10 Scariest Internet Horror Films

Though the likes of Unfriended and Host offer a more contemporary take on the ghostly horrors that permeate the internet, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse (aka Kairo) remains the most chilling and thoughtful example of an internet horror movie since it released 20 years ago.

In this bleak meditation of loneliness and death spirits have begun to use the internet to infiltrate the world of the living. Anyone who encounters these beings becomes overcome by immeasurable feelings of anguish and hopelessness until they themselves lose the will to live. All that remains of them is a shadowy streak on the wall where they drew their last breath.

Unlike the other films on this list, the ghosts in Pulse aren’t explicitly evil (although that doesn’t mean they’re not spine-chillingly creepy when they do appear). Rather, they are infinitely lonely beings unable to find happiness or meaning with their existence. In Pulse loneliness spreads like a disease until Tokyo becomes an eerily quiet ghost town where the dead outnumber the living.

Carefully paced to ensure the dreary atmosphere seeps under our skin, Kurosawa’s film presents a nihilistic (and unnervingly accurate) portrait of isolation within a world that's supposed to be more connected than ever.