Pulse (2001)

Pulse—the 2001 Japanese original rather than the American remake—is another film that is low on thrills and jump scares but is dripping with dread. A horror parable for the internet generation, Pulse tells two parallel ghost stories at the turn of the century which hone in on themes of loneliness and connection. It’s one of the slowest burns ever, but it’s a sufficiently creepy and profound ride to the very end. As people begin to disappear around Japan, the film turns from one about metaphoric isolation to the actual thing, and seeing the city streets slowly empty out over the course of the movie feels like watching the apocalypse quietly claim us all.

Pulse is unnerving as all hell, and nowhere is that truer than in its most iconic scene. In it, the character Yabe (Masatoshi Matsuo) crosses a threshold he clearly shouldn’t and meets with a ghost in a poorly lit and clearly abandoned passage. The striking silhouette of the apparition emerges from a shadow towards Yabe, at which point he recoils, but the ghost doesn’t attack him. Instead, it menacingly just walks towards him, performs an unusual movement that briefly reveals its visage, and then reverts back to its stalk. The score and physical performance here are so unnatural that despite the lack of any real surprise, the scene’s action feels uncompromisingly urgent, and Pulse carries that to unease to its very final moments. — Moises Taveras