Pulse (1988)
Pulse is a 1988 American science-fiction horror film written and directed by Paul Golding, drawing influence from previous works of science fiction and horror, and starring Cliff De Young, Roxanne Hart, Joseph Lawrence, and Matthew Lawrence. 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 through Columbia Pictures and the Aspen Film Society and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The titular Pulse and its accompanying elements were designed by Cinema Research.
Why It Matters
Pulse makes domestic technology itself predatory. The threat moves through wiring, appliances and electrical systems, turning the supposedly safe infrastructure of a suburban home into something intelligent and hostile.
Worldbuilding Inspiration
- An intelligence that can travel through a city’s infrastructure.
- Ordinary devices behaving as coordinated parts of a larger entity.
- A location where cutting power may not be enough to make the danger stop.
Related Screen Archive
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