Pulse

Failing to maintain any semblance of internal logic, Pulse (a remake of the apocalyptic Japanese ghost story Kairo) takes an interesting premise and renders it incomprehensible. A hacker breaks into the database of some Ohio State University researchers who have come across a previously undetected frequency that contains either the spirits of the resentful dead, electronic demons, or an alien race … it is never really spelled out satisfactorily. Breaking the code unleashes these beings to prey upon the living through the conduits of their cell phones, computers and BlackBerrys, spreading a virus that sucks the will to live from the victims and eventually reduces them to a flurry of greasy, black ash—unless they kill themselves first, as the now-infected hacker does. His ex and her two friends are aided by another hacker in their goal of sitting around and acting confused, to be picked off one at a time in typical horror-film fashion, in accordance to their attractiveness. Jim Sonzero delivers a bloodless horror film singularly lacking in scares, and one that despite looking creepy fails to actually be creepy.