Can You Scare Me Now?
Horror Tactics Go Wireless

Over the past few years, it has become standard Hollywood practice to remake Japanese horror films. Why? Probably because Japanese filmmakers like Hideo Nakata (Ringu) and Takashi Shimizu (Ju-On) make some pretty scary films. The latest of these remakes is Pulse, based on the Japanese film Kairo. In it, a girl and her friends are besieged by spirits that are trying to reach our world through electronics.

Pulse
Kristen Bell stars in Jim Sonzero's Pulse. Photo by: Mark Plummer. (The Weinstein Company, 2006)
Directed by: Jim Sonzero
Written by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Wes Craven
Starring: Kristen Bell, Ian Somerhalder, Christina Milian, Rick Gonzalez, and Jonathan Tucker

Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi terror, disturbing images, language, sensuality and thematic material)
Running time: 90 min.

FilmGuru's Rating : 6 out of 10.

When Josh (Jonathan Tucker) commits suicide, Mattie (Kristin Bell) begins receiving communications from him via her Internet and her cellular phone. Her friends all assume Josh's computer is still running and Stone (Rick Gonzalez) volunteers to go to Josh's place to disconnect it. The computer is missing, but Stone finds something else.

Mattie tracks down the computer (sold by an irate landlady) to its new owner. She discovers that Dexter (Ian Somerhalder) has not even plugged in the computer yet.

One by one, the friends have supernatural encounters with the other side. The phantoms come to them and seemingly suck out their will to live. The only hope for stopping this phenomenon lies in Josh's computer and a virus he was writing.

American horror master Wes Craven helped update the screenplay, using newer technology than the original. While Kairo limits the spirit conduit to the Internet, Pulse updates the story to include wireless communication such as laptops, PDAs, and cellular phones.

As a horror film, Pulse is entertaining to a point. Plot holes abound. The story doesn't always keep to its own internal logic, something that drives me crazy. If everyone is being affected by these things, why are our heroes immune? Why does red tape keep them out? If the problem really is worldwide, why should we care about Mattie? How will one computer system save everyone?

Pulse is nothing new. The whole thing seems reminiscent of The Ring, but with a computer program in place of the infamous videotape. The idea that the dead are coming to us through our electronics is nothing new, either. The film White Noise used Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) a couple of years ago. The only difference is the scale on which this phenomenon is occurring.

While it is nice that remakes like Pulse help to make American audiences aware of the films on which they are based, I find it disturbing that we feel the need to remake them. Perhaps major studios should spend less time remaking foreign films and more time distributing them. There is something to be learned of other cultures by watching their films.

The practice probably won't stop anytime soon, though. If you want some perspective, Americans have been remaking Japanese horror films since Gojira (1954) became Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (with Raymond Burr) back in 1956.