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'Pulse': Creepy and a little disconnected
by Bob Longino

Like 1963's "The Haunting" and 1999's "The Blair Witch Project," Japan's "Pulse" is a horror film stoked in psychological terror. It's not about blood, gore and oozing innards but unsettling creepiness that gets under a moviegoer's skin and makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. At times, "Pulse," first released in Japan in 2001, is quite successful at doing just that. A ghost story with weird, compelling images mixed up with modern-day computers and cell phones and an insightful contemplation on loneliness, the film slowly unfolds its plot. It's a good hour before "Pulse" even begins to suggest what might be going on. Read the full review

TO SUM UP
A group of young friends is rocked by the suicide of one of their own. His subsequent, ghostly reappearance in grainy computer and video images makes them wonder whether their friend trying to contact them from beyond the grave — or whether something much more sinister is afoot.

FILM FACTS ...

Magnolia Pictures

'Pulse'

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Starring: Shun Sugata, Kenji Mizuhashi, Shinji Takeda, Koji Yakusho, Kaori Ichijou
Run time: 110 minutes
Release date: Nov. 9, 2005
Rating: Not rated.

Horror remade
See what the critics say about the American remake.

On the web
Official movie site

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READ THE REVIEW

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: B-
"...creepy stuff involving phantoms from a netherworld."