Certain movies get under my skin and refuse to leave. Case in point: Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure and Pulse (AKA Kairo). There are several startling scenes in those movies that left me on edge for days. Both are horror flicks, but differ in their approaches. Cure is a police procedural with an unsettling string of deaths, while Pulse imagines what happens when there is no more room in the spirit realm for dead people. Kurosawa has a gift for creating indelible imagery married to sometimes head-scratching stories. Even when things don't really add up, as in Bright Future, his films leave a distinct aftertaste.

Kurosawa's Retribution, from 2006, hit Region 1 DVD earlier this week, and it's an odd little beast. In the opening scene, a woman in a red dress is brutally drowned by a mysterious man in a shallow pool of salt water on a reclaimed piece of land near the ocean. Kôji Yakusho (Babel, Shall We Dance?) plays Yoshioka, a weary police detective (similar to the one he played in Cure) investigating the case. Before he can get too far, we witness a respected doctor kill his son, for little apparent reason, by the same method. Is the doctor a serial killer? Why are Yoshioka's fingerprints on the first victim's body? Why does Yoshioka start having nightmares about a woman in a red dress?

Deliberately paced, Retribution veers between an effective freak-out and a disappointing, frustrating mystery, but Kurosawa fans may want to check out its low-key artistic despair.

I suspect I may be the only one who gives a rat's keister about this (and even my interest is rather slight), because as far as I can tell I'm the only person who liked the U.S. remake of Pulse, finding it an enjoyable and refreshingly straightforward horror story, as opposed to the obtuse and hard to follow Japanese original. Still, even I fail to see the logic in producing sequels to a film that grossed all of $29 million worldwide. Granted the Pulse sequels are going direct to video, but I just don't see there being a market for it. However, since Dimension Films didn't ask for my opinion, they have released new information about the two proposed direct-to-DVD Pulse followups that Scott first posted about back in February.

Bloody Disgusting is reporting that the sequels will be written and directed by Joel Soisson, who has had writing and/or directing credits on a number of direct-to-DVD horror sequels including Hollow Man 2, Dracula 2000 (and its two sequels), Mimic 2, and several entries in the The Prophecy series; a franchise that had some pretty decent entries early on. This guy's pretty much the sequel king. The films will be called Pulse: Afterlife, which deals with a society that is afraid to use technology for fear of confronting the spirits that escaped into our world in the previous film and Pulse: Invasion, which is about a teenager who flees the safety of a relocation camp to return to the city. You can read the synopses here, although the Afterlife summary is especially vague. The more I read about this project, the further my interest wanes. Fond as I was of Pulse I don't think it merited any kind of sequel, direct-to-DVD or otherwise.

When the fine folks at Dimension Films aren't pulling four-year-old horror flicks out of their vault, remaking the latest Asian horror movies or trimming their terrors down to earn a PG-13 rating ... they do direct-to-video sequels like nobody's business. This is the distributor that kept oozing Hellraiser, Dracula, Crow and Prophecy sequels from every available pore -- not that the horror fans were actually clamoring for those cheap knock-off follow-ups. But with those franchises pretty much exhausted (in more ways than one), it seems that Los Weinsteins are poking around for some newer ones.

According to Moviehole.net, the American remake Pulse is a candidate for the "churn out two" treatment. Unlikely that Kristen Bell will be returning, but word is that two new sequels to Pulse will hit the shelves eventually. The original Americanized Pulse grossed only $20 million domestically (and another $7 million overseas), but why let facts and figures get in the way of your low-end, low-quality DTV slate? Can Cursed 2 and Mindhunters 3 be far behind? (Frankly I find it kind of irritating that these sequels will go into production well before solid flicks like Black Sheep, Teeth and All the Boys Love Mandy Lane hit the screens. C'mon Weinsteins, hook us up!)

In related news, Bloody-Disgusting.com is reporting that the Weinsteins also want to mount a pair of Feast sequels, which I find somewhat hilarious when you consider the ridiculous way in which they handled the original Feast's theatrical release. (Midnight showings for two nights only! Bring your friends!) Feast writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunston (who may end up writing Saw 4, don't forget) recently dropped some vague little hints about the pair of sequels, but I'll believe it when I see it. (And considering the Dimension track record, we'll be seeing 'em in about four years.) Still, it's pretty rare to hear multiple-sequel news for a movie that made less than $57,000 at the box office, but Feast is quite the fun little flick. Pulse, on the other hand, is not. Like, at all.

These days, almost every indie actor (or actress) has their own band. On top of that, they also have their own MySpace page or YouTube page that's colorful, creative and has way too much going on. Personally, I don't have a MySpace page (sorry to let my legion of fans down) and cannot stand when someone sends me a link to one because, more often that not, the damn page gives me a headache. So what -- this person has 4,365 friends and likes to bombard us with the colors red, black, purple and orange set against some random image that gets in the way of the text you're (apparently) supposed to read. This should mean what to me, again?

So it's refreshing when an indie actor (or actress) comes along and wants to share their music without shoving it down our throats. Case in point: Gen Art's Pulse recently stumbled across a YouTube page for a user named of wild animals, who apparently turned out to be none other than indie actress Jena Malone (Saved!, Donnie Darko). According to Pulse, Jena spends a lot of her down time at some remote cabin in Tahoe where she likes to create experimental short films and music videos for her band. Yes, they're a little odd (hence the word 'experimental'), but I dig her voice and creativity. If you've got nothing to do tonight, swing on over there and let us know what you think. Jena can next be seen in The Go-Getter which will be screening at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Beerfest -- Those oh-so-wacky knuckleheads who brought you Super Troopers (yaaaay) and Club Dread (boooo) are back with a beer-soaked semi-sports comedy that celebrates the irreprressable beauty of yeast, malt, barley and fermented hops. (At least I think that's what beer is made of.) Haven't seen the flick yet, but I'm told it's actually pretty darn funny. Extras include two audio commentaries, a handful of featurettes and more than 20 deleted scenes.

How to Eat Fried Worms -- Yet another kid's book turned into a movie that nobody really cared to see. Then again, home video is where titles like this one make their bread and butter anyway. Extras include a director/kid actor commentary, a gag reel ("gag," get it? cuz it's about the eating of worms!), and a handful of featurettes.

Idlewild -- Kim was pretty surprised by how much she liked this flick, but going only by the box office numbers it seems she was most definitely in the minority. The "Outkast musical" was lauded by some and derided by others, but most seem to agree that it sure is ... different! Extras are pretty slim: two deleted scenes and a pair of music videos.

Miami Vice -- I think it's one of the worst movies of the year. Honest. But hey, if your idea of fun is 140 minutes of two preening actors wandering through a plotless and a stunningly generic plot construct, have a ball. Yeah, Michael Mann knows how to swing a camera around the room, but this flick's about as deep and edgy as an episode of Murder She Wrote. (Rant over. Sorry.) Extras include a director's commentary, six featurettes and a 15-minute-longer Director's Cut.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest -- I can be pretty critical of the Disney output from time to time, but where the Pirates movies are concerned, I'm little more than a hyperactive 8-year-old screaming "Yay, yippee, more!!" And the 2-disc release of DMC is an absolute treasure chest of digital awesomeness. The movie looks and sounds great, the screenwriter's commentary is quite illuminating, and there's more supplemental material to choke a Kraken: Blooper reels, documentaries, featurettes and yes: at least five hidden goodies!

Pulse -- The remake nobody asked for became the movie nobody went to see. I paid to see it only because of my Kristen Bell crush, and while it's certainly not a GOOD movie, I don't think it's as worthless as most PG-13 horror flicks I've seen lately. Extras include two commentaries, three featurettes, some deleted stuff and (of course) an "unrated" cut.

Rocky Anthology -- I'm pretty sure that all the sequels in this new collection are the same DVDs as before, but the original Rocky is given a rather swanky new digital release that should thrill anyone who loves the flick as much as I do. (Available separately) the Rocky 2-disc Collector's Edition comes with three audio commentaries, a half-dozen featurettes / mini-docos and some old-school archival footage that's never been released before. Yo, MGM! Thanks!

It's getting closer to Halloween, and that means scary movies. Of course, I love scary movies and I watch them all year long, but I watch them with a purpose in October. Most critics don't bother with scary movies, or pre-judge them, and that has led to the recent rash of horror films being withheld from the press. It goes without saying, also, that the studios know they're making bad movies by playing it safe with their remakes and sequels, rather than rolling the dice on a new idea. Most of the current horror movies have this in common: they're remakes or sequels, they were withheld from the press, and they flopped.

Hmm. I wonder if this is a pattern that ought to be avoided in the future?

Despite being directed by Neil LaBute -- a filmmaker whose entire reputation was established by critics who singled out his great debut In the Company of Men (1997) -- The Wicker Man remake (233 screens) was withheld from those same critics, and it has officially flopped, returning only $23 million on a $40 million budget.

It's weird to think of almost $20 million as chump change, but that's how the movie game is played. Pulse hasn't set any box office records, having pulled in a mere $19,703,256 as of this past weekend, which is unfortunate for this solid horror film. Kristin Bell (star of TV's Veronica Mars) proves she can carry her own weight in features, and the movie has some great creep-out moments with apocalyptic overtones. Kairo, the Japanese film on which Pulse was based, is a collection of interesting scenes, separated by moments of tedium and all strung together by a narrative that refuses to coalesce. Some may cry "blasphemy" when they read this, but Jim Sonzero's remake clarifies many of Kairo's infuriatingly vague elements, creating a truly rare cinematic phenomenon: a remake that improves upon the original.

The film deserved to do better, but I am confident Pulse will find its audience on DVD. The disk streets on December 5 with a 90-minute unrated cut, 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer, and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. Extras will include a commentary track with the filmmakers, deleted scenes, as well as the featurettes Creating The Fear: Making Pulse, The Visual Effects Of Pulse, and Pulse And The Paranormal. There will also be an 87-minute PG-13 version available in fullscreen only.

[via Bloody Disgusting]

I'm a film critic and I love horror movies. According to the studios, I do not exist. This year they have decided that horror movies (among other types) don't need reviews, and they have opened some dozen of them without press screenings, the latest batch being Pulse, Snakes on a Plane and The Wicker Man. Now, it may be that these movies are terrible. Or perhaps they just require a certain sensibility to understand them. In any case, they deserve a shot, and to show the studios that we critics are capable of getting horror movies, I worked on a list of the seven best from the past seven years. Surprisingly, my master list came out to more than 30 titles, which I painfully pared down to this final seven (I even had to leave out Saw and Ravenous!). Significantly, each of these films was made available to the press prior to their openings.

1. Pulse (2001, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
This, the scariest movie I've seen in years, gave me the creeping tingles. Like Lynch or Bunuel, Kurosawa has the power to tap right into our most nightmarish fears, but does it subtly, normally, like something lurking just outside the periphery of our everyday existence. Released in the U.S. in 2005.

2. Land of the Dead (2005, George A. Romero)
Romero adds another chapter to his legendary, brilliantly masterful zombie series, evoking all manner of classical imagery to build a harrowing portrait of the way we live today. And that's really scary.

3. Audition (2001, Takashi Miike)
Three words: watch the bag.

4. The Blair Witch Project (1999, Eduardo Sanchez, Daniel Myrick)
Pushing through the hype, the money, the buildup and the backlash, one can find at the rocky center a really good, quite imaginative and gripping film done with an eye on the unseen and the unknown.

5. The Descent (2006, Neil Marshall)
The second-scariest movie I've seen in years features incredible use of total darkness as well as a surprising look at the darkness of the soul.

6. Session 9 (2001, Brad Anderson)
This underrated, barely noticed film is perhaps the most intelligent haunted house (or rather haunted hospital) movie I've ever seen.

7. The Devil's Backbone (2001, Guillermo Del Toro)
This creepy flick, improbably set in an adobe school smack in the middle of the bright Spanish desert, may be Del Toro's finest hour.

Though Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby repeated at the top of the box office (its total of $23 million was down 50% from last week), the big surprise this weekend was the success of Step Up. The poorly reviewed teen dancing flick earned $21.1 million on fewer than 2500 screens via a per-screen average of $8500, easily the best among mainstream films this week -- who knew that a supporting turn in She's the Man had turned Channing Tatum from former model into box office god? Since the film cost only about $12 million to make, one assumes the people at Buena Vista are doing a little celebrating today.

Also doing solid business during its opening weekend was Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, which made $19 million from Friday to Sunday, earnings that ran its total to $27 million over five days and were good enough for the third spot in the weekend charts. Rounding out the top five were Barnyard which, unaffected by awful reviews, made $10.1 million in its second week in release, and J-horror remake Pulse, which earned only $8.5 million despite an exposure roughly equal to that of Step Up.

Full numbers are after the jump.

The day I saw Pulse -- which, it must be noted, did not screen for critics -- I spent the morning dealing with Gmail having shut down my e-mail account as an 'automated security procedure' after I'd tried downloading my mail to Outlook. Then, at the gym, I stumbled on the new TreadClimber and nearly split my head open; after that, while text messaging to get show times on my phone, I failed to notice a change in the curb and almost went face-down in the street. So a horror film about modern technology trying to kill us felt like a nice fit for the day; certainly, it had been trying to annoy me to death for the past several hours.

Based on the 2001 Japanese horror film Kairo by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Pulse begins on a college campus: The kids there have all the gizmos and gadgets of modern life, they lived by frantically e-mailing and IM-ing each other. At one point, out for a night on the town, our heroine Mattie (Kristen Bell) gets a text message from her friend Tim (Samm Levine) -- who's sitting two chairs away. It's not funny to Mattie; she's worried about her boyfriend, Josh (Jonathan Tucker). "Our relationship has been reduced to text messaging ...", she notes to her friend Isabell (Christina Milian). "How tragic is that?"

Well, it's about to get a lot more so, as Josh has discovered a computer program -- on some server somewhere he was hacking around on -- that not only really seems to mess up his operating systems and desktop but also functions as a gateway for angry and unyielding undead forces to stalk the world in search of victims to slay; Josh is a victim of those unquiet and hungry spirits early, but he's not the last.

The American version of Kairo (aka Pulse) feels like it's been "coming soon" for about three years now. The flick's seen multiple release dates and delays, re-shoots and re-snips for the MPAA, and then one final debut jump with no press screenings in sight ... Voila. Pulse opens today at a theater near you.

But first-time director Jim Sonzero has a few bones left to pick with the MPAA, as evidenced in this recent interview at Bloody-Disgusting.com (which I find semi-ironic, in that PG-13 "thrillers" are generally neither bloody nor disgusting). The director joked that "nobody under 66" was involved in the rating process, and he goes on to state "The MPAA, the studio wanted the PG-13 audience because we wanted to tap into and exploit Kristen Bell's market."

Spoken like a true auteur. Mr. Sonzero also makes it very clear that he's an "R-rated" movie fan who doesn't much care for PG-13-style genre flicks, which is just ironic enough to avoid discussing.

After some censor-friendly snips, Pulse is now rated PG-13 for "intense sequences of sci-fi terror, disturbing images, language, sensuality and thematic material," which makes me wonder why we even have a rating system at this point. One this arbitrary and stupid, anyway.

A few changes have been made to the release dates for some upcoming films. So, in case you're interested in that sort of thing (admit it, you're a release date nut!), stick around and check out the following:

• Those of you itching to catch Jessica Simpson ruin another movie with her horrible acting skills won't have to wait as long anymore seeing as the release date for Employee of the Month has been moved up from September 29 to September 15. The comedy (which currently sports some brand new posters) also stars Dane Cook and Dax Shepard.
• No one knows what's going on with the upcoming Pulse, except that the film has swapped more dates than Lindsay Lohan. Originally, pic was supposed to hit theaters on July 14, only to have its release pushed back to September 8. Now, it seems they've settled into August 8, though, with still a month to go, chances are this puppy will be heading somewhere else. We'll keep you posted.
• The supposed last martial arts-related film in Jet Li's career also has a new release date. Yeah, and Sean Connery is really retiring too. C'mon Jet, you'll be back kicking ass in no time -- just admit it already. Li's Fearless has been pushed back to September 22 after originally settling down to an early August bow.
• Man, and here I was really looking forward to a new werewolf flick. Seriously, I was. I like werewolves. They're cute. Anyway, something is up with the new flick Skinwalkers, as its release date has been pushed back from December to sometime in April 2007. Either production is running long or the filmmakers want to wait until the season's change and the sun stays out longer. Yeah, that joke failed. I'm out of here.

As any Johnny Depp fan worth their weight in Cry Baby memorabilia knows by now, The Weinstein Company released Depp's latest, The Libertine, on just one screen, for just one week in November – just long enough to qualify for Oscar consideration without  the need for a major marketing campaign. When critics reacted mixedly and the guilds and academies didn't react at all, TWC apparently scrapped plans for a later, larger release. This did not sit well with the fans; a post I wrote about the film's disappearance from Weinstein's schedule in January earned over 50 comments from irate Depp supporters. The occasional conspiracy theory aside ("Disney is paying someone something somewhere to make sure it doesn't come out until AFTER Pirates II, as they want Johnny Depp's rep to remain PG rated until then..." wrote Sally Solomon), most of those who wrote in were simply dismayed over the fact that they wouldn't be able to see the film in a theater near them.

Well, don't get too excited just yet, but it looks like perhaps that dire situation has changed. Whilst browsing The Weinstein Company's official site this morning (FYI: the Pulse remake has been delayed until July, which must mean someone thinks it's capable of opening big), I noticed that The Libertine is back up there – and this time with a release date of March 10. Neither that page, nor the film's official page, give any sort of details regarding the scope of the rollout, but Box Office Mojo has the release marked as "National". I sent an email this morning to TWC's publicity department; keep your eyes on this post, because as soon I have more details, I'll add an update.

A JoBlo tipster had the dubious pleasure recently of seeing an early screening of Pulse - Jim Sonzero's remake of the 2001 J-horror flick of the same name - and boy is he unhappy about it. Though his report (linked below) is less of a film review than a (mostly understandable) diatribe against crappy remakes, the fact that the movie sucks comes through loud and clear. Acting, by a cast full of TV stars? Terrible. (But...Kristen Bell! Veronica Mars! How can she be bad?) Writing, by FIVE assorted scribes? Awful. Atmosphere? Nope. Editing? Crappy. Overall? To quote the angry man himself, "No amount of post production work will help this film." Yikes.

Hey, there's one positive: if you came through that still eager to see the film, it's safe to read the review - it's spoiler free.