their best to cause my brain to shut down entirely, I did wonder about the wisdom of watching yet another.
But I'm a fair man, and I like to give films the benefit of the doubt, so in went the disc...Sporting a grungy, desaturated look, and nasty MTV style editing, Pulse is typical of the unimaginative and stale horror output that has blighted the genre this decade.
The film, aimed at the teen demographic, does away with logic, suspense and a decent plot; instead, we get an easy-on-the-eye cast, some cool CGI effects, and a story that makes no sense whatsoever.In this confusing tale, a hacker accidentally allows strange creatures from another dimension to come into our world, using communication devices as conduits.
Once in our world, these things suck out our will to live, which results in people either disintegrating into ash, or committing suicide (and by the end of the film, you'll know exactly how they feel!).
As these monsters slowly take over any part of the world in which technology allows them access, a couple of teens discover the existence of a computer virus which may be able to put an end to the evil invaders, but with red tape as their only protection (don't ask!), will they succeed?Dreary cinematography, coupled with a dull-as-ditchwater script and uninspired performances from a bored looking cast, make Pulse an experience that I am not in a hurry to repeat.
Director Jim Sonzero manages one or two visually impressive moments (involving the bizarre other-worldly freaks, which look like they're straight out of a Chris Cunningham video), but for the most part, he seems content to translate the illogical, badly written and plot-hole ridden screenplay into uninspired visual tripe, without giving a moment's thought to the fact that nothing makes much sense..
Despite a lot of slick looking supernatural content, Pulse largely succeeds in preserving the focus of the original--steering our attention to individuals rather than ghosts or evil entities.The plot, which some will find tough to embrace, has a computer virus interacting with ghosts of some kind.
I was fortunate enough to see the original 2001 Japanese movie Pulse(Kairo)But I was also lucky enough to see his earlier films the best being Kyua (1997) (Cure).His films tend be abstract set pieces dealing with complex human emotion, in the original Pulse the central theme was extreme isolation and loneliness, suddenly people you cared about were disappearing and the world was ending.
It's hard to explain, but once you see the movie, you'll know what I mean.'Pulse' is a very chilling film that is about the dead finding a portal in computers, cell phones, etc., into our world.
The only things mentioned and seen in the movie for the dead to get through from were computers and cell phones.'Pulse' is full of jump-out-at-you scares and other kinds of surprises that make your mouth fly open in shock.
Each scare kept eclipsing the last and each thrill kept eclipsing the last, too.All in all, 'Pulse' is a very chilling movie that is well...chilling.Oh, and when you read the back of the DVD, at the end of the summary, it says 'astonishing surprise ending', or something like that, but I know it said surprise ending.
But for someone who is a big fan of these Japanese horror turned into an American film, movies, this is another great one.
OF course though, he can't take all the credit because this was originally a Jap. film, but I Know he added some thrills of his own!At any rate, the story was awesome and it may leave you wanting to turn off your cellular Phone for awhile.3.
His girlfriend and student of psychology Mattie (Kristen Bell) sees each one of their common friends die and the destruction of the modern world, and together with her new acquaintance Dexter (Ian Somerhalder), they try to plant a virus developed by Josh in the network to shutdown the system and save mankind.The storyline of "Pulse" is very original and has potential, with the concept of wireless signal bringing some evil and lethal entity.
That's not to say that gore is my thing and some PG-13 movies actually succeed at fitting the genre.I gave this movie a very generous 1 (almost a 1.2) because the ending get's more imaginative, yet still incredibly predictable and the whole cast of characters gullible and oblivious to anything that resembles intelligence.Somewhere around 1988, Wes Craven lost his originality and became formulaic.
The soul stealing imagery and black plague like marks that are supposed to be so terrifying get lost in the film's direction, and would be scarier as a series of still photographs.The lack of sunlight makes the characters seem pale and boring, or maybe they were just that way to begin with.
Who, what, or where it all happened are completely lost by the end of the film, and the sense of bewilderment i felt at the end was perhaps the most horrifying part of the experience.i have seen the future of reality horror, and it is sitting through a screening of Pulse.Grade: F.
And like Todd Hayne's Safe, it offers no easy way out.Surprisingly, this American version retains the original Japanese film's bleak atmosphere and irrational plotting, leading the viewer slowly and inexorably to the bitter end.
Pulse reminds me of apocalyptic horror classics like Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, David Cronenberg's Videodrome and Crash, Roman Polansky's Repulsion, and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining -- visionary films that were also dismissed when they were first released.Visually, this new Pulse is stunning, probably because director Jim Sonzero comes from the disciplined world of commercial advertising.
I wanted to watch "Pulse" when it was on the cinemas but I never got a chance because it was hardly on for a week, so I rented it when the movie was out on DVD.
Do not fall for the tag-line which is "Scariest film of the year" it's not even a jot scary, definitely did not make my pulse pound the only horror that occurred was the money I spent for the rent.
I've seen so many horror films that this wasn't scary at all for me but it could be different for you and it did build tension especially when there's the "Fake climax" scene which happens right after Mattie gets off the elevator.
The fact that it all had a very good flow made this movie a pleasure to watch and made it actually creepy.Now like I said this is one of the only horror films of the year not consisting of all blood and guts.
They took out many key scenes (tower-jumper, etc.) just to hit the pg-13 rating.Honestly, I think PG-13 is pretty unfair, as there's a HUGE theme on suicide and many images are very disturbing, especially for some kids.Versus the Japanese version, I actually prefer this one over the Japanese one, although the Japanese covers more plot and the ending is better.
vivid scenes Acting: believable Characters: likable Plot: creative/modern Action Scenes: intense/suspenseful Mood: dark/spookyThis movie has a great musical score to every scene which i really appreciated.
Ghosts in the Wi-Fi. Despite the advertisements, the American remake of the Japanese horror film "Pulse" has very little to do with the original.I saw the Japanese original on DVD last month and I liked it.
It gave me nightmares, but I didn't think it would go over well with American audiences because it was slow and creepy, but not very scary.Apparently American horror-meister, Wes Craven, felt the same way and he rewrote the script to include much more scary ghosts in the same vein as his "Nightmare on Elm Street" series or "Poltergeist." The result is less artistic than the original "Pulse," but it is more likely to appeal to what Americans expect from a horror film.Unlike "The Descent," which I saw last week, this film does not rely on the gimmick of quick cuts of monsters jumping out at the screen.
This made-for-teens only abomination represents everything that is wrong with the horror genre today: over-explanation to the point of aggravation (the producers must think we are brain-dead as an audience), the casting of pop stars instead of actual actors (Christina Milian), and cookie-cutter editing due the number of times the picture was re-edited and re-shot to get a PG-13 rating.
I saw the Japanese version of this film as well and I thought Pulse (2006) was a pretty good remake.
All I have to say is that the marketing team for pulse deserve a round of applause because the several TV spots and ads made this film look like it was going to be a great horror flick.
The characters, the plot, everything was interesting to me.Pulse is my kind of movie; dark, a little twisted, and pretty much weird.
Later Matte befriends a new boy(Ian Somerhalder), both facing spectres from beyond the grave when sinister deeds are going on.This creepy movie contains ghostly images,chills, thrills and a completely eerie mood throughout.This supernatural horror film talks about people may become solitary, the loneliness in modern society, in spite of connecting wireless technology, cellphones and internet .Ghastly and astonishing frames about apocalyptic happenings with dark skies, deserted streets,creepy mood, similarly to classic films, such as 'Lifeforce and Quatermass and the pit'.
The only grievances i had was the handling of a couple of the sub characters come the end but ah well you cant have everything, also the ending was a bit lacking i personally would have cut it a little shorter by a couple mins but ah well.To sum up you want a horror movie to watch but without the huge amounts of blood, maiming, demon ass whooping!, then this ain't the one for you.
If you want to watch a movie where the scary points actually do try to make you jump out of your seat then it is worth a view.Ah well there is my two pennies worth..
OK i would like to see a remake of this moviemaybe a john carpenter/thingy or alfred hitchcock birdsy build upthe background music and sound track seemed lacking - this is really the first time i have noticed this dimension.....compared to sound track of....the thing......this pales.good story line though esp wifi data casting all around ....and through ....all of uskind of slow teen kill movie feel at the beginning and premature ejaculation at the end.....to much, too quick and not enough after play.....eg the story of the human survivors and what they facedmaybe that will come in pulse 2i voted 8 because i was astounded that this , quite presentable....and in some ways superior movie has been voted down,,,,below 5 by the masses,hope you enjoy it and / or remake it !!!!
I've just seen the movie and I think that "pulse" is a good job if you want to yell or scream a couple of times during 90 min, although it doesn't have a great guide, it made me scare for a while.
As remakes of Japanese horror movies go, Pulse is actually pretty good.
Fortunately, however, he's only in the one scene.In short, Pulse can comfortably join the ranks of Japanese horror remakes that are actually quite good, alongside The Ring and Dark Water.
Although most Japenese film remake are awful (The Ring 2) - Pulse is just as frightening and suspenseful as the original!.
Pulse takes its subjects seriously (think all the good things about White Noise meets the Boogeyman meets They) and does not cross over into the ridiculousness that many of today's horror movies do (as in over the top CGI or silly events that completely ruin one's suspension of disbelief).
Every now and then a movie like Pulse comes along and, mostly, does a good job of telling a good story.
What the hell?'Ah!' I thought to myself, 'Attack of the PG-13 rating once again.' I've got to stop going to these PG-13 rated "horror" movies.Before I close, allow me to mention two things, one good and one bad.
Pulse is a remake of a 2000 Japanese horror film of the same name, but after seeing the American remake, I am scared to see the original (and not in the way the filmmakers intended).
It comes co-written by horror legend Wes Craven & is directed by Jim Sonzero, who has had experience making commercials.While the original PULSE was not that great a film – it had a plot that was almost impossible to follow, & resembled an art film – this remake does not come anywhere near it.
The part where one of the students is attacked by a creature with multiple limbs that comes out of a washing machine; Kristen Bell's computer printing out a number of pages that, when assembled, resemble a skull; several shots of people killing themselves (the scene where a woman climbs onto a water tower & jumps off to her death is slightly disturbing) are these shocks but even they can't enliven the film.At the end of the day, Pulse has its moments, but fails to rise above the routine..
The special effects in this movie pushed the limits of new age graphic design--static images of what I think were dead people that appeared as if they were copy and pasted in photoshop and animated in macromedia flash on the film.
Although labeled as a bad movie, Pulse can still be enjoyed by horror fans.
The movie started off OK with some good scares (the bath scene) but by 30 minutes in the film made no real sense no continuity in the hauntings and deaths of the protagonists all of whom were forgettable.
i am not a fan of horror movies and now i know why...the movie has several heart throbbing moments but the plot is not there...i feel like i wasted an hour and a half on my life on nothing...it was obvious this was a Japanese spin off...filmmakers need to understand that the ring is the only movie that we like from our pacific friends....i would not even want a role in this movie if they offered it...totally too much hype for a waste of time....it started out really well and suddenly got really stupid....there were people walking out the movie thirty minutes before it was over....what happened to the good old scary American movies...i still do not know what the movie was about...i would rather watch the outer limits.
If you check out other reviews for the U.S. remake of the Japanese horror film 'Pulse' you'll see that the majority of people hated it.
This is a terrible movie with all the clichés you can imagine- actors going alone in a dark, creepy place, the tortured pretty lead, the so called lead hero who's got the "bad" boy image and at the same time being a hacker/computer expert...Kristen Bell is terrible- she looks and acts like a two bit version of Sarah Michelle Gellar, who's no princess herself, and I was wishing that she had been the first victim.
The whole film felt more like a B-rated made-for-TV movie than something with an actual budget and director.
Pretty Bad. Pulse is possibly the worst film I've seen in a theater the past ten years.
It has the same plot is Ju-on and everything other Japanese horror movie ever made.