Rejection. Strangulation. Boobs. I'm a firm believer that a film should put its best foot forward first and Fatal Pulse doesn't disappoint, getting its sleaze 'n slaying mix going on early. Its black gloved killer offing chicks in a state of undress set up reminisces of gialli, but there's no crazy plotting or style on display here, this is as basic as they come (apart from the score, which rocks). Fortunately things are frequently very silly and the plot has just about enough oomph for things to keep moving until around about the hour mark where the kicks wear off and the pace ambles to an inane close. Things centre on a non entity by the name of Jeff, an individual so forgettable you'd be better off arbitrarily choosing another character to be the hero. He gets accused of a string of sorority murders on account of being the last to see the first victim alive, and things aren't helped by his wild haired love rival and total ass-hole contemporary Brad (this is actually the second film I've seen from 1988 that has an ass hole love rival called Brad). Fortunately he has a lovely girlfriend and comedy room-mate on his side and together they can get to the truth! Ken Roberts makes no impression at all as Jeff, but Michelle McCormick cuts a nice figure as his gal, whilst elsewhere things are good fun, Joe Estevez as a flashback plagued war vet (cries!) Steven Henry suitably obnoxious as Brad and Blair Karsch best of all as foul mouthed stoner room mate Mark, accompanied by a boing when he appears and draping lively and likable idiocy over his every scene, particularly a stand-out costumed scene fending off potential attackers. Kills are spaced fairly well throughout the film and generally entertaining, the seamy edge to all of them is a plus and whilst there isn't any gore on show the spirit is pretty mean with an edge of misogyny (and one of the least likely throat slashings ever goes down, so there's that as well). A fair amount of nudity is on display and the ladies are generally pretty good on the eyes which is handy, though the film should really have gone further, I guess by 1988 the MPAA was really cracking down and the good stuff just wasn't flying. Not much more to say really, this is mediocre stuff and a film for completists only but it is pretty easy viewing for the most part and better than at least some of its ilk. See it if you have to, 5/10.
