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The Signal

What if everyone you knew suddenly became a psycho killer?

By Geoff Berkshire

Metromix
February 21, 2008

Critic's Rating:

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Everyday existence descends into complete anarchy and average citizens turn into brutal killers when a mysterious transmission jams all electronic communication in the urban city of Terminus. The film unfolds in three chapters--from three different filmmakers--each focused on a different character in the story of a frustrated young wife (Anessa Ramsey) who tries to escape from the city and her husband (A.J. Bowen) with her sympathetic lover (Justin Welborn).

Big question: Can this offbeat low-budget horror/thriller connect with genre audiences hungry for something different?

Catch it: Opening with a perfect replication of ‘70s-era exploitation horror before settling into a disturbing survival thriller, the movie immediately signals that audiences shouldn’t get too comfortable with just one tone. The second chapter begins as dark comedy then veers into torture porn, while chapter three dives headfirst into hallucinatory visuals. Splitting the continuous narrative into three distinct sections gives “The Signal” an unnervingly chaotic framework that smartly mirrors the apocalyptic insanity on screen. When you’re telling a story in which “one out of two people just decide to start killing each other” there’s little room for traditional structure.

Skip it: If you hate seeing TV defamed. As one disturbed wife says about her formerly good-natured husband, “He was watching TV and it made him go bad.”

Bottom line: Low budget ingenuity has a long and distinguished history in the horror genre and “The Signal” is just the latest example of how creativity can make up for an obvious absence of Hollywood money. Not all of the film’s sections are equal—the first, from director David Bruckner, is the real standout—but they each have enough appropriately creepy moments to get under your skin, and stay there.

Bonus: A scene in the third story demonstrates that just because someone’s head is severed doesn’t mean you can’t get information out of it. All that’s needed is a little jump-start.

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