Wow, That's A Good Concept Gone Real Bad; The Undead Come To Ohio
Written: Mar 19 '07
Product Rating:
Pros: Interesting concept, some decent images/direction
Cons: Generally uninspired acting, Terrible characters, Plot poorly executed
The Bottom Line: Low on entertainment value and complete with a corrupted concept, "Pulse" ends up as another in a long string of disappointing horror movies.
After my recent disappointments in horror movies with "The Grudge" (reviewed at: http://www.epinions.com/content_312319577732 ) and "Dark Water" (reviewed at: http://www.epinions.com/content_306477633156), one suspects I might be more choosy about what movies I watch. "Pulse" left me baffled; I watched the Unrated version and I've still yet to figure out how it was more than a PG-13 movie. Yes, there are images that are disturbing, but the thing that is far more disturbing is the way the concept of the movie goes from sensible to jumbled.
When college student Josh Ockmann goes paranoid and crazy, he hangs himself in his apartment, right in front of his girlfriend Mattie Webber. Mattie and her friends Stone, Izzy (Isabell), and Tim have little time to mourn before weird occurrences begin to plague them and all of Columbus, Ohio. Soon, it becomes clear that Josh was into something pretty heavy and computers that are not connected to the internet begin to open with sequences of suicides under the heading "Do You Want To See A Ghost?" Soon, the undead are breaking out of computers, cell phones, servers and - I kid you not - washing machines.
Any movie that equates cell phones and coin-operated laundry machines is making a real stretch. "Pulse" has an essentially intriguing concept; the dead are contacting the living using new technologies like the internet and cell phones. Good concept, lots of realms for creativity and carnage. "Pulse" takes it to the next step; the dead are able to resurrect using computers and cell phones, okay. Still a good concept with lots of fertile ground for horror and intrigue.
The problem here is that the concept does not seem to define itself with any limitations. Unless Columbus's universities have the most internet connected toilets in the country, there are scenes that make absolutely no sense within the concept. Moreover, the nature of the undead in "Pulse" is rather sketchy. The dead "beam in" using our current technology. They seem to have the ability to possess others by tearing out their victim's soul and replacing it with any number of souls of the dead. They take on a solid enough form to kill people and affect objects. So, if they're solid enough, why do they need bodies? If they can come out of any electric appliance (we see one come out of a washing machine!), why isn't Columbus overrun in like . . . 12 seconds. We're talking moving at the speed of light. These are the most patient of the impatient undead.
From the very first moments of "Pulse," the movie is sacrificing any sense of sensibility for style. As Josh descends into the library searching for Ziegler, mundane things like the elevator closing are freaking him out. The musical cues tell us that they are supposed to be freaking us out as well, though we have no basis for that. In fact, at that point the only clues we have that something is wrong is the appearance of an undead in a car mirror (how is THAT connected to anything electric?!) and Josh's hallucinations.
The characters are not at all compelling. After Josh kills himself, Mattie mourns and tries to figure out what happened, but as events - a string of suicides - in the city spiral out of control and it becomes clear that the stakes are higher, Mattie and her friends stick around and try to live their lives as normally as possible. For great characters, this would be because of the strength of their resolve, their desire to see good triumph over evil. In "Pulse," we simply are given the impression that the young people being slaughtered have nowhere better to be.
And the acting is nothing to write home about. The only moment of truly insightful character acting comes from Ian Somerhalder; his character is one of the few who - when threatened by the undead - runs. "Pulse" is populated by a combination of a young interethnic cast and seasoned actors who sacrifice their respectability to appear here. The wonderful Ron Rifkin plays the school psychologist in a few scenes that add up to nothing extraordinary. And when Brad Dourif made his cameo, it came at a point in the movie that I was already so disappointed at the film that my reaction to Dourif was to (literally) cry out, "Why, Brad, why?!" Should I meet Dourif, one of my questions will now have to be why he would appear in such a terrible movie.
The lead in "Pulse" is actress Kristen Bell, who is not making any grand feminist statements with her character of Mattie. Mattie is utterly dependent on men to save the day for her and Bell just seems to go along with it throughout the movie. Bell adds no nuance or genuine character to Mattie and the viewer is left not much caring if she (Mattie, not Bell) lives or dies.
Ultimately, the problem with "Pulse" is in the execution of the overarching concept. The dead miss life enough to want to rejoin the world by traveling through computers, cell phones, and washing machines. Once among the living, they kill them (still haven't figured out why), but they still seem to be able to maintain corporal form. Can you see where I'm going with this? Who cares who lives or dies in this movie when, once they're dead, they can just come right back through the cell phone?
Here's where I again wish ePinions had a zero star option, not because this movie deserves it. There's enough in style and direction to allow for one star if there were a zero star option. I tend to rate my experiences on a ten-point scale and this movie is about a 2.5 or 3, so on the 5 star scale a 1 1/4 or 1 1/2. Should "Pulse" be avoided? Yeah, probably, but there are worse movies. That said, I'm going with the 2-star option only because - despite the problematic execution of the concept - there are moments the characters are trying to do the right things and the character Brad Dourif briefly plays states the undeniable truth of our age.
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