 Decemberdike # 1
Pulse (1988)
It's taken me three Christmas of new to me horror to get round to this Blu-ray from Eureka. I think i was so put out by the lacklustre Mindwarp i bought at the same time that i decided Pulse was more of the same.
Damn! How wrong i was.
I absolutely loved this eighties video gem. A science gone wrong tech thriller with pleasingly effective close-up shots of household appliance wiring systems remolding themselves on circuit boards as a highly aggressive and intelligent pulse of electricity terrorizes the occupants of a suburban house in California.
The family - Cliff De Young, Roxanne Hart and young Joey Lawrence - are uniformly excellent and make us truly believe in these strange paranormal events. There are some genuinely chilling moments such as Hart's shower sequence that get under the skin, but writer / director Paul Golding never over exploits things giving the film a level of authenticity that keeps the film grounded in reality despite some crazy but fantastic light special effects that you only ever see in movies from the eighties.
I enjoyed this so much that it's going to be a definite contender for film of the month.
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