Pulse (2001)

Pulse is a masterpiece of modern horror cinema. Definitions are always limiting and the category "horror" dosn't capture this film well enough. Other genres that come to mind are supernatural and psychological. Made after Ringu (1998), it is an example of so-called "J-Horror". Pulse may call to mind, as Mark Kermode has stated, Videodrome (1983), as it is an equally effective exploration of modern technology and it's symbiotic relationship with humans.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a skilled director who specialises in eerie, slow, atmospheric films. Through their absences and silences, Kurosawa's films engender deep dread and fear. This austere technique was used effectively in one of his best films, Cure (1997). It is also this style that gives Pulse such a terrifying atmosphere.

The most prominent theme in Pulse is loneliness. By exploring this phenomenon in a modern, technological setting, the film may be seen as a form of social commentary. Pulse suggests that although modern technology, specifically the internet, is often believed to provide more forms of communication and connection, it in many ways distances us from each other. It indicates that modern technology leads to more social isolation. Pulse was released almost 20 years ago, but today, in our screen-obsessed world of electronic mirages and internet omniscience , it seems more relevant.

The protagonist of the film, Kawashima, is a laid back and ordinary university student. He lives in a messy apartment and has long hair. He is not "techy" and there is something more human and warm about him than the other characters. He meets Harue, who is "techy". She seems more cerebral and nihilistic than Kawashima. In one scene, Harue says to a bemused Kawashima "People don't really connect, you know. We all live totally separately". It is the contrast of these two characters that makes the themes of Pulse, such as loneliness, more resonant.

In Pulse otherworldly spirits, whose intentions are shadowy and mysterious, use the internet as a medium through which to enter our world. When we meet these spirits, it is their obscurity that renders them so terrifying and powerful. If they were overtly malevolent, I think this would take away from their power. However, it seems that when humans come into contact with these spirits, they become so psychologically distraught that they commit suicide. Another student states to Kawashima, about halfway through the film:

"The spirit, the consciousness, the soul, whatever you want to call it. It turns out it's world has a finite capacity. Whether that capacity accommodates trillions or billions, eventually it will run out of space. Once it's filled to the brim, it's got to overflow somehow, somehwere. But where? The souls have no choice but to ooze into another realm; that is to say, our world"

The spirits first appear as grainy, dark, unclear images on computer screens. On a screen we see a spirit sitting on a chair, motionless, in a dark room. Though the shape of a human, there is something non-human and unsettling about these pixellated figures. They evoke a deep, Lynchian dread.

Filmed on 35mm film, Pulse has a rich grainy texture which marries perfectly with it's narrative. This texture points to the pixellated world of computer graphics and provides an appropriate medium through which to depict unsettling spirits. The film isn't particularly colourful and a kind of greyness dominates many scenes. Even the weather, in rare outside scenes, is grey and apocalyptic. This grainy texture and lack of colour adds to the film's pervading theme of loneliness.

The soundtrack for Pulse, by Takefumi Haketa, is significant. Haketa's eerie theme song of echoed, choir tones rising and falling, amid a backdrop of fear inducing drums, adds to the theme of an unfamiliar, unsettling spirit world. The drums make one feel that the spirits, with their haunting, high-pitched tones, are invading our world. There is also a frequently used sound-effect we hear, like a scratched, electronic sound played in reverse, which is unsettling and dread inducing.

The spirits come across as desperate and tortured, in that they frequently say "help" in a pained and distorted way. Again, this isn't the typical malevolent spirit in other horror films. But this makes Pulse scarier. The spirits are desperately trying to escape the eternal loneliness of death and seem to find an opportunity with the development of the internet. Near the end of the film, a spirit states to Kawashima: "Forever, death was eternal loneliness. Help. Help. Help. Forever, death was eternal loneliness. I am not an illusion." The sound design in this scene is significant, for we hear scratchy radio static as the spirit speaks, suggesting that the spirits are using human technologies to filter into our world and communicate with us. Technology is a medium which connects us to other, timeless dimensions. Linking us across time and space. Specifically the internet, Kurosawa realised, heralded an intense transformation of society.

Pulse is a unique, supernatural horror film and manages to evoke a shadowy feeling of complex dread while providing important social commentary. It's perceptive exploration of the isolating effects of technological communication resonates deeply today, where electronic screens and online communication have become a pervasively intrinsic aspect of modern life.