Pulse Remake: Dave Boyle's New Horror Reboot

A celebrated filmmaker has recently agreed to helm a new version of the Japanese horror film Pulse . The original film, Pulse , directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and released in 2001, follows the eerie experiences of a college student and a plant store worker who encounter ghostly events triggered by the Internet, leading to paranormal invasions and unexplained disappearances. An English adaptation co-authored by Wes Craven was released in 2006, but it failed to impress the critics. Two decades after the original, filmmaker Dave Boyle is preparing to offer his unique interpretation of the horror series, according to Deadline . He will direct a new English-language version of Pulse under the production banner of Spyglass. The project is still in its early stages with no actors attached to it yet. This reboot will not include any characters from the previous Pulse films. The screenplay for the reboot has been penned by Luke Piotrowski, although Boyle is set to make further revisions. Producers Parker Finn and Jonathan Fass, both seasoned in the horror genre, are also on board. Boyle's recent project, Never After Dark , premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and is scheduled for a theatrical release on September 25. Piotrowski, along with Ben Collins, has previously written scripts for films like Siren , Stephanie , The Night House , and Hellraiser . Finn has directed films such as Smile , Smile 2 , and the upcoming 2027 horror movie Possession , which Fass is producing alongside Finn. Apart from his contributions to the horror genre, Boyle's diverse filmography includes titles like Big Dreams Little Tokyo , White on Rice , Surrogate Valentine , Daylight Savings , Man from Reno , I Will Make You Mine , Tokyo Cowboy , and House of Ninjas . Over the years, he has garnered several awards and accolades at various film festivals such as the San Diego Asian Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, and Los Angeles Film Festival. The original Pulse was well-received, debuting at the Cannes Film Festival and earning a 76% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating a generally favorable reception. Contrastingly, the 2006 English remake directed by Jim Sonzero, which starred Kristen Bell, Ian Somerhalder, Christina Milian, Octavia Spencer, and Ron Rifkin, was not well-received, scoring a mere 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite its poor critical reception, it managed to gross $30 million at the box office and led to two direct-to-video sequels, Pulse 2: Afterlife and Pulse 3 , which featured entirely new casts. The original Pulse scored 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, while the 2006 remake earned only 11%. Following his work on Pulse , Wes Craven went on to write The Hills Have Eyes 2 and My Soul to Take , and directed Scream 4 , which was his last directorial effort before his death in 2015. As Boyle gears up to bring his vision of Pulse to life, the project is still in the preliminary stages of development, and a release date has yet to be announced.