Yes, 7 out of 10. It's quiet dread about loneliness, delivered through computer screens and a lot of empty rooms.
π±THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
7 /10
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DREAD LEVEL
High
You'll glance at a taped-up door or a dark corner for a few days.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: It is slow and bleak, so watch it in daylight with someone else in the room.
Pulse is a Japanese ghost story set in Tokyo, where a plant shop's computer disk starts a run of strange absences. Early on, a door sealed with red tape turns up, and a coworker walks through it anyway.
The premise, briefly
Michi, newly arrived in Tokyo, goes to check on a plant shop coworker who has been missing for days while working on a computer disk.
How much do you want to know?
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The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
π±CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Ghosts overrun Tokyo and then spread worldwide, and the people the ghosts catch vanish, some into black stains on walls. Michi survives on a ship of survivors bound for Latin America, and Ryosuke fades last, in her room on the ship.
The scene you're dreading
Harue's scene in the middle of the movie. A man with a plastic bag over his head shoots himself on her computer screen, then the picture cuts to a live view of Harue herself. She embraces something you can't see and says she is not alone.
The dog
No dog dies in Pulse.
Pulse is slow dread about loneliness with very few jump scares, and the ending is bleak, though Michi gets a measure of peace.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
Red tape on a door, which is never a good sign
Michi Kudo, a recent arrival in Tokyo, has a job at a plant shop alongside Junko, Yabe and Taguchi. Taguchi has been missing for days while working on a computer disk of the shop's sales. When Michi visits his apartment, he seems distracted and distant, and then she turns around and finds he has hanged himself, which makes her wonder who she was talking to. The disk plays an endless loop of Taguchi staring at his monitor while a ghostly face shows on another screen. Yabe gets a distorted call saying "help me", finds a black stain on Taguchi's wall and a note about "a forbidden room", and walks through a door sealed with red tape into a ghost. He comes back strange and warns Michi away from the room. Their boss goes missing, and Michi finds a similar stain in the storage room. Junko enters a forbidden room of her own, ends up catatonic after Michi pulls her away, and later dissolves into a black stain on Michi's apartment wall. Michi, worried because her mother isn't answering the phone, heads out of Tokyo to see her.
At the same time, Ryosuke Kawashima, an economics student, signs up with a new internet provider. His computer opens a website on its own, full of images of people alone in dark rooms, and it comes back on at night after he unplugs it. At the university lab he meets Harue Karasawa, a computer science graduate student, who suggests he bookmark the page or screenshot it. His computer refuses and plays a video of a man with a plastic bag over his head in a room covered in the words "help me". One graduate student has a theory that the dead are crossing into the physical world, and Harue starts to believe the ghosts want to trap the living in their loneliness. Ryosuke tries to take her away by train, but it stops and Harue goes home. This is the scene people dread: the man with the bag shoots himself on her screen, the picture cuts to a live view of Harue, and she embraces an invisible figure and says she is not alone. By the time Ryosuke gets there, Harue has vanished.
Tokyo runs out of people and gasoline
The ghosts launch a full invasion of the KantΕ region, people vanish in large numbers, and Tokyo is evacuated. Ryosuke runs into Michi while he is searching for Harue, and together they find her in an abandoned factory. Harue copies the man from the video, takes a plastic bag off her head and shoots herself. When their car runs out of gas, Ryosuke goes looking for fuel in a warehouse and wanders into a forbidden room. There a ghost informs him that death means eternal loneliness. He fights it at first, then stops wanting to go on, and Michi drags him out of there. They drive through a completely empty Tokyo and see one apocalyptic sight after another. At Tokyo Bay they try to leave by motorboat and are picked up by a ship of survivors, who tell them the same thing is happening all over the world.
The ending, explained
The ship heads for Latin America, and the captain tells Michi she was right to keep living. Back in her room she finds Ryosuke seated against the wall with his eyes shut, and he dissolves into one more stain on the wall. Taguchi, Junko and Harue are already gone. Michi reflects that she found some happiness in the company of her last friend.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there is a scene after the credits.
β Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Pulse scary?
Yes, Pulse is a 7 out of 10. It has high dread, built on loneliness and slow ghost encounters, with very few jump scares and not much gore, and the feeling lasts for a few days.
How does Pulse end?
Ghosts take over Tokyo and then the world, and people vanish in huge numbers. Michi is left on a ship of survivors after Ryosuke fades away in her room.
Does the dog die in Pulse?
No, no dog dies in Pulse.
Is there a post-credits scene in Pulse?
Nobody has confirmed whether Pulse has a scene after the credits.
What do the ghosts want in Pulse?
In Pulse, Harue concludes that the ghosts are lonely and want to pull the living into their loneliness. A ghost later tells Ryosuke that death is eternal loneliness, and the people it catches disappear.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Pulse is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
Pulse is a long walk through Tokyo toward a door with red tape on it. Install Scaredy Cat and the trailers stay blurred while you read the plot instead.
