Review: Pulse (US version 2006)

PULSE
Director: Jim Sonzero
Starring: Kristen Bell, Ian Sommerhalder
Screenplay by: Wes Craven

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Pulse (2006) is an American remake of a Japanese 2005 Kiyoshi Kurosawa horror film of the same name. The basic premise of the movie is the same as the Japanese version: a computer virus releases paranormal presences on a previously undetected frequency. The differences that exist between the two versions seem to exist for the sake of clarifying things for American audiences.

An interesting premise: that the dead come through on a particular frequency, this is taking EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) to the next level. Not only can the dead be heard on specific frequencies, but now they can act and interact. I get the feeling that if I had not seen the Japanese version first I would have been more interested, as it stands though this movie is slow paced and (interesting side note...at least to me) takes place in a "Columbus, Ohio" that is NOT "Columbus, Ohio." Bad move on the film's part...I kept looking for landmarks only to decide by the end of the movie that the location seemed to be picked at random (I can imagine that brainstorming session: "let's call it anywhere USA." "No, it has to be a city." "A city in the midwest? Chicago?" "Too big, we want Mr. and Ms. Joe Shmo America to feel for these characters." "Um, okay then Columbus, Ohio it is!"). At least they are adhering to the strong tradition of Ohio towns/places as settings for horror films. Somehow it seemed to work better in Tokyo though.

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Some things worth noting:
1. Cat in a closet does not jump out...it is mostly dead. Is this a clever nod to a horror cliche'? You decide. Personally, I think it tried to be clever, but wound up being as pointless a scare as a live cat in a closet. Who keeps cats in closets? I have never understood the need for a pointless scare. The cat in a closet is somehow become, unfortunately, a horror film obligation of sorts. It's a cheap gag. The worst incident of "Cat in a Closet" occured in the strange mocu-docu-horror film "The St. Francesville Experiment." I single this out as the WORST cat in a closet incident in the history of horror films because not because of its ridiculousness (and it is ridiculous), but because it signals a huge error in the film. At this point it is all downhill. The mocumentary style has been compromised and the film itself NEVER recovers, it only digs itself deeper into a hole it can't crawl out of (not even with detatched zombie arms).
2. Hopelessness is the name of the game and I love a hopeless horror film. I don't need to feel good at the end of the film. Sometimes those "feel good" endings are so counterintuitive that they destroy a movie. I like a sense of hopelessness and foreboding, that's real. That's life. (And it's a type of horror film move that the Japanese have Schooled us in).
3. What exactly did Wes Craven do in this? It doesn't really feel like a Wes Craven film. Maybe they just needed a name? It's true I'm more prone to watch a film if my favorite names are attached to the title, regardless of how minute their input in the final product.
4. This is a classic fear of technology film. Many of these DO come out of Japan, but the US has a strong tradition of fearing the future: think about films like "Lawnmower Man," or even the dozens of pre-cold war magnification (atomically enlarged insects, lizards, people, etc) horror films...and every horror film that takes place in outer space from "Leprechaun in Space" to "Aliens" is essentially a version of the classic fear of technology. What does this say about American culture as a whole? I suspect that it says we have shifted our very human fear of the unknown from a purely psychological and/or paranormal(spiritual, supernatural) focus to a fear of technological and scientific advancements COMBINED with paranormal elements. I'm not proposing this is a new fear, consider the biological and social advancements that lead to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; those fears are no different than the fears expressed in this film the supernatural and the scientific are not at odds, but in cahoots (this time to destroy mankind).