Little David (Joey Lawrence) is visiting his father Bill (Cliff De Young) and stepmother Ellen (Roxanne Hart) in their California home when strange things begin to happen. It seems that the house across the street in this sleepy little slice of suburbia was the scene of a bizarre incident, where the man lost his wife and there were rumors of murder. David, not too happy to be stuck away from his mother, but excited to see his father, explores the neighborhood, making friends with local kid Stevie (Matthew Lawrence), who tells him about the incident at the neighbor’s house. He also runs into the Old Man (Charles Tyner, Crazy Ralph from Friday the 13th), who warns him of strange goings-on. As it so happens, there is a weird current of intelligent electricity that is moving from house to house, playing havoc with appliances and their owners. This pulse has decided that David is its next target, and works to kill the boy, failing time and again, but getting increasingly closer to its goal. In the end, David and his father Bill must team up to stop this menace from murdering not only the both of them, but from spreading out further in the neighborhood.
Somehow this slice of 80s weirdness got by me when I was a teen. This is exactly the kind of movie I should have rented from the local store, given its cool cover art and story. I think it was the PG-13 rating that put me off, because by then, I was diving deep into Italian gore films and something like this would have seemed tame. It’s a shame, because Pulse is a pretty exciting little movie. The story is solid, the effects are outstanding, and the cast is populated with characters that you really care about played by really good actors. Yeah, it sags a bit in the middle section, but mostly it plays very solidly like a twisted Spielberg flick, carrying that same youthful sense of wonder and adventure so many films like it at the time did. Also, there’s a small appearance by Mike Damone (Richard Romanus) from Fast Times at Ridgemont High himself. Can’t knock that. Oh, and Crazy Ralph makes an appearance, so that’s pretty cool, too.
All in all, Pulse is a fun little flick that offers some danger and horror that kids younger than 15 might find scary. Anyone older will probably bail, but this is a good movie to play for the tikes. It also holds up as a great, solid 80s-nostalgia movie. Maybe it’s a relic of its times, but it remains entertaining and fun.
★★★☆