Pulse is a 2001 techno-horror film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. The film follows the perspectives of two individuals, plant shop employee Kudo Michi and Economics student Ryosuke Kawashima as ghosts begin to invade the world of the living via the internet.
Pulse is a very interesting film. Ironically, for a horror film what I found so fascinating about it was not so much why it was scary, but rather why it featured a distinct lack of horror. In order for me to understand and explain why I felt this way, I first need to unpack what I thought the film was attempting to say.
Pulse is a film about ghosts invading the world via the internet. Already, this sounds like a poorly concocted saturday-morning cartoon plot that couldn’t possibly be the basis for a whole 119 minute-long horror film. Indeed, when Kawashima encounters a graduate student who basically explains the whole plot, ghosts using the internet to invade the world of the living because they’ve run out of space in ghost-world, it seems more like a red-herring than a genuine explanation of what’s going on (maybe ghost-world was also affected by a crippling economic housing crisis). Yet, this is exactly what is going on, which leads me into the two primary reasons why I found Pulse to be underwhelming.
The first reason is its execution of horror and the characterization of its supernatural element. To me, a good horror “antagonist” is something that toes the line between being understandably identifiable and unknowingly incomprehensible. On the one hand of this spectrum, we have the villains of many iconic American slasher films. The likes of Freddy Kruger and Jason, while physically formidable, are easily identifiable. They have a name, a consistent appearance, and in some cases even a face. They are better for hunting down prey rather than instilling any real sense of dread or despair. Yet on the other side of things we have what can best be exemplified with zombie films. These films do not for a moment pretend as though they can genuinely frighten the viewer with undead shamblers or rotting corpses. The zombie is too impersonal, too faceless, to truly incite fear. A mass of walking dead on its own is no more terrifying than an invading army, and so horror films that feature zombies must rely on the characters, world, and atmosphere that go along with the apocalypse (a film like 28 Days Later is a personal favorite example of this). Pulse’s ghosts are far more similar to zombies than they are to what I would consider a proper horror monster. They are myriad and faceless, yet lack any distinctness that makes them terrifying. The film succeeds in using disturbing imagery, oppressive sound design and music, and immersive scenery to really nail what is on paper a terrifying other-worldy invasion, but upon closer inspection these appartions show up in predictable areas doing predictable things to fully-suspecting cast members that must perform purposefully thoughtless actions in order to move the plot forward. Despite the fact that the ghosts are shown to prey on peoples’ sense of lonliness, and in spite of the fact that at multiple points it is shown that red tape designates danger, cast members ignore these warnings or signs. There is no reason for this other than the character-driven aspect of the plot requires them to do so, or else they would have left the city half-way through the movie.
This leads into my second and more serious reason as to why I found the movie to be un-scary: its portrayal of the internet and the message it seems to hold regarding the prevalence of telecommunications and information technology. From what I gathered, the film posits that technology drives people apart. It isolates them and invites in a sense of loneliness that will permeate their lives; this is why the ghosts invade via the internet (”death is eternal loneliness”) and why their principle power is to rob people of their will to live by preying on their sense of loneliness. The internet is portrayed as a divisive force that causes people to become selfish or solitary. The only characters that are immune to this seems to be those who go out of their way to interact with others, who show genuine care and concern for their colleagues and peers. And it is true, there is a certain sense of solitude that has come about in the information age as a direct result of the internet. Things become less personal, and to obsess over or live entirely on the internet is a danger that cannot be understated. However, to accept this as the only product of the internet, or to even entertain the idea that it is the primary consequence of increasing permeation and advancment of information technology is, in my opinion, tantamount to willfully inviting a sense of ignorance as to the nature of the internet, how people use it, and the true dangers that it poses. In my opinion, the film barks up the wrong tree. Where it would acuse us of being driven to solitude, reality shows us that it is the opposite. People have become far too obsessed with others in a way. The barrage of information from sources like instant news or social media can be overwhelming, and in the thick of things the first thing people lose is themselves. Rather than becoming engrossed in their sense of individuality and solitude, they instead become absorbed in the happenings of others. Humans are naturally social, to suggest that they would suddenly abhor relationships and drown in their own solitude is ridiculous.
What I see in Pulse comes dangerously close at times to technophobia. The heroes of the film are shown as being those with the least expertise in technology and the most concern for their peers. It seems to suggest that technology is dangerous, that the sense of individuality that it can provide against the backdrop of a highly communal culture is a threat. However, the result is a film that seems grossly out of touch with reality. Pulse is not necessarily un-scary because of its portrayal of fear and atmosphere. On the contrary, its cinematography and slow-burn nature are mechanically top-notch. Rather, it is the lacklustre execution of its supernatural element and, more importantly, the unrealistic portrayal of the internet that it pushes. Not unrealistic in the fantastical sense, but rather unrealistic in the unrelatable sense. Overall, it reeks of tech-illiteracy and outdatedness, and for that reason alone it cannot hope to inspire terror in an age where the internet has become as essential to life as breathing.
