Over the past couple of years there has been an increased interest in Japanese horror films. But the interest hasn't just been in American audiences seeing these movies; it seems that American studios seem to think these films need to be remade. We've seen Americanized versions of "Ju-On" ("The Grudge") and "Ringu" (The Ring"), just to name a couple. I guess the idea is that American audiences don't like foreign films so instead we need to feed them rehashes of someone else's creative mind packed with young, hip American TV actors. The newest addition to this genre is Dimension Film's "Pulse" (originally known as "Kairo'). "Pulse" stars Kristen Bell (TV's Veronica Mars) as Mattie Webber, a young college student whose young college student friends are being menaced by the dead via their computers, cell phones, and just about anything electrical. This premise is based loosely on the recent theory of the existence of E.V.P. (Electronic Voice Phenomena). Experts posit that the aura of the spirits around us is electrical in nature, so they are able to communicate with us through electronic devices.

This theory was previously used in the film "White Noise" a couple of years back. Anyhow, for Bell's character, it all starts when her boyfriend disappears out of her life only to call her out of the blue wanting to talk to her. When she goes to his apartment it is a wreck, complete with a refrigerator full of rotted food and a grotesque 9/10's starved cat. When her boyfriend appears, he looks extremely haggard and walks off into another room to… how should I say it… end whatever is troubling him.

When she goes back to her friends, they continue to communicate online only to have her boyfriend join in the chat asking for help. This of course, throws everyone for a loop and they decide to investigate. Mattie goes over to her boyfriend's apartment, only to find it all cleaned up and ready to rent. More importantly, she finds out that the computer was sold off by the manager so she goes off in search of it. Most of the rest of the film deals with the rash of suicides that are steadily growing and Mattie's close circle of friends falling prey to the Internet 'ghosties'.

"Pulse", for the most part, did to me what most of these remakes do. I wanted to see the original. In almost all cases, the originals are much better and usually a lot scarier. Not having the original on hand, I can only review it on its own merits without comparison. At the helm of this remake is newcomer Jim Sonzero, who I will admit does a fairly decent job of putting the film together. It is an extremely moody piece, where the world appears in shades of grays and blues, making it seem like a lonely and ugly place. This film moves along at a fairly slow pace and using the type of flow that I'm used to seeing in Japanese horror films. This one area where I'm sure it wasn't Americanized.

The problem with the movie was that it also came across as rather dull, with only a few sequences that really stood out. There are images of the dead that are actually quite frightening. One of the best examples is in a scene that takes place in a cold looking apartment laundry room. While one of Mattie's friends is doing her laundry, one of the dryers opens up. Clothing starts being 'thrown' out on to the floor… a piece at a time. The mixture of the imagery and the sound of the wet clothes hitting the floor creeped us out to no end. But then when we saw what was throwing the clothes out, it was actually even worse.

Unfortunately there just aren’t enough scenes like that in the film, or rather they come too far apart. The eerie mood is kept up for most of the movie, but the 'scares' are few and far between. I was also rather surprised by some of the acting by Bell and co-star Ian Somerhalder. They rarely ever really showed much emotion throughout the entire film. They appeared very lethargic almost to the point of sleepwalking (but of course, they WERE acting like college students…).

Weinstein-Dimension is releasing the DVD this month, which they at least filled with a few decent features. There are two full commentaries, the first by Sonzero and FX expert Gary Tunnicliffe. The pair offers up a fairly straight forward commentary, though one that is quite blunt about the difficulties of shooting a film like this. The second commentary comes from producers Mike Leahy and Joel Soisson, line producer Ron Vecchiarelli, visual effects supervisor Kevin O'Neill, editor Kirk Morri and actor Samm Levine (who some of you might recognize from "Freaks and Geeks"). This is actually quite a fun commentary as the group talks at length about what it was like shooting in Romania, all the while shooting little jokes at each other.

You'll also find some deleted scenes and a handful of featurettes. Two of them focus on the making of the film and the visual effects, while the third… sigh… allows some 'experts' in the field of E.V.P. to try and convince viewers that using computers to talk to the dead is quite the reality. The though of it is really creepy, the reality however… well… I'll leave that up to you to decide.

"Pulse" makes for a fairly disturbing Saturday night home alone (as I am right now writing this review), but doesn’t really offer the thrills and chills the cover promis… (What was that noise… is that coming from my computer? It's kind if a whispery voic………………………………………………………………………………………….)

Directed by: Jim Sonzero
Starring: Kristen Bell, Christina Milian, Ian Somerhalder, Rick Gonzalez, Samm Levine
Extras: Deleted and Additional Scenes, Creating the Fear - Making Pulse, The Visual Effects of Pulse, Pulse and the Paranormal, 2 Feature Commentaries with the Filmmakers
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Genius Products / Dimension
Release Date: 12/5/2006
Region: 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Pulse a C.