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Halloween Special: Pulse (2001)

  • James Payne
  • 11 hours ago
  • 2 min read

This Halloween, we’re logging on to the apocalypse. In this Patreon-exclusive episode, Matt and James explore Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s chilling J-horror masterpiece Pulse (2001) — a ghost story for the internet age. As the boundary between life and death dissolves through dial-up screens, we talk tech anxiety, spectral loneliness, and why this early vision of a connected world feels even more terrifying today. Expect talk of Y2K-era dread, red tape doors, and the creepiest use of a chatroom ever committed to film.

“The ghosts found a way online… and there’s no logging off.”
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Episode highlights

  • Haunted bandwidth: How Pulse imagines ghosts moving through technology — and what it says about early internet fears.

  • Loneliness as infection: Isolation, connection, and the film’s tragic emotional core.

  • J-horror boom: Context within late-90s/early-2000s Japanese horror (and how Ring opened the door).

  • Digital afterlife: Kurosawa’s unique vision of death as data — not an ending, but a loop.

  • Iconic scares: The red tape door, the slow-moving woman, and that infamous computer monitor scene.

  • Technology as contagion: Comparing Pulse to modern horror like Host and Unfriended.

  • Apocalypse tone: A world already ending — slow, quiet, and inevitable.

  • Kurosawa’s direction: Minimalist, eerie, and existential — ghosts of emotion more than jump scares.

  • From fear to philosophy: How Pulse transforms supernatural horror into meditation on loneliness.


Chapter markers / timestamps

  • 00:00:00 Cold open: distorted dial-up tone and a haunting quote.

  • 00:00:42 Welcome & spooky season setup.

  • 00:02:10 How Pulse fits the J-horror wave of the early 2000s.

  • 00:05:27 Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s background and directing style.

  • 00:08:04 Plot setup — ghosts, technology, and isolation.

  • 00:10:11 The internet as haunted space: “death spreading like a virus.”

  • 00:13:22 Iconic imagery: red tape, static screens, and empty rooms.

  • 00:17:40 The infamous hallway ghost scene — why it works.

  • 00:21:14 Loneliness and the apocalypse: emotional resonance beyond horror.

  • 00:26:00 Theories on what the ghosts want (if anything).

  • 00:31:20 Sound design & silence — Kurosawa’s use of absence.

  • 00:34:45 Comparing Pulse to Ringu and Dark Water.

  • 00:38:10 The remake question: Pulse (2006) and what got lost in translation.

  • 00:42:04 Final thoughts: ghosts as metaphors for modern isolation.

  • 00:45:32 Outro & Halloween goodbyes.


Show notes & references mentioned

Films & TV

  • Pulse (2001) / Kairo (Japan)

  • Pulse (2006, US remake)

  • Ringu (1998)

  • Dark Water (2002)

  • Host (2020)

  • Unfriended (2014)

  • Perfect Blue (1997)

  • The Matrix (1999) [Y2K tech paranoia reference]


Listener links

Credits

Hosts: Matt Willcock & James Payne

Series: Halloween Special (Patreon Exclusive)

Episode: Pulse (2001)

Produced by: Journey Through Sci-Fi


Originally released for Patreon supporters on October 30th, this Halloween special dives into Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s haunting vision of the digital afterlife in Pulse (2001).

Season: Halloween Special • Runtime: 47m 55s

 
 
 

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