| Pulse | |
|---|---|
_poster.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Paul Golding |
| Written by | Paul Golding |
| Produced by | Patricia A. Stallone |
| Starring | Cliff De Young Roxanne Hart Joey Lawrence Matthew Lawrence Charles Tyner |
| Cinematography | Peter Lyons Collister |
| Edited by | Gib Jaffe |
| Music by | Jay Ferguson |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6 million[1] |
| Box office | $40,397[2] |
Pulse is a 1988 Americanscience-fictionhorror film written and directed by Paul Golding, drawing influence from previous works of science fiction and horror, and starringCliff De Young,Roxanne Hart,Joseph Lawrence,Matthew Lawrence, andCharles Tyner. The film's title refers to a highly aggressive and intelligent pulse of electricity that terrorizes the occupants of a suburban house in Los Angeles, California. The film was produced throughColumbia Pictures and theAspen Film Society and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The titular Pulse and its accompanying elements were designed byCinema Research Corporation.
A highly aggressive, paranormal intelligence thriving within the electrical grid system of Los Angeles, California is moving from house to house. It terrorizes the occupants by taking control of the appliances, killing them or causing them to wreck the house in an effort to destroy it. Once this has been accomplished, it travels along the power lines to the next house, and the terror restarts. Having thus wrecked one household in a quiet, suburban neighborhood, the pulse finds itself in the home of a boy's divorced father whom he is visiting. It gradually takes control of everything, injuring the stepmother, and trapping father and son, who must fight their way out.
The film was promoted by thetaglines "It traps you in your house...then pulls the plug," "In every second of every day, it improves our lives. And in a flash, it can end them," and also "the ultimate shocker."
The film was produced byAspen Film Society, a film production company founded bySteve Martin andWilliam E. McEuen.[3]
Paul Golding got the idea forPulse from two unrelated events with the first being when the cinematographerCaleb Deschanel spent the night in his house and told him that at night he'd been listening to “the sounds of the house…..the house was alive and it was taking care of me“, and the second was when he heard about a computer that reprogrammed itself .[1]
Golding wrote the screenplay under the working titles ofHouse,Tract andCurrents in 1981 but couldn't get it made until Columbia eventually took it on seven years later.[1] David Morse and Tommy Lee Jones both auditioned for the role of Bill but lost to Cliff De Young.[1] Production was completed a day early and $1 million under its $6 million budget, and as a result were able to affordOxford Scientific Films to do many of the special effects.[1]
David V. Picker, the head ofParamount Pictures at the time, was impressed by the film and intended to position it as a wide release, but changes in studio management curtailed this and it was only released theatrically in Texas and Oklahoma, while it went straight to video elsewhere.[1] The movie did however become a success on video.[1]
Pulse has a 64% approval rating at the onlinereview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes based on 14 reviews.[4]
The musical score forPulse was composed byJay Ferguson, who also composed "Pictures of You" from thesoundtrack toThe Terminator, and the film score toA Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child.
Authority control databases: National |
|---|