Make It a Double Feature: ‘Pulse (Kairo)’ and ‘Red Rooms’
Both the Internet and social media often serve as outlets for human connection. However, such platforms can simultaneously serve as a hellish dimension of questioned self-worth and, more alarmingly, parasociality. Two horror films in particular dramatize the terrors of being chronically online in their own ways, with one leaning more into the selfhood theme and the other emphasizing the perils of chronic online obsession. Both films are also recommended views for anyone who wants good last-minute watches for spooky season.
The first is Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 masterpiece Pulse (Kairo). A juxtaposition of the supernatural and real-life technology, Pulse follows two different groups of young adults living in Tokyo who discover that ghosts are using the Internet to roam the Earth and invade the living. Rather than usual ghost story tropes like a limited haunted house setting or constant jump scares, Kurosawa relies mostly on existential dread to terrify the viewer. Instead of an ancient Gothic manor, we’re transported to a Tokyo that’s a ghost town where the few living citizens remaining roam in physical and mental isolation.
If there’s one scene from Pulse that’s the closest thing to a traditional spooky ghost movie scene, it’s easily its most famous one. When Toshio (Masatoshi Matsuo) enters a dark empty room known as a Forbidden Room that is encased by red tape used to prevent ghosts from entering the physical world, he encounters a mysterious woman standing right by the wall.
She stares at Toshio before doing a weird slow-motion dance as she makes his way to him. As the woman gets closer, we hear ominous choir sounds while she’s still encased in shadow until Toshio tries hiding and, as she finally reaches him, her head starts to appear and Toshio lets out a loud scream as the scene cuts to black.
In more traditional hands, the scene would involve the viewer waiting for the ghost to appear either gradually or out of nowhere. Instead, Kurosawa keeps us in suspense over the ambiguity of the female spirit’s appearance until it’s revealed along with the sound design. Keeping up with the film’s tradition of eschewing familiar genre tropes, whenever the ghosts do roam along the living, there are those who’re uneasy yet accustomed to their presence, accepting they’re as lonely and isolated as the living are.
Regarding how the film fits into today’s online culture, the characters slowly physically evaporating into black ash before being sucked into the Internet as ghosts reads like an allegory for being so absorbed by who we are online that our real-life persona starts to fizzle away. Also, while online friends can become real genuine ones, the humans dissipating can also be read as a grim metaphor for being so alone in our offline lives that we turn even more to those in our respective online circles for connection and affirmation. Furthermore, the red tape the characters use to protect themselves from the ghosts could be a stand-in for the “Go Private” feature on Instagram or the Block/Mute buttons on Twitter that we use to curate our own echo chamber. Given how Twitter alone has become more of a cesspool for toxicity and AI slop, those of us still using the app will surely keep breaking out the “red tape.”
While Pulse serves as a cautionary tale about maintaining our own personal offline humanity, the Quebecois thriller Red Rooms leans more into the alarming perils of attempted parasocial connections. The Pascal Plante-helmed thriller is one that is chilling to the bone and left me, a non-squeamish person, more nauseous by the time the credits rolled than the last 15 minutes of The Substance despite there not being a single drop of blood shown on screen. Even the close-ups of Dennis Quaid munching on shrimp in The Substance are no match for the queasiness of toxic stan behavior. Especially when said stan behavior shown on screen involves women fangirling over a psychopathic killer.
When Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) is put on trial for the murder of three teenage girls whose deaths were filmed and shared on the dark web, his case becomes a media frenzy with a band of followers vehemently proclaiming his innocence due to his meek, seemingly gentle exterior rather than genuine evidence. Chief among them is a young woman named Clementine (Laurie Babin). Despite having no connection to Chevalier, the manic look in her eyes as she’s being interviewed by the press after the first day of the trial proves she’s convinced Chevalier isn’t a murderer because he doesn’t appear like one. At the film’s center is the character who would come to challenge her worldview: The mysterious Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy).
A model who engages in online gambling, Kelly-Anne is a frequent witness to the trial who, thanks to the writing along with Juliette Gariépy’s skillfully elusive performance, never fully clues the viewer in on her true intentions. Kelly-Anne touching on her thrill of watching people lose everything suggests a planned takedown of Chevalier. Yet, one of the film’s most disturbing scenes hints otherwise. As the trial progresses, one day, Kelly-Anne dresses in disguise to resemble Chevalier’s youngest victim, causing Francine (Elisabeth Locas), the deceased girl’s mother to observe in terror. The empty gaze in Chevalier’s eyes as Kelly-Anne is being escorted from the courthouse while showing him a deranged smile makes it more unsettling.
Nauseating as it is to see Kelly-Anne go to such lengths to get so much as a smidge of a psychopath’s attention, Red Rooms is still necessary in its discomfort, holding up a mirror to our unhealthy obsession with both true crime and one-sided relationships with public figures unaware of our existence. Similarly, watching the people in Pulse stare too intensely at their computers can feel like a reflection of our everyday existence. Yet, in its own morbid way, it reminds us of the importance of logging off. For those who want great moody slow-burn horror that is as confronting as it is scary, why not watch both these films this Halloween and make it a double feature?
Pulse (Kairo) and Red Rooms are both available to stream on AMC+.
- Make It a Double Feature: ‘Pulse (Kairo)’ and ‘Red Rooms’ - October 22, 2025
- ‘Sk+te’kmujue’katik (At the Place of Ghosts)’ Review: A Narratively Ambitious Genre-Bending Tale of Familial Trauma [B] TIFF - September 13, 2025
- ‘Carolina Caroline’ Review: Kyle Gallner and Samara Weaving Rob and Throb in Old-School Crime Drama of Lovers on the Run [A-] TIFF - September 8, 2025
Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) Nominations: ‘One Battle After Another,’ ‘Sinners’ Score 13 Each 
Director Watch Podcast Ep. 129 – ‘White Material’ (Claire Denis, 2008) 
2026 Golden Globe Nomination Predictions (Motion Picture): Can ‘One Battle After Another’ Tie ‘Barbie’ and ‘Cabaret’ as the Third-Most Nominated Movie Ever? 
2026 Golden Globe Nomination Predictions – Television: Expect Emmy Favorites ‘The Pitt,’ ‘The Studio’ Plus New Fare ‘Pluribus’ and More