Kairo, sometimes seen as Pulse, is Japanese horror film about the isolation that our increase in technology brings. The story is told between two parallel storylines. The first follows Michi, a young woman who is present when her coworker commits suicide. The other follows Kawashima, a college student whose internet asks him if he wants to meet a ghost after showing him several strange and eerie photos. Eventually the two stories converge.
It's strange that 2001 doesn't feel all that long ago, but a lot has changed in these 13 years. Having your movie focus on a specific technology can be risky in terms of longevity. Who knows if that tech will still be around in 20 years? But this film doesn't suffer too much from being grounded in the early internet era. In fact, there are some elements of suspense used that isn't even viable today. At one point, Kawashima's computer, which uses dial-up internet, turns the internet on by itself. Today's internet is more or less always connected. In fact, were this movie to come out today, the scariness would come from the computer shutting the internet off on its own.
Much of the horror in this movie comes in a more philosophical way than most. The commentary of the filmmakers, that despite being more connected through the internet, we as a people are more alone than ever. Again, this is something that we are still struggling with even 13 years after this movie came out. That being said, there are a number of traditional scares, the "help me" scene in particular comes to mind, the absolute silence mixed with the whispering, ugh goosebumps! The whole spookiness is taken to the next level by the hauntingly operatic score.
Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 5 out of 10 boos
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