Pulse 2: Afterlife (2008)

PLOT OUTLINE: The world has been invaded by ghosts who enter this realm through computers & cell phones. Michelle Kramer, a single mother who lost custody of her daughter Justine to her unfaithful husband, goes out on the streets looking for her, only to find that the child is actually with her father. Michelle, who is unaware that she is actually dead, tries to get her daughter back while her ex-husband does his best to save the child from her.PULSE was one of a spate of horror films made in Japan during the boom of the late-90s / early 00s. This particular film was the work of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a filmmaker who was not unlike David Lynch, with his work being almost universally hard to follow due to having murky impenetrable plots. That said, Pulse was the greatest success that Kurosawa ever had, probably due to the strong atmosphere that he had invested in the film. The execs at Hollywood made the decision to conduct a remake. This remake was strictly a mediocre affair, the only good thing it did was having explained all the plot dead-ends that the original failed to do.While it was a rather dull remake, the film only just made its money back, prompting the execs at Dimension Studios to greenlight not one but TWO sequels, of which Pulse 2: Afterlife and Invasion was the first. The man responsible for making the film was Joel Soisson, a director who is known in the industry as a 'hatchet man'; his career consisting of stepping in to finish other people's films & making cheap sequels to genre films.With Pulse 2, Soisson figured that the few fans the remake had would be already familiar with the concept, so he decided not to invest any energy in re-establishing the concept, instead hitting the ground running.The first thing you'd notice about this film is the fact that the film suffers from a very poorly written script. You'd think that having spent close to twenty years in the B-movie gutter would make Soisson a good filmmaker. He does have good experience. But the fact is, Soisson is quite a bad director & even worse writer. The script he delivers for Pulse 2 is written according to cliché & has some absurd characterisations. The female characters here are so badly drawn that the viewer is left groaning. Georgina Rylance, who plays the mother, delivers her shrill characterisation with a completely flat performance that becomes the source of unintentional laughter. The 'surprise' revelation that she is actually a ghost is telegraphed miles in advance & only serves to make the viewer groan in disbelief. As for the rest of the cast, only the male actors manage to give good performances, most notably Jamie Bamber, who plays the father. Bamber is the only actor who gives us reason to feel sympathy for him.Acting & script aside, what really sinks the film is the rampant overuse of digital effects. Most of the background shots & sets consist of still images digitally inserted into the film, the actors doing their thing in front of a green screen. This unimaginative use of CGI is pointless to say the least & reeks of lazy filmmaking. The sets are not the only victims of digitalis imageris insertis – the ghosts themselves look like they were taken from a video game!Another flaw with Soisson's approach is the way he mounts the shocks. The set-pieces – Rylance's uncle covering himself with dead cat entrails; a fat man stripped down to his underwear jumping off a bridge; a gas station attendant pouring petrol all over himself; a man having sex with a partially-disintegrated Boti Bliss – are not only lousy, they veer into bad taste.

Not long after the going ons in "Pulse" the city is in chaos. Leftover survivor try to find safety. Among them Stephen (Jamie Bamber) and his 10-year-old daughter Justine (Karley Scott Collins). Unfortunately for them the child's mother Michelle (Georgina Rylance) has succumbed to the contagion and is now intent on regaining her child from beyond the grave...Really don't feel like writing too much about this waste of time. Even though the original was hardly a commendable film this straight-to-DVD movie was somehow filmed (almost entirely on a very poorly done blue screen). The plot is tedious and the direction really wallows too much into random scenes and situations. The special effects are several notches below those in the original and the acting is mostly laughably pathetic. The only saving grace is the fact, that the two main characters - Stephen and Justine - actually do a decent job, even though the script and director throws multiple hurdles in the form of stupid and pretentious dialogue. On a plus side there are a couple of really interesting horror ideas wasted in this movie (fatso sex scene, Michelle self-mutilation or the whole idea behind Michelle not being aware she is dead) and for fans of gore there is one very disgusting cat scene. Unfortunately even those plus sides are pulled down in the undertow of bad scripting, directing and an overdose of blue screen.

Seems to me that the reason for people to hate this movie is because they don't understood what is going in it. And I can't say I blame them. If you don't know any of the background, that the story was originally supposed to be about, this is one confusing and just plain bad movie to watch, since this movie and its predecessor does such a bad and lazy job at explaining stuff. However if you have seen the first original Japanese movie "Kairo" you'll understand things a lot more and better and you will even be able to appreciate this movie better.But having said that, this still isn't a very good movie. Thing with this movie is that it has a very thin storyline that it follows. At first you think that this is all an introduction to a greater, bigger plot-line but after half an hour in you start to realize that this is actually it. There isn't really a point to the story in terms of trying to resolve a great conflict or attempt to find answers and a way out of things. Stuff just happens in this movie and its weak main plot line is not strong enough to really hold everything together, or to make this a very effective movie to watch. The movie its characters simply also aren't good or likable enough for that. The characters that potentially did seem interesting and strong hardly get developed in this movie and are being pushed to the background, so they instead make a redundant impression.It's not a typical horror movie, which might also be the reason why the movies series never praised or recognized. It's hard to say what is the right kind of audience for these movies. Horror fans surely won't like it enough and those who aren't really into horror will probably never have any intentions of seeing these movies because of its main, still horror-like, concept.I don't really understand why the first "Pulse" movie ever spawned a sequel. It's not like it was a financial or critical acclaimed success. Maybe it was still due to it's promising and different main concept. It was definitely a series with potential, especially when you see how well the original Japanese movie worked out but non of the Hollywoodized remakes ever managed to capture the right mood and to keep the right ideas in the movie. Instead they made some bad choices and additions to the story, in an attempt to still gain the interest of the horror buffs.Can't say I really hated this movie but it certainly isn't a very strong one.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Well , Its just a waste of time , There is nothing there to watch , in addition to that , the cast make it worse ! Jamie Bamber acting like hes just learned how to act yesterday.Everything makes no sense in the movie , Its a ghost revenge but even the ghosts there are really stupid , don't expect horror, its comedy !!!The plot is sick , the acting is sick , even the shooting is stupid.For long time I didn't see that assembled shots, a man standing in a farm with visual effects that makes you believe he is still in the studio!