Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Pulse (2001)


--Reviewed by Lindy Loo


Plotline: This is how IMDB describes it, but to be honest with you, I had a hard time figuring out that this WAS actually the plot: “Japanese university students investigate a series of suicides linked to an Internet Web cam that promises visitors the chance to interact with the dead.”



Scariness factor: Japanese and Korean horror flicks always seem to freak me out at least a little. So it’s definitely creepy, but in a subtle way.

Gross-Out Factor: No hacking off of heads or ripping out intestines. Just some after-images of hangings and people jumping to their death.



Complaints: I was really tired while watching this, so it seemed excruciatingly long to me. But I’m not sure whether that’s the fault of the movie or just a fault of my tired ass. It also seemed very confusing to me, plot-wise. Like, I got the jist of it, but I was confused as to the specificities. Also, this movie made me feel like a total racist ‘cause I had a hard time keeping track of who was who in it which made the plotline slightly confusing to me. Then again, watching American flicks where all the characters are generic young people kind of causes the same problem, so maybe I’m not racist against Asian folks after all.



High Points: I like the concept of the film which was very dark and philosophical. I can’t imagine an American film even attempting to handle the same ideas (and yes, I know they remade this into an American flick, but I don’t remember it being quite so philosophical about loneliness and such).

Overall: I need to rewatch ‘cause I feel like, had I not been so sleepy, I may have enjoyed this more. As is though, I felt like it was a bit long-winded and slow with some good creepy moments here and there, but not enough to make me fall in love.

Grade: B-

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