Panos242 People never seemed so helplessly alone as in Pulse, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's probably best movie. A poetic, melancholy as much as creepy horror allegory. The most impressive features of Pulse are the masterful direction with amazing shots, perfect use of the depth of field and surprising panoramic movements of the camera and the haunting cinematography which creates a gloomy but also beautiful world. 9/10

Mark Turner In the early 2000s a string of horror films were made in Japan that has been referred to as "J-horror". These films were huge hits there and made their way to the US where fans were fascinated with them. So much so that Hollywood took notice and began remaking them left and right. Probably most famous of these are THE RING and THE GRUDGE. Another early entry was PULSE starring Kristen Bell but it wasn't as well received. Now Arrow Video has released a great version of the original film on blu-ray for fans to enjoy.The story involves two separate groups of friends experiencing paranormal encounters that are leaving a mark on them, some literally. The first group works together in a business that supplies plants to buyers. When their tech guy fails to show for work or answer his phone, they check up on him. While there, he walks into another room and hangs himself. Gruesome enough but then they begin to look at a disc he left behind which shows ghostly images from his apartment. A return visit has them exposed to his ghost as well.The second story involves a college student who finds something odd going on as well. When he asks a professor to help, they too discover ghostly images online. These images have an effect on some that view them and they begin to disappear. As someone hypothesizes what happens to souls when they leave here? Do they go to another dimension? And then the question is raised what happens when, after the millions that have died over time, that dimension begins to fill up? Do they try and make their way back? Eventually the two stories intersect with the leads of both uniting to try and discover the answer to these questions. It is their journey and what they discover that makes the film more chilling than you would expect.Some will be turned off to the way this story unfolds. The back and forth between tales, the dismal look of the entire landscape and the somber tone that it emits start to finish. This is not an in your face or jump start scare style film. It is one that creeps into you, crawls under your skin and makes you look over your shoulder even though you know nothing is there. It takes the ghost story we've become acquainted with and melds it with the world of computers, even if these computers look cumbersome since the movie was made in 2001. The pace is slow as the horror unfolds before your eyes. This makes for a movie that deserves attention.Arrow Video, as always, presents this in the best form possible with a hi def 1080p transfer. The extras include a new interview with writer/director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a new interview with cinematographer Junichiro Hayashi, THE HORROR OF ISOLATION a new video appreciation featuring Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, an archive making of documentary, premiere footage from the Cannes Film Festival, cast and crew introductions from the opening day screenings in Tokyo, trailers and TV spots and a reversible sleeve with newly commissioned artwork.

Adam Taylor The movie is one of those social commentary attempts (which are usually dull and a failure as a "movie") combined with supposed "horror". Basically it's all about isolation and being lonely (to the point of death). But the movie is so horrifically written and pathetically paced that this point takes forever to be brought across.The movie is basically a super boring "pretty camera-work" project that delivers nothing. There's a done to death commentary on how lonely and disconnected people are, with what is supposedly an attempt at "psychological horror" that fails completely. No horror, no good moral, no nothing.Give this movie a pass. It's not worth wasting your time with.

bwilkening I think I saw this film mentioned in of those many "Scariest Movies You've Never Seen" lists that always seem to circulate around Halloween time. The plot sounded interesting, so I decided to check it out. If one had to describe a plot, it starts with a teenager who kills himself in a creepy fashion, and how his death affects his coworkers and friends. Each of this small group of young adults starts to experience strange occurrences.All of this is tied together with the emergence of a new phenomenon called the internet (remember, this was released in 2001). In a separate side story that eventually intersects with the characters mentioned in the first paragraph, a young man is excited to be installing his internet software and connecting his dial up modem for the first time, but when he finally connects, his computer seems to be a portal into rooms populated by creepy half human/ghosts. He seeks to advice of a computer science student, and together they try to figure out what is going on while being drawn further into the mystery.The film is obviously pushing in a not so subtle way a message about how technology and the internet are making us more isolated and lonely, to the point where the line between people and ghosts is blurred. Even though the message is not subtle, it is effective, and story delivers some genuinely creepy and disturbing scenes in exploring that message. As many other reviewers who are much more familiar with Japanese horror than I am have mentioned, this genre of horror is less interested in quick and instant payoffs than in gradually building a sense of dread.I deducted a couple of stars because I felt the running time could have been shaved a bit without much loss of effectiveness, and because I shared the concerns some other reviewers have mentioned about how the ending felt disconnected from the earlier parts of the film. But I'd still recommend it. Even though the internet technology displayed in this film feels extremely outdated already, the film's message is still relevant, and it left me with a lingering sense of dread and creepiness that endured even after the movie had ended.