Other movies in this series:
None

Rish's Reviews
I didn't expect to like this one, and I was not disappointed.
That's not really a fair statement, though. When I saw Wes Craven's name (first, even) in the screenplay credits, I thought, "Hey, maybe these characters won't be one-dimensional, and maybe the scares will be well-thought-out and effective."
Silly me.
I saw the original in the theatre last year, reviewing it here. That Japanese version was confusing, cryptic, and in my educated guestimate, purposely pointless. This one was all of those things too, but had no business being that way. I guess they attempted to explain a thing or two, but it didn't really come across here. I'm betting we lost a little exposition to the cutting room floor, but that didn't stop the film from being dull.
I will admit that the ghosts were pretty scary, but the special effects actually decreased the effectiveness of the apparitions, rather than heightened them. There is something to be said for the ghosts in the original (and like in The Sixth Sense) where they're just pale, haunted looking PEOPLE. Giving them gaping CG mouths, and four Reed Richards arms just looked ODD.
And how do you beat them? Well, to be honest, it's if the script says you do.
What a grimy, soulless, cancer-ridden world this took place in. The colourless world the filmmakers created made me want to throw up. And that had to have been intentional, right?
Oh, and I almost forgot about the cellphone stuff. Whoops. I think there's a good scary story in the fact that we have become, in just a decade or so, a society completely dependent on (perhaps completely obsessed with) internet and cellphone technology. People need it like heroin, and the next step (or perhaps the next to the next step) is to literally become one with it, some kind of implant, some kind of surgical addition, some kind of inextricable device. See if I'm wrong.
Of course, that has nothing to do with why I didn't like Pulse. Or maybe it was. Maybe the potential was there to show how pervasive/inextricable that technology has become in our lives today, and how it could completely destroy if the right thing went wrong.
A friend of mine recently told me that zombie movies (especially the Romero ones) always end at the point he'd like them to begin, and with this film, that's definitely the case. It gets interesting at the end, then ends, with a fairly good visual, then the credits roll.
Dang, I just don't have anything to say about this film. Tyranist liked it more than I did (mostly due to the lead actress, as I'm sure he'll admit), and I really ought to leave the bulk of this review to him. Let me just tell you that I reacted so negatively to it, that when our time-honoured Year In Review tally came up, I had placed Pulse as a runner-up for Worst Movie of 2006.
I'd Recommend It To: I know there are people out there that will find Pulse to be exactly what they're looking for. I am not one of those people (quite the opposite). But you could be; I know everyone has their own specific tastes. I had a friend who used to go on and on about how hilarious Howie Mandel was (apparently, his blowing up the surgical glove and talking in the little kid voice never gets old), so hey, maybe Pulse is your thing.
Posted: March 12, 2007

The tyranist's thoughts
I love Kristen Bell. I've been a Veronica Mars fan for a couple years and my fond feelings for that character and her adventures have extended to Ms. Bell. So I was all kinds of excited about seeing this one.
Having seen the original though, I knew there was a lot of work left to make this one worthwhile. The story just lacks something. Almost like the Japanese have finally tapered off and think that there is only one scary thing about their movies. Which, unfortunately, they got wrong.
Oh well. This is a more-faithful-than-it-needed-to-be adaptation. There were moments that were nice, but really, as Rish pointed out, it all seemed pretty pointless when you got right down to it. In noticing the things they kept, I realised there really wasn't anything I'd been hoping to see again. Geh.
Much like the bleak, washed out world the characters inhabited, ultimately, that's how my feelings for the movie went. It was very mediocre and just didn't manage to convince me it needed to be seen. I may love Kristen Bell, but this pile was boring.
Posted: March 12, 2007

Total Skulls: 17

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?