foutainoflife The story presented here is rather unique and I love that. There are ghosts that have stepped into the land of the living by way of the internet and they have a message. I won't say more than that about the plot but I will say that this is one of the creepiest movies I have seen in a long time. I prefer the creepy horror because it tends to stay with me longer. The play on shadows in this is really awesome. It made me feel like a little kid, laying in my bed at night, falling deeply into a state of terror as my imagination and the darkness played with my sense of security. I loved it.

Robert Kock I have to say upfront, that you need to be open for the pace of these kind of films and the almost completely different arrangement in story telling. Things that you'd normally expect happening, are left open here. Other stuff is being dragged on for an almost unbearable amount of time. Yet, it is almost within reason and I had a blast watching this. It is as eerie as a movie can be, giving discomfort in almost every scene. I only took away one star due to the fact that it is really long and some stuff, even regarding this kind of way of narrating, seems obsolete.

Robyn Nesbitt (nesfilmreviews) "Pulse" is a compelling, haunting, and insightful portrait of disconnection, loneliness, and the impersonal nature of technology. From the opening shot of the lone vessel adrift on a vast, turbulent ocean, Kiyoshi Kurosawa establishes a pervasive sense of foreboding and unnaturalness. The sequences throughout are effective in their restraint -- Kurosawa has no interest in shock scenes or excessive gore."Pulse" follows two intersecting story lines. One involves a young woman (Kumiko Aso) who works at a plant nursery in a high-rise building, whose investigation of a colleague's suicide leads her to some very murky places. The second strand follows a computer-illiterate student (Haruhiko Kato) who teams with a female geek (Koyuki) who's researching paranormal phenomena on the Internet. These characters encounter mysterious and frightening images on their computer screens. The images are linked to various disappearances.Significantly more original than American internet-related horror films, Kurosawa effectively focuses on the fear and melancholy resulting from the urban isolation that the Internet promotes. He is able to establish a sinister atmosphere with dark interiors, diffused tonal lighting, shadows, and delayed focus shifts. Kurosawa is less interested in tying up loose ends than in creating a sense of melancholy and depicting psychological states like dislocation. A bit redundant, but philosophical, atmospheric, genuinely scary horror films are few and far between. "Pulse" serves as a relevant social allegory on the dichotomy of human interaction and the self-induced alienation inherent in contemporary urban existence.

Dan Ashley (DanLives1980) Not to be mistaken with the empty and misdirected Aphex Twin video-styled American remake, the original Pulse is one of the creepiest films ever made. It's one of those horror films that catches you off guard by first coming across as an orthodox kind of ghost story before taking you way beyond the barriers of abnormal and just outright chills you to the bone.Japanese University students happen upon a phenomenon of student suicides triggered by something on the internet. Considering that Japan is rife with suicide amongst the young, this becomes the theme for much of the film.Lives become entwined when the close friends and family of the leads either disappear off the face of the earth or go on to kill themselves as the vastly overpopulated city they live in quickly becomes the loneliest place on earth, but then it becomes a global phenomenon.The few people left go about their lives regardless, getting lonelier by the day as the city becomes a haunting ground for the dead but it isn't long before they discover that somebody used the internet to find a way to look into the afterlife, which started the phenomenon. In a desperate race against time, the survivors look for a way to survive even though their will grows weaker every day as the haunting ghosts of the passed away quickly come to outnumber the living.Kiyoshi Kurasawa makes a point of living being no better than being dead if you become lonely enough. When the dead reach out to their victims, it isn't death that takes them but the loss of their will to live in loneliness when life becomes defeatist. By the characters' refusal to let their loved ones go and the refusal to see death as a tangible threat or something that exists where it shouldn't, they repel death although they don't want to live in this world anymore.Not only is loneliness unacceptable to the young, they cannot face the fact that in life, it comes to consume us all at one point sooner or later and so it seems to be about the fear of losing one's soul and identity to a life worse than death.The film takes its time in delivering the story and the shocks like a true ghost story and the little chills sometimes work the best or at least help to deliver the creepiest moments in film history. There's something about Japanese acting that sets you up for every moment realistic or absurd. It's all so well delivered and even if you're reading from subtitles, the point is put across in all devastating simplicity, making Pulse not only a creepy horror but also a tragic drama of epic proportions.The scenes of the city streets deserted and looking war torn when civilisation has simply vanished deliver some of the most impacting scenes in film and I guarantee that after this film you will be left feeling haunted.No cheap thrills, Pulse works hard to get into your mind and deliver an important message at the same time!