Pulse: parents' guide
Best for ages 15 and up. Rated R for some violent images.
A quiet, deeply bleak Japanese ghost story (original title Kairo) for older teens who are comfortable with subtitles and heavy themes. Spirits seem to reach the living through the internet, and people across Tokyo withdraw, vanish or take their own lives. There is little blood and no sexual content noted, but suicide is the film's central image: a hanging, people shooting themselves, a fatal leap, and a ghost's message that death means eternal loneliness. The dread is slow and constant. We suggest 15, with extra caution for any teen who is struggling emotionally.
What's in it
Violence
ModerateSeveral suicides with little gore: a young man is found hanged, a man on a computer screen shoots himself, a young woman shoots herself, and a woman jumps to her death from a tower. People dissolve into dark stains on walls, and planes crash.
Language
NoneNeither the US nor the UK rating flags language, and our sources note no profanity in the sparse, subtitled dialogue.
Sex and nudity
NoneNo sexual content or nudity is noted by rating boards or plot sources.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
NoneNo drinking or drug use is flagged by either rating board or mentioned in plot sources.
Scary or intense scenes
StrongUK raters call it sustained psychological horror: ghosts that move in slow, unnatural ways, eerie webcam images of isolated figures, a forbidden room that people are drawn into, and a city slowly emptying of people. Bleak and hopeless in tone.
Sensitive topics
- Suicide
Worth talking about
The film links isolation and life online with despair. Ask your teen how connected they feel, and who they would reach out to if they ever felt that alone.
On our lists
Similar picks around 15+
Checked October 13th, 2026 against Wikipedia, bbfc.co.uk, the MPA. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.