The Signal

'The Signal' starts off pretty promising. Before I even rented this, I had a vibe that say, the acting wouldn't be the best, and there may be moments of over the top gore. Despite my suspicions being right, the film's first 20 minutes or so, start off pretty well. I won't rehash the plot, since I'm sure you already know what it's about. But there are several HUGE flaws with the film... *The over the top gore. The violence in this movie was completely unnecessary. Some of the best horror movies ever made ('Halloween' 'The Shining', etc), relied on atmosphere for their chills. The recent spate of horror flicks unfortunately doesn't do the same. *An incredibly weak second act. The second act turned the film into a black comedy. WHY????? *Weak acting. Yeah, one doesn't really expect Oscar-caliber acting in these movies, but man...the black guy's acting was just embarrassing. *No explanation given for The Signal's existence. Overall, this movie would be better viewed as a freebie on TV. Even spending money on a rental would be a bad idea.

For Father's Day, my children suggested that we have a nice family dinner and then screen a movie on DVD -- my choice. Unfortunately, my choice was to rent this barking dog of a film. Some of the reviews here gave me the idea that this might be an original, "technocreepy" kind of flick. Brothers and sisters !?! Can I get an "Amen"? No ?? Here's why. "The Signal" is, hands down, the absolute worst film that I've seen in the last twenty-five years. Not since being forced ( by an ex-girl friend ) to sit through "The Model Shop," have I been this repulsed by a so-called entertainment. This film is flat-out terrible in every important regard. The acting, if there was any, is wooden. We're talking mahogany wooden here. The blood is plentiful beyond any demand for it, every 'crazy' scene was the same in context, the three fellows who made this barking dog did NOTHING at all original. If you are working on a budget that is so slender you have to borrow your friends' apartments, at least pick some locations where there's enough room to turn around. This story-line is 100 % nihilistic. There is no redemption for these characters' suffering. That's a plot failure. The best-looking actress in "The Signal" is tortured mercilessly for no apparent reason. That's a moral failure which rests on the three co-creators. These fellows have committed a crime against humanity itself in the making of this cinematic fiction: the idea of a corrupt signal making people go crazy is hardly new, but they took that interesting premise and built a slaughter-house on it. Shame on them for doing so. The three fellows who made this film -- I dare not call them gentlemen in any sense of that term -- reveal only one thing to us who are their audience and their market. They have not one ounce of compassion in the text of their story-telling, not one ounce of humanity, and not so much as ONE original thought about how to make a meaningful fiction. What a shameful waste of their time and my money. So, yes, and "hell yes!!" Shame on all three of them. The foundation for the story -- the appearance of a rogue pattern of interference -- was apparently borrowed or maybe pirated from "Pulse". The cheating wife and her idiot husband was borrowed from somewhere else, like maybe any of a thousand TV movies one can see free on Oxygen or Lifetime. And as I said, the most interesting character appears in Part Two only, and is then scripted to be brutally assaulted, tortured, and then dispatched. Sickening and vile and pointless. They could have driven this film almost anywhere, because it is indeed, a character-driven vehicle. They chose to drive it into a dumpster ( quite literally ), and with any luck that is where all of the known DVD copies of "The Signal" will inevitably reside. And not a moment too soon, in my opinion.

On New Year's Eve 2007, regular programming has been indefinitely interrupted. A signal is being transmitted to every TV, cell phone, and radio. This transmission has a powerful effect on anyone who watches it or listens to it. It strips away self-control, plays on your paranoia, and makes even the most brutal of murders appear rational. Three people--a wife, a husband and a lover--all deal with this feral disorder in three, very different ways. This film brilliantly and brutally tells each of their stories. After the various transmissions of The Signal, chaos, murder, and mayhem ensue. Usually, when you are about to watch a low-budget horror movie, your excited anticipation at watching a new horror flick is very often marred by a bit of dread. Almost invariably, the viewer is going to have to overlook bad acting, stilted dialogue, and clichéd plot twists. Unfortunately, these pitfalls have come to be synonymous with moderately-financed movies. Having said this, now and again, a movie comes along which changes your mind about low-budget film-making. The Signal is one such movie, the acting is superb, the writing is innovative and compelling, and the dialogue delivers many a quotable line: "Do you have 'the Crazy?'" Transmission 1 – Crazy in Love, directed by David Bruckner. This part of the film tells us the story of Mya, the wife, and her story becomes, by far, the darkest part of the tale. This section is shot in such a way that it has a voyeuristic quality to it. The viewer does not feel as if they are watching a film, but rather, that they are observing Mya, as the initial effects of The Signal are startlingly revealed. "You're not my husband, you're a homicidal maniac." Transmission 2 – Jealousy Monster, directed by Jacob Gentry. This is the most surreal part of the film, as we see the world through Lewis's eyes. Of course, he is the jealous husband and is most obviously affected by The Signal. Gentry's transcendent use of nonlinear storytelling, along with his dark humour, gives us a gruesome glimpse into the mind of a maniac. And, even though Lewis has a habit of killing people by battering them to death with a fire extinguisher, you do, kinda, feel for the guy. "You are aware that you are having a conversation with a decapitated head." Transmission 3 – Escape from Terminus, directed by Dan Bush. And, finally, there is Dan's story, aka the Lover. In the final transmission, the line between good and evil becomes the most blurred that it has been since the start of the film. This epilogue hammers the message home, that no one is safe from The Signal. Viewers find themselves asking, "Who is the bad guy, who is the husband, who is the lover, who is dead, and who is alive? To all these questions, there is no definitive answer. The optimists among us will interpret the ending as a "love conquers all, kind-of," deal. And, cynics will view it as just the beginning of the last, great apocalypse, one in which man's inherent fears and paranoias, with a little help from some malevolent technology, will destroy all humankind. Transmission 3 is a very suitable, ambiguous ending to a first-rate horror film. Each transmission has a very different style, and some viewers may think this adds up to a disjointed narrative. However, I wholeheartedly disagree with this conclusion. As each story is told from a different perspective, it makes sense that the filmmakers should employ different techniques to portray their characters' personalities and varying descents into madness. The Signal is the most original, thought-provoking horror movie of the past decade. This film is wickedly witty and pleasingly perverse. Its writers and directors are very adept at their craft, and this film is a shining example of its genre, regardless of budget. In short, The Signal is a sublime example of film-making and is worthy of major distribution.

I saw "The Signal" last night at SXSW and it was very good. Somewhat mysterious, lots of tension, lots of suspense. Gore was omnipresent, with everyone wearing some amount of blood splatter by the end of the first act and throughout the rest of the film. This is the first movie, since The Shining, that made me want to cover my eyes for anticipated gruesomeness. I didn't and I'm glad I didn't miss a frame of this compelling story. The eponymous "signal" is an unexplained transmission over TVs, cell phones, radios, etc. that causes the viewer/listener to "get the crazy" and become very violent. The Signal causes people to believe that their murders are "rational", it causes realistic hallucinations and a violent reactions seem to be appropriate. It seemed to allow people to overcome their humanity and act out violent impulsive urges. However, as strange as it may sound, at it's heart, what moves the story forward is love.