Pulse

1988

Action / Horror / Sci-Fi

8
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 64% · 14 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 30% · 2.5K ratings
IMDb Rating 5.5/10 10 3230 3.2K

Director

Paul Golding Photo
Paul Golding

Top cast

Matthew Lawrence Photo
Matthew Lawrence as Stevie
Joey Lawrence Photo
Joey Lawrence as David
Greg Norberg Photo
Greg Norberg as Policeman
Charles Tyner Photo
Charles Tyner as Old Man
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
836.08 MB
1280*682
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds ...
1.52 GB
1920*1024
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds 5

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by IonicBreezeMachine 6 / 10

Somewhat of a stretched premise, but it's well acted and directed enough to provide a good time

In a suburban neighborhood in Los Angeles, Bill Rockland (Cliff De Young) and his second wife Ellen (Roxanne Hart) witness an apparently psychotic break by their neighbor one night complete with loud shouting and destruction of his house that ends with his death. Bill's son from his previous marriage, David (Joey Lawrence) flies in to spend the Summer, but after witnessing strange events with the household electronics comes to believe there's a malevolent force within the power grid that may have been responsible for the neighbor's death and has now set its sights on them.Pulse is a 1988 horror film written and directed by Paul Golding probably best known for his work as a co-writer on 1984's Beat Street. Inspired to write the screenplay based off the observations of a friend and fellow screenwriter about household noises at night, Golding wrote the first draft of Pulse in the late 70s/early 80s but it wasn't until a little under a decade later that the film got set up at Columbia. Despite a decent high concept setup and being produced by Steve Martin's production company, Pulse was regrettably denied a wide theatrical release and instead was released direct to video, in spite of interest from Paramount in distributing the film only to be curtailed by a change in studio management. It really is a shame that Pulse wasn't treated with respect, because despite not being anything groundbreaking it's a really solid film.At its core, Pulse is yet another foray into the "suburban horror" of the 80s that was arguably defined by Poltergeist wherein common trappings of ghosts, possessions, and other supernatural shenanigans are moved from creepy derelicts and manors to the more modern 20th century homes of suburbia. While not quite as fresh of a take as when Poltergeist did it (and ran it into the ground with its two sequels), Pulse does find a fresh take on it by putting its own spin on the family dynamic and its well acted by Cliff De Young, Roxanne Hart, and Joey Lawrence. While evil living energy is no stranger to horror and has been done in other features such as Wes Craven's Shocker and Ghost in the Machine (both of which came out after Pulse), Pulse tackles this premise much better than its contemporaries did because it doesn't overexplain the energy by having it be the ghost of a serial killer or something, and we're only told what we need to know without any insight into its motivations or purpose other than it wants to inflict pain/harm. I'm not gonna act like Pulse is a lost classic or anything as there's plenty of silly moments such as Charles Tyner as horror movie harbinger Old Man Holger with some choice quotes like "I know what I know, boy, but I'm not telling!" or a climax that does have a bit of a facepalm in terms of its impetus, but for the most part it's a solid little thriller and considering Shocker and Ghost in the Machine got wide releases and this didn't seems really quite unfair.Pulse is a decent little horror thriller that belongs in the same company as something like The Gate. It's in sort of that weird gray zone of horror films that are "just kind of family friendly enough" that isn't at the level of something like Poltergeist or Something Wicked This Way Comes, but it's also way better than The Devil's Gift or Making Contact (Joey). Check it out for yourself and you'll be reasonably entertained.
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Reviewed by acearms 5 / 10

Entertaining but not believable. Foul language uncalled for.

Okay, so the power generating conspiracy is set to wipe out customers one by one and make them appear to be crazy in the process. An entertaining sci-fi movie which is fast and loose with the physical and material matter. Such as the natural gas pipe fatigued due to sun light heating it; total BS. While the house repair contractor was great, the TV repairman with his foul language and familiarity was completely out of place. Be that as it may, the actors did reasonable portrayals in what one has to consider a typical B grade Hollywood horror/sci-fi movie of no redeeming value.

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