When theres no more room in the afterlife, murderous ghosts will stalk college students on the internet. That was the general idea behind Kiyoshi Kurosawas 2001 film, so this American remake distils it into a bunch of false scares: characters sneak up on each other, the heroine sees things that arent there etc. Set in Ohio but shot in Romania, which does a terrific job of resembling a crumbling former Soviet Bloc country, Pulse seems to be about bald monsters that emerge from computers to suck the will to live from their victims, causing them to turn to ash. This leads to the downfall of mankind. The End. In his DVD commentary, director Jim Sonzero seems to admit that he didnt quite get Kurosawas film. There really wasnt much of a plot, he says. It was just kind of an idea. And about loneliness. And about themes. And kind of random.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
