Pulse

aka: Kairo
Japan 2001, 118 minutes
Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
In Japanese with English subtitles
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Horror

Topics: Computers & Tech, Internet.

Feat. Kumiko Aso, Koji Yakusho, Koyuki, Shinji Takeda

Aroview: A clandestine by-product of the post-RING phenomenon, this refined and wholly disconcerting tale of a supernatural internet pandemic ranks as the most intelligent and eerily pertinent of the 'J-Horror' viral strain.

Genuinely creepy and without schlock thrills, dir. Kurosawa harnesses the cold, clinical aesthetic of CHARISMA and SEANCE to cast a pervading sense of dread over proceedings. Encountering a sinister website that appears to be triggering a succession of suicides throughout Japan, the film's characters succumb to something far more unorthodox in horror terms: debilitating, all-consuming loneliness, with the alienating effects of technology the ultimate harbinger of doom. Though guilty of employing the now-ubiquitous long-haired apparition, this is quietly terrifying, particularly as an alarming apocalyptic endnote.

NZ International Film Festival 2006