When the Signal begins, we start off at the climax of your
typical horror movie, with a mad killer violently slaughtering his collection of
helpless captured female victims--until one of them works out a way at the last
minute to free herself. Throughout the film, the picture and sound become
distorted for a few brief seconds, but this isn’t a major problem until the
moment the freed victim goes to get the handcuff key that’s needed to free her
friend--then the picture and sound abruptly disintegrate into a jumble of
multicolored light and shapes, along with a distorted buzzing sound. It turns
out that the lurid horror movie was just that: a horror movie that had been
playing on late night TV in the sprawling city of Terminus. It’s the day before
New Year’s, and Mya (the superb Anessa Ramsey) had spent the night cheating on
her husband Lewis (A.J. Bowen) at her boyfriend Ben’s (Justin Welborn) apartment.
The horror movie that they’d fallen asleep to on TV isn’t the only thing that’s
been replaced by this bizarre and mysterious signal; the radio and
telephone--both cell and landline--are also all affected. When Mya returns home
to her husband out of guilt, she winds up running for her life when everybody in
her apartment building begins to viciously kill each other for no apparent
reason. The only connection they all have is that they’ve been either watching
TV, listening to the radio, or were on the phone when they were exposed to the
signal. The Signal is reminiscent of the Stephen King novel The Cell (the movie
was actually released first), which has
the majority of humanity being turned into raving killer zombies, thanks to a
mysterious signal sent over cell phones.
But where The Signal differs from King’s book is the fact that the people don’t
completely turn into mindless zombies. They still retain some vestige of
sanity--the twist here is that their paranoia, jealousy and rage are amped up to
murderous new levels. This presents an even scarier situation, which several
characters in the film face, in that they worry about whether they had been
infected--all while fighting for their very lives, which in many cases
necessitates them killing people in self defense. But since the Signal also
warps one’s sense of reality, are they killing because they really have to? It’s
a fascinating dilemma, one that’s well played by the film’s three directors, who
each handle the three acts of The Signal as if they were mini-movies.
Despite the fact that the film’s middle section plays out as a satire (and a
very funny one at that), The Signal overall is a very brutal movie to watch. The
killings are often very violent and sadistic--although the directors hold back
from showing any major gore during these attacks (with the exception of a few
shock moments here and there). The DVD comes with a commentary, and the standard
‘making of’ documentary, but be sure to watch the extra short films that are
included in the special features. They offer a glimpse of the horrors that the
Signal bestow from other perspectives that are equally fascinating to watch. The
Signal is a brutally blunt take on the 'end-of-the-world-zombie-movie' genre that’s not
only very well done, but it also provides some food for thought. Watch the Signal at
your peril!
--SF
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