Review of Pulse (2006) by Tyler B — 22 Aug 2008

Pulse.

Action (Horror).

2006.

Rated: PG-13.

Running Time: 90 minutes.

Starring: Kristen Bell, Christina Milian, Jonathon Tucker.

Directed By: Jim Sonzero.

Rating: 3.5 out of 10.

Outline.

A rash of unexplained suicides seems to have an explanation through creepy imagery turning up on everyones computers around the world.

Review.

I am not sure if the title Pulse refers to the world wide signal in the movie or the pulses of crappiness that shot from the screen every five minutes or so. Either way this movie failed to hold up and in the process delivered one truly puzzling horror. The film centers around a group of university students attending class and partying it up. The group seems to center around Mattie played by the beautiful Kristen Bell most known for her work on the television show Veronica Mars. She does an adequate job as lead but the role was not a demanding one in the slightest. After Matties boyfriend Josh shockingly commits suicide the town and country seem to fall into an epidemic of unexplained suicides. Mattie and her friends start witnessing weird things in regards to their computer and they start to receive messages from Josh who is supposed to be dead. The story itself is interesting and the writers could have done a lot with it except they didnâ??t. The films cinematography is dark and dreary for the entire film and while that can add huge effects to a film it also can be a huge detractor. In this case the dark filming reminded you time and time again that this is suppose to be a scary film so when the creepy imagery appears you are not shocked by it you were merely waiting for it to take place. Bring us to the actual horrors that stalk humanity. They are shown way to often way too quickly and have been done way too often in other films. These creatures that are seemingly stealing the souls of humanity are eerie. Not eerie meaning scary but eerily similar to films such as the Ring or the Grudges evilness. As the films story starts to unwind you will realize a couple of things. The first is the films explanations of events seem to make little sense to the point it seems even the writers were confused as to how and explain it. Secondly these monsters or beings have no real clear purpose and never really show why they are terrorizing humanity. Lastly the events that happen on the computer are not clear if it is live or videotaped or what is going on. The film leaves the viewer to fill in a lot of the blanks where they should not have to. By the middle of the film all intrigue is lost and.

Frustration starts to settle in. Mattie and a boy toy computer geek run all over the city trying to solve the mystery of the killer computers. Of course like in all horror film they are pursued and chased by these evil creatures avoiding close encounters by a hair that no one else in the film can seem to avoid. The viewer is treated to a burning crashing passenger jet that seemed to be symbolic as this movie seemed to crash and burn also. The ending wasnâ??t the worst and that was a surprise in a film so horribly put together and written that I was presently shocked. However the creatures that have been merely images for all of the film now have solidity to their forms and once again not explained. I cannot recommend this film for many reasons but the top two reasons are very poor story writing and the monsters in this film invoke little feelings of fear that one would hope in a film in this genre. Perhaps the title Pulse is referring to the viewer checking their pulse at the end of this film to see if they havenâ??t died of boredom.

T Factor + If you havenâ??t seen many horrors then this could score higher on the rating scale.

T Factor â?? Need gore in your horror then this could score lower on the rating scale.

If you liked this film reel recommendations: White Noise, The Lawnmower Man.