PULSE (2001)

PULSE (Kairo 2001). Kiyoshi Kurosawa, dir., script. Japan: Daiei Eiga (prod) / Magnolia (US dist.) & Toho ("world-wide" dist. outside of France and Hong Kong), 2001.

Horror film literalizing figure of speech of the ghost in the machine, except the "machine" is electronic and cybernetic: "Whereas in Hideo Nakata's The Ring it was a videotape which unleashed evil forces, in Pulse it's the internet which allows dark spirits to re-enter the world of the living" (Tom Dawson, BBC, on-line, update 28 Jan. 2006 . The spirits of the dead may be seen as "a computer virus" (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone on-line, posted 11 Nov. 2005 ), encouraging real-world suicides. Remade in 2006, q.v.