Pulse 3 Furthers the Apocolyptic Tale of Spirits of the Dead Invading the Living World via the Wi-Fi Network
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Pulse 3 has an interesting story but seems pretty pointless. And then there’s the CGIs.
Written by The Horror Czar, Don Sumner
December 24, 2008
Release: December 23, 2008 (USA DVD)
Directed by: Joel Soisson
Written by: Unknown
Starring:
Noureen DeWulf as Salwa
Rider Strong as Adam
Lynn Blackburn as Teacher
Jackie Arnold as Zach
Brittany Finamore as Justine
For those not familiar with the concept behind the Pulse series, it seems that the dead have found a pathway into the world of the living via cellphones, computers and anything connected to a Wi-Fi network. Spirits use this connection to attack those living in our world, suck the life out of them for their own fortification, and cause them to kill themselves so that they can join the ranks of those that appear as television images in lovely shades of blue to continue the attack on those with biological functions still, um, functioning.
The original Pulse was, in my opinion, a good flick. Sure, it was a remake of the Japanese film Kairo (2001, Written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa) which puts it behind the eight ball from the beginning, but frankly I thought it was good. I never saw Pulse 2 because I figured, “Why?” Pulse 3, however, caught my eye because it was one of the only films released just two days before Christmas in 2008, December 23, so I thought I’d give it a shot.
Pulse 3 shows the aftermath of a world overrun by electronic goblins. Survivors live in shanty towns out in the middle of Timbuktu… far from the reaches of wireless connectivity. In the schools children are taught of the evils of technology. Why? Technology is the means through which Satan grabs good little girls and boys and sucks them into hell.
Justine (Brittany Finamore) is not convinced. Via a flash-back we learn that Justine was in fact a little girl that watched her mother disintegrate into flakes of ash after being infected by the electronic ghosties seven years ago, and the experience left her scarred for life and seeking answers. After Justine finds a laptop under the seat of a beat up junker car she connects with Adam (Rider Stron) and is convinced to trek to Houston and seek her livelong desire of life outside of shanty town and explanations of the real fate of big city life.
Lots happens at this point – Justine is almost killed by an old farmer, she meets a guy with a plan to save the planet (albeit in the wake of a nuclear winter, but hey… survival at any cost, right) and comes face to face with the hidden evil of those that will do anything to survive.
What is the moral of the story? Well, my moral is that if you want to do a movie with elaborate sets and use computer generated animation to achieve this goal, please spend more than $20. The CGI is truly terrible and poor Brittany Finamore, who did a passable job as Justine, was clearly forced to act just about every scene in front of a blue screen. Not that I care, mind you, as long as I can’t tell. I could TOTALLY tell.
Pulse 3 is mindless and weird, and more than a little pointless. The world would have been just fine without this silly conclusion to a contrived “trilogy”, and you will be just fine if you pass this one by. Questions or comments about Pulse 3? Discuss it on The Ossuary Forums!
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