Fridae

Yet another American remake of a Japanese horror movie, Pulse does not have a long-haired female ghost, but still is rife with horror film cliches. It is not entirely a bad thing, but Pulse is just another not-so-scary film, especially for jaded horror fans.

The premise of the film revolves around a group of college students, a suicide, and a computer virus. After the suicide of her friend Josh, Mattie (Kristen Bell) and her friends are still bothered by instant messages coming from Josh's computer. Dismissing it as some type of virus, Mattie and her friends do not give the incident much thought — that is, until Mattie goes to turn off Josh's computer for good, and realises that it is no longer at the apartment, and has not been plugged in for days. One by one, Mattie and her friends realise that Josh's death may not have been a suicide but something more sinister.

Pulse is a fairly straightforward movie without much twists and turns, but the pacing is a little off and the first hour of the movie moves too slowly. It does not help that the acting is rather mediocre, and that the film only really picks up near the end. Although the film is named Pulse, much of the movie seems to lack one.