Mischa Barton Movie:

		List Price: $9.98		Label: First Look Pictures Salesrank: 52344 Released: July 20, 2004
		Our Price: $5.14
		Used Price: $1.04
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: DVD

Pulse Reviews:
STOWE AWAY
2007-01-28 - First question: why is the talented Madeleine Stowe is this negligible piece of cinematic garbage? A paycheck's a paycheck I assume.
This is another one of those purportedly psychological thrillers that allows screenwriters to throw together some ideas and dare the audience to figure out what's going on.
A vampire cult of some kind has taken a young woman under their wings, spiriting her away from her distraught mother. Teen angst is a thematic element but the teens are so immature, you can only wish they all get zapped. The movie ultimately makes no sense and serves up one of those ambiguous endings so popular in movies these days. A real bummer here, folks.

...
2006-01-11 - I loved this movie I dont understand why it got so many negative reviews. Its a very unpredictable movie, the acting is not as bad as alot of ppl say it is, and I liked the plot. When I first was saw this movie I was expecting it to be horrible because of what people told me but I ended up loving it. I guess it just depends on what kinda movies you like. The only thing that bugged me in this movie was the daughter was a stuck up brat and it got really annoying but I still recommend it.

What every parent wishes for their kids
2005-10-09 - It's great to see an English horror film at long last. A well made and enjoyable film with high production values. Good, realistic, plausable acting from a film genre that sometimes fails to deliver. I also liked the art direction, there was a cold 50's look to it which worked for me, I wish it well in a tough oversubscribed market.

Inspirational
2005-09-29 - Aspiring filmmakers can always count on inspiration from a Marcus Adams production, if stuff this weak is actually making it into $11 Million productions there is hope for everyone no matter how semi-literate or imagination challenged. "Octane" aka "Pulse" looks like one of those productions that had its inception when a music video production designer stumbled across a neat looking industrial complex and got someone to cobble together a story to feature the set in something more than a music video. It looks like it was written on the back of a napkin at a truck stop because music video director Adams took huge liberties with Stephen Volk's script, and many of these changes were literally made on the set during shooting.

Rather than use the set in one of his music videos, Adams assembled a cast and shot a movie long on style and short on intelligence and substance. Imagine a nonsensical mix of "The Horse Whisperer", Rosemary's Baby", and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". Volk's original screenplay of a British mother and her 12 year-old daughter trapped in a car on a motorway they could not get off, was fundamentally altered. So much so that Volk seriously considered having his name omitted from the credits. Adams' "on the fly" changes destroyed any possibility of unity and logic. Confused viewers searching for hidden meaning and explanations are wasting their time, there is simply no method to the madness.

Madeleine Stowe suffers through this with a bad haircut and a general look of stunned surprise. Most likely due to having the her script change on a hourly basis. All this gives the movie a disjointed look.

Barton looks pretty used up until her love scene with the cult leader (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) when they put her in heavy eye makeup. With her anorexic face, gap teeth, and big eyes you can really see the Mia Farrow resemblance. Unfortunately Barton has a huge Cameron Diaz smile which tends to spoil the illusion. Her smile is the creepiest thing in the whole movie. Although contrived and silly this scene looks great and almost justifies making the movie-but it would have been much better as just a music video, duh.

Beware of a movie with multiple titles. Apparently "Octane" refers to the tank truck the cult uses for transportation and making merry, although it is actually a milk truck. Maybe they should have called it "Lactose". The how and why of the "Pulse" title remains a mystery, there is a hint about vampires but any explanation must have been on Volk's second napkin which he accidentally left behind at the truck stop.

Close viewing of "Octane" will also be an inspirational experience for aspiring editors as most high school video students are ahead of the movie's post-production people. A particularly glaring jump cut happens early when Stowe runs out of the path of a speeding truck. The long lens makes the truck appear to be about three feet from her as she scrambles out of the way, two seconds later they cut to a side shot and the truck is still several feet from reaching where she had been standing.

Think about it, with that same $11 Million to spend Dominique Swain could have cranked out eleven equally lousy movies.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Mind Numbingly Dull
2005-07-20 - This movie was awful. Madeline Stowe deserves better, and Mischa Barton should stick to the O.C
Dumb premise gets even more muddled when the mother (spoiler!) finds her daughter, the daughter still behaves like a total brat. I would have left her with the bloodsuckers.