Rent Pulse (2001)

Ghosts in the Machine - Pulse review by griggs

Few horror films make loneliness feel this creepy. Pulse takes the cursed technology idea made famous by Ring and gives it a millennial twist — trading videotapes for haunted websites and webcams. Released at the dawn of the broadband age, Pulse turns early internet anxiety into a ghost story about modern isolation. It’s the kind of film that makes you want to unplug your router and open a window, just to let the ghosts out.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa builds tension through silence and stillness rather than jump scares. Grainy screens, flickering lights, and figures caught half in shadow do most of the heavy lifting. It’s eerie, slow-burning stuff — the kind that seeps under your skin rather than leaps at you.

The final stretch gets a bit airy and philosophical, but it still works. Pulse isn’t about scares so much as sadness — a ghost story about isolation in a world that’s supposedly more connected than ever.

Beautifully creepy. - Pulse review by CP Customer

Pulse has to be one of the most captivating supernatural horror films I have seen for a long while. While the main plot of 'Pulse' revolves around a group of young friends investigating another friends death, the underlying theme of the film revolves around the idea that is that after death there is no heaven, no hell, just a miserable eternity of living within an altered state of total isolation. Like a lot of Asian horror 'Pulse' is pretty slow paced, there's absolutely no gore and instead the horror relies on a slow build up of anxiety and trepidation. The look of the film is superb, dark skies, deserted streets, crawling shadows and a haunting soundtrack adds to the menacing atmosphere. A must see for fans of Asian horror.

Somewhat Lacking - Pulse review by CP Customer

I found Pulse to be disappointing. A cast of twenty-somethings make ideal fodder for this lite J-Horror. There's no doubting the skill of Kurosawan but here it feels as if he is tired of the genre and struggling to maintain his interest. The limitations of the CGI (towards the end) is very apparent, and the plot is far from coherent. Pulse or Kario as its known takes the Invasion of the Body Snatchers ethic and mashes it up into a modern vision of horror. Still, it does have some standout moments and leaves an impression, despite the poor finale. This director can do better.