Review of Pulse (2006) by Jeff B — 18 Jul 2010

You Are Now Infected...

Imagine our wireless technologies made a connection to a world beyond our own. Imagine that world used that technology as a doorway into ours. Now, imagine the connection we made can't be shut down. When you turn on your cell phone or log on to your e-mail, they'll get in, you'll be infected and they'll be able to take from you what they don't have anymore...life.

The movie starts out giving you the hopes that it will start out right away and be relentless til the end. Wrong. In the opening scene we see one of the characters have, what looks like, his soul sucked out by some white creature. Then there is boredom for the next 30 minutes as the rest of the characters try to find out what happened to their friend. We see a hanging and a few of the friends get infected by the "virus". As the movie progress it does begin to get darker and darker especially when Mattie (Kristen Bell) and Dexter (Ian Somerhalder) see a live feed of people killing themselves. Then finally they themselves have their encounter with the "virus". Mattie and Dexter think they found a way to defeat the "virus". Emphasis on the word "think".

The entire movie was shot in this horrible blue/grey lighting. It was like the town they live in was in complete overcast all the time. The acting was pretty terrible but I shouldn't have expected much from Veronica Mars. The "scary" scenes weren't really scary. There was no build up to set up the fear. The "jumpy" scenes weren't affective because they were so cliche that the audience knew exactly when something was going to jump out, thus killing that tactic completely.

If it wasn't for a brief appearance by Brad "Chucky" Douriff playing some crazy hobo at a cafe and the laundrybeast (you'll understand if you see the movie) this movie would have been a complete waste.

Overall I give this movie a D-. I would have given it a F a few things saved it from getting that grade. They would be Brad Douriff, the laundry beast, and getting to see Christina Milian in some skimpy outfits. If you really want to see this movie I suggest just renting the original Japanese version, Kairo. Its not a great movie but its worlds better than Pulse.