Rating:

So here we go again. After the first pulse they just HAD to do another. And after it did not so well in the ratings they decided to try and milk that cow over again, maybe this time it’ll work. But it didn’t. As usual with DVD releases this one reeks unprofessionalism and is a sad example of how horror movies shouldn’t be made.

We follow our favorite orphan Justine again, and this time she’s a bit older and a rebel so she acually TURNS ON a laptop! La di da! And falls in love in an online chatroom. So nerds didn’t die in the phantom attack! Whoa! Ah, right nerds have no souls so they’re immune to phantom attacks. So she’s going to the city to meet her internet lover and probably he has a gazillion nerdy friends around who also didn’t die.

Booooring. The special effects are quite frankly a bit like they were made frame by frame in photoshop without much attention to detail. There’s NO atmosphere of the first one and even no “moments” of the second one.

Let’s all hope they won’t make #4.

Rating:

Yeah, sure. We all know how it works, a movie becomes even vaguely praised and/or popular and we’re sure to see a sequel. And a third part too. Fourth possibly. They want to make money and if something works they reuse and re-do the idea until it’s so terrible it only comes out on DVD. And the legend dies. This happend to many movies, like “Wrong Turn” and “Ring”, and sometimes for some reason even the third part is pretty good (like Resident Evil series). This unfortunately is the former case. The first Pulse was intriguing and had a great atmosphere / awesome visual side. This is just another american horror film. Filled with cliches, wooden characters and not-too impressive sceneries. The only cool sequence of the whole movie is the beginning of it, but that whole storyline wasn’t even followed as much as it should’ve.

Sorry Justine, I hope you’re well but what the studio/director did to the series is far worse than any phantom in a full wifi range. Why 2 stars then ? There are some positives here, not too many, but enough to keep you vaguelly interested, but it’s not even scary. It’s more of a drama than a horror, but with that kind of acting they should stay out of drama.

Rating:

What an amusing piece of film. When you hear “computers” , “hackers” and “ghosts” combined with “american” and “students” we’ll all trembling in fear. Why? Because for sure we’ll hear about “cracking firewalls” and other nonsense technobabble that’s supposed to sound geeky and pro, but is in fact bullshit. Well ok, it can be funny to the people who actually know how a firewall works. But I digress.

This movie has only one of the flaws of the cliche those keywords would normally produce. And it’s the language – or the techno-babble they sometimes use. Luckily not too often. But for an american movie, come one! I can’t believe this is a hollywood production. (sure based on a japanese original) It’s deep! It has an european atmosphere (look at the city they live in!! the gothic like buildings, the dark and scary ambience of nearly every room).

This is a good movie ladies and gents. Sure it has those sudden noises and stuff jumping out at you but acting is surprisingly well, there’s atmosphere, nice looking ghosts and it’s scary even without those things jumping out suddenly. Seriously I recommend you this movie because it can really make you believe that americans can remake a japanese movie with style.

So yeah, sure it has flaws, sure it is a bit silly at times and the general idea is pretty silly too (ghosts from the internet?) But still it really shines. Really! Wes Craven! Thanks!

Rating:

So finally after the not-so-horror “night watch” and “day watch” movies (which were quite good tbh) we have a russian movie that’s a horror made with an attention to detail. There’s a bunch of people trying to rebuild an old bunker into a club and as usual they get locked inside with whatever evil forces occupy the building. We’ve seen a similar scenario with “The Hole” but this one is actually a bit more scary. For most parts the acting is ok and the fact that they’re speaking russian is actually helping since it’s easier to let some acting mistakes slide (like looking into the camera).

The characters are quite cliche for such a movie – there’s a goth girl, a drug addicted DJ, a small thief, an honest builder, two “background girlfriends” and a power / money obsessed club owner that tries to fire everyone he doesn’t like. And he hates everyone. But for the movie to be interesting the characters have to be different from each other so that’s ok.

There’s a lot of good camera play and sound effects and some clever traps / moody places like old tunnels, water tanks, mass graves and such. This is actually pretty thought out and visually great. This is no low budget bullshit. This movie delivers visually, but we’re kinda used to that when it comes to russians, right? The Night Watch and Day Watch movies were a good example of their visual flair. Which is stunning and very unique to them, and yet quite different from what hollywood CGI serves us.

What was also pretty cool that there are some scary moments that turn out not to be supernatural in any way but most of them were pretty original.

And even though it’s sometimes a bit too simple it’s not bad, not bad at all. And this director should be followed carefully because his next movie can be a classic if he keeps up the pace.

Rating:
Salem’s lot is another one of those Stephen King’s approved tv movies (like his version of the shining) but this one for most part isn’t that bad.

A famous writer comes to his home town to write a book about a haunted house in which he seen as a kid a guy kill himself. So now as an adult we have the famous “let’s face our childhood demons” theme. So he’s back in town but some mysterious men have rented the place and townsfolk started dying. Pretty standard plot, ok acting and nice scenery. Aside from that it’s not much more than a ok tv movie, but if you were looking for a classic you’ll be dissappointed.