PULSE

PULSE
Directed by: Jim Sonzero, USA, 2006
Horror / Thriller / Sci-Fi, 90 min.
Distributed by: Dimension Films

Story:
When Mattie's [Kristen Bell] computer hacker boyfriend Josh [Jonathan Tucker] starts ignoring her she goes to visit him after a mysterious phone call left on her answering machine. When she gets there Josh is obviously disturbed by something and proceeds to take his life in front of her eyes. Three days later Mattie receives an email from Josh begging her to help him. This is just the start of a series of strange events that seem to be triggered by the wireless technology that we take for granted as a strange ghost like figure glitches it's way into Mattie and her friends life scaring them beyond belief as they one by one fall for the curse that makes them want to take their own lives...

Me:
What a load of bollocks. Honestly, what a waste of time. Based on the far superior movie Kairo by Kioshi Kurosawa, this movie is just another in the way to long line of piss poor US remakes. The acting is appalling, when Mattie finds her hung boy friend the best she can do is blurt out an "Oh My God" which could just as easily have been in reference to the price of her cell bill. It just doesn't work. It's flat and even though they try to make it scary it isn't. In one of the many "featurettes" in the special features they claim to have taken a scary movie and enhanced it so that it's even scarier... Duh, listen here all you remakers, the originals work because they take a low key no frills approach to the spectres, ghosts and scary little white ghosts. They just appear, or they are already part of the scene. When Josh first appears in his flat they use this to perfection just like in the original, he's already there and just stands up. No soundtrack key, no glitchy sound effect, just natural and raw. But after that and Kristen Bell's worst line every delivery "Oh My God.", it just goes down hill. Musical keys all the time, I know that something is going to happen because all the classic Hollywood keys tell me to get ready for a shock, that's what turned me off western horror and made me start watching Asian horror instead. Nope, for me this movie did nothing, nothing at all, and the only thing that made me sit though it was the fact that they at least had carbon copied key scenes from the movie they are trying to outdo. It's also very obvious that Sonzero comes from the music video side of the spectrum. Because there's a feeling to the movie that I can't put my finger on it, but sometimes a movie is all look and no feeling (or acting] and that's a good sign that it's a music director trying to pull off something he can't. Niespel's TCM [2003] remake works in some ways, Tarsem's eye popping The Cell [2000] work's, they have great visuals, rather good acting and the movies have a storyline that create an interest. The last I heard of Sonzero is that he's helming Clive Barker's Hellraiser remake. That is one hell of an original movie to try to remake, and it's more than likely going to be one of the last nails hammered into the last few years remake craze. But perhaps this is a good thing; at least we'll not have to see favourite movies desecrated again and again until the next wave hit's us.

So stay away from this movie, and put your money on buying the original there's a very obvious reason why this film bombed at the theaters.

Image:
Widescreen 1.66:1. For some reason the creators of this movie thought that giving the "ghost scenes" and the "other side" a washed out grey scale look would help the movie, but in my opinion it didn't. It just adds to the fakeness that wasn't anywhere to be found in the original.
Subtitles in English [H.O.H.] and Spanish are optional.

Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 & French Dubbed Dolby Digital 5.1

Extra:
A bunch of deleted/additional scenes, including a totally anticlimactic death of Dexter scene that is so lame I'm lost for words. Creating the Fear a making of and featurettes focusing on the visual effects and one on the paranormal phenomenons found in Pulse. Two commentaries that I'm sure never to endure listening too, and the theatrical trailer.