Fridae

The only studio film from Hollywood to open this week is a B-grade horror flick adapted from a superb Japanese movie of the same name.

Directed by a TV commercials director Jim Sonzero (his background shows from the film's busy, pulsating images), it tells the story of university students who slowly start to die after they stumble on some ghostly images on their computers. Apparently, dead souls have found a way of returning to the living world via the signals that cellphones and laptops receive.

The concept, though clever, is poorly executed. It is not known why the hero and heroine do not die like the others after they have viewed the ghostly images, or why the ghosts supposedly cannot enter a room covered with red tape. There are not enough ground rules for the ghosts, who can sometimes break windows and other times cannot penetrate glass. Lead actors Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) and Ian Somerhalder (Lost) are pretty but pretty boring. And the apocalyptic vision of the world after the ghosts take over it just looks ridiculous.

The original Japanese version, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, was beautifully abstract and haunting. Although a lot was left unexplained, Kiyoshi left sufficient clues for you to figure things out for yourself. If you have a chance to catch the original Pulse, do so.