10 Horror Movies With No Obvious Villain

Kyoshi Kurasawa’s haunting ghost story Pulse remains a chilling meditation on online culture over two decades after its release.

When spirits start to use the internet as a gateway into the world of the living, people begin to mysteriously vanish while “forbidden rooms” start to crop around Tokyo. Sealed with red tape, these rooms are said to be where the ghosts can be found. Anyone who encounters one of these spirits becomes overwhelmed with an immense sense of loneliness until they disappear, leaving only a shadow of themselves behind.

While they don’t appear often, the ghosts are immensely unsettling presences whenever they do show up. Anyone familiar with the spine-chilling forbidden room scene will know how creepy Pulse can be.

However, unlike other J-horror ghosts from The Ring or The Grudge, those in Pulse aren’t inherently evil. Rather, they’re simply immeasurably lonely and lacking in any sense of purpose. This feeling of sadness is what haunts the streets of Tokyo as it slowly turns the bustling city into a (literal) ghost town.

The eerie atmosphere and deliberate slow pace only heighten the ominous sense of dread as Kurasawa weaves a poignant meditation of the internet and society more chilling than any traditional ghost story.