During a Kiyoshi Kurosawa film, one sits in anticipation of the horrors lingering just outside the frame.

The ghost is literally in the machine in this prototypical Japanese horror film that works primarily with dread and inexplicable phenomena rather than blood and guts.

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Cross the "Ring" series with "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and the result wouldn't be far from "Pulse," another step on the road back to the psychothriller genre by which cult Japanese helmer Kiyoshi Kurosawa first made his name overseas. Result is always watchable, occasionally creepy and teasingly pitched halfway between a genre riff and a genuine scarefest.

Pulse rips its story line from better Japanese horror movies