By Kevin "Berserker" Hall
Pulse 3 takes place in a post apocalyptic world where digital dead corpses
have basically taken over the earth. Technology such as computers and any other
digital device such as a cell phone are seen as evil since these devices possess
the power to bring back the dead. The story follows a young adolescent by the
name of Justine. She lives among a town of survivors with her foster parents.
Nightmares of Justine's deceased mother haunt her mind and she dreams of
breaking free from the confines of her current life. After discovering a laptop
in an abandoned car, she uses an instant messenger to chat with a mysterious
person named Adam that wants to meet with her. Justine runs away from home in an
attempt to meet up with this mysterious person and find the answers to her
mother's death.
Pulse 3 takes about half the entire movie to build up the main characters of
the story and nothing really interesting happens until about 40 minutes into the
movie. The main characters are really the only interesting characters present in
this feature. Justine was enjoyable till the end. Many of the minor characters
only share screen time to build themselves up to some horrifying death. With
that said, the movie can get very gory in certain portions.
The digital zombies have a unique look to them that makes them look
terrifying and overall disturbing when they are showcased. One scene actually
shows a zombie with half of her head blown off as she is showcased on the
screen. It's interesting how the creators can make a digital image just as scary
as a real life person much like what was achieved with Samara in The Ring only
the dead digital images in Pulse 3 don't hide their faces behind a thick coating
of hair.
Sadly, zombies appear only minimally throughout the movie except for a few
key scenes. I really only found about two really good zombie scenes with some
good action displayed. All the rest were basically there for quick scares or a
quick glimpse of a zombie to make you "Ooooo" and "Ahhhh" at their presence.
Overall, I felt the movie lacked excitement and had too much build-up at the
beginning. Justine's character was basically the only character that kept me
involved until some zombies finally started to appear. Even after the actual
horror starts the overall story isn't that engaging as the finale approaches.
The overall movie clocks in at 91 minutes and extras include a commentary and a
short "Behind the Scenes" feature. Pulse 3 might be worth a rental, but if
you're expecting more action and overall zombie involvement then you'll most
likely only watch it once.
Final Rating:
