The Signal

[modage]

SYNOPSIS: Imagine every cell phone, radio, and television in your city suddenly broadcasting the same mysterious signal over and over. Now imagine these "terminus" transmissions evoking violent, uncontrollable, psychotic chaos from everyone who comes in contact with them.

The Signal invades the minds of everyday citizens living their workaday lives and having their sordid affairs. Suddenly struck by the power of the insidious transmissions, they are compelled to kill or be killed. Complicating matters is a zombielike resistance some characters have to the idea of remaining dead. The story violently explodes, blending bloody gore with psychological satire, for a truly original horror experience. The Atlanta filmmaking team of David Bruckner, Dan Bush, and Jacob Gentry tell the eerie tale in three parts (cleverly called "transmissions"), shifting perspectives to draw out a larger story that explores dark secrets and fears as well as jealousy and betrayal.

Not for the faint of heart, The Signal will nonetheless satisfy those looking for a smart exploration of the power of media to mutate our minds. It is truly inspired independent filmmaking that will stalk viewers from every dark corner while examining the surprising human madness lying deep within.

TRAILER:

"The Signal is a moderately subversive and very proficient splatter horror movie of the sort David Cronenberg used to make back in the '70s and '80s, before he moved on to more arcane topics and approaches."

RAVE REVIEWS FROM SUNDANCE: here and here and here and here

[grand theft sparrow]

I think Stephen King, John Carpenter and Danny Boyle are gonna sue somebody.

But I can't lie, I'm going to see this whenever it comes out.

[polkablues]

I think Stephen King, John Carpenter and Danny Boyle are gonna sue somebody.

Um... yeah.  Isn't this the exact (like exact) plot of "Cell"?

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer here.

[RegularKarate]

Yeah, this movie isn't very good.

The first part (director #1) was tolerable, nothing fantastic, but not awful, the second act was actually pretty entertaining... I laughed a couple of times, but the third part is borderline awful and just drops the whole film into a pot-hole of disapointment.  Any hope set up in the first two parts is just crushed to death.

The three parts don't even really work well together and they're not different enough to work as three short films.

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer here.

[Ghostboy]

Wow, that poster sucks ten times more than the actual movie.

[Gamblour.]

So yeah, this took long enough to get to Atlanta, where these guys are from, but I finally got to see it. I wasn't particularly looking forward to it, but still wanted to see what these guys came up with.

I thought it was really well shot. They unfortunately only had two good actors, the guy who played Clark and the main girl. I actually really enjoyed their performances, but overall I completely agree with RK. The first part is entertaining, sets up the tone and environment for what could be an ok movie, then the second "transmission" starts, with its markedly contrasting title "The Jealousy Monster." It's pretty funny, and would probably be better off on its own. The third part is just bad. Really slow, really boring, and too fucking similar to part one. If they were going for completely different tones, they missed it here. Now they have this well made humorous piece sandwiched between two parts that are basically the same, and they lose their concept.

If the first part carried out for the rest of the film, it wouldn't have been bad. I'm just glad someone from Atlanta is making movies besides Tyler Perry.

[pete]

whats up with sundance raving about really average movies these days?

[MacGuffin]

With the crowd here. Transmission 1 was on track with 28 Days Later in setting the right tone, and I was going along for the ride. But then Transmission 2 just completely shifted that established tone to parody and it just lost everything it had going for it. Transmission 3 regains some of that first tone, but by then, with the characters not believing what they're seeing and, thus, doing the same to the audience, all sense of trust between filmmakers and audience is lost. It had the makings for a great flick, better than the concept in the novel, Cell, but the film became too aware of itself as it went along (I guess the opening prologue should have been an early indicator).

[modage]

The Signal

Almost two years later I finally got around to seeing this one.  Not as good as I hoped from Sundance buzz 2 years ago but much better than the muted/negative reaction elsewhere. If you and your friends tried to remake 28 Days Later in your hometown it wouldn't come out as good as this.   A few awesome bits of violence and I really liked that the 2nd part was a decidedly different tone from the beginning/end.  As long as you don't have a hundred questions you need answered (what is this thing?, where did it come from?, why does it affect some people and not others?) this is a pretty good little movie.