Oct 08 2007
“The Signal” (2007)
Movie Review: The Signal
Directed by: David Bruckner, Jacob Gentry, Dan Bush
Screenplay Written By: David Bruckner, Jacob Gentry, Dan Bush
Produced by: Alexander A. Motlagh, Jacob Gentry
Directors of Photography: David Bruckner, Jacob Gentry, Dan Bush
Released (US): 2007
If you haven’t noticed from the other reviews off to the left, or if you’ve visited IGN in the last year, you’ll notice that I’ve got a soft spot for the horror movie genre.
Bottom line, I’ve seen many a horror flick in my lifetime. Some have been great, some have been outstanding, many have been horrible, but all of them have been enjoyable/entertaining to some varying degree, no matter what their pedigree may be. I’ve seen ‘em all! From the mega budget trash (“SAW” or “Hostel” anyone?), to the under the radar gold like, “Session 9”, “Descent”, “May” and “Audition” to name a select few….
But of all them, between mega budget, to the B-Grade… I hold the independent horror closest to my heart. I just love the thought of a bunch of friends who played D&D together as kids, were brothers/sisters in arms throughout high-school, or worked at that dead-end video store gig to make beer money in college, coming up with an idea that stuck enough in their heads to do something about it. To take an idea and push it all the way to fruition. Be it a movie, a graphic novel, or a concept album, I just love the thought of a group of folks being brave enough to collaborate and make something for the masses.
That said… I’m surprised that not much is out on the ‘net about the impetus of the highly anticipated independent film “The Signal”. If you Googled it, you’d see immediately that a handful of young gentlemen set out to make something exceptional, and, by many professional standards, the viewers and critics all believe they not only have accomplished their goals, but they did so admirably. If you’ll take a minute to look back up at the credits above, you’ll notice a lot of duplicate names in all of the fields.
This is no typo…
So first and foremost, it appears that three young lads lived, breathed, and bled their wallets to make this movie and all of it’s facets, writing, directing, shooting and producing it.
Mel and I had the privilege of catching it in Durham this last weekend at the “Escapism Film Festival” held at the Carolina Theatre. It was a North Carolina premiere (BOOYAH!), which is always cool, because you often get to see the movie WAY before it gets a wide release (which apparently it will get, courtesy of Magnolia pictures), which affords you nothing aside from obvious bragging rights.
Which, when you are eventually six feet under, doesn’t mean a hill of beans.
I digress.
ahem…
So what is this little gem about? Well, it’s New Year’s Eve, and just as the end of the year becomes imminent, all electronic devices, phones (cell and land line), radios (car and plug in), and TV’s start emitting a signal. This signal, if heard for a long enough amount of time, turns anyone into a homicidal maniac.
Killing without one ounce of prejudice or forethought.
As imagined, the situation quickly turns the reality on this planet completely on its head, creating a human society where compassion is replaced by malice, love is replaced by insane hate, caring is replaced by killing, and as soon as you can scream “ANARCHY!!!!”, murder is the only language spoken between folks who have heard the signal, and those who have tried desperately to block it out.
The movie is broken into three parts that the directors/writers/producers like to refer to as “transmissions” (a nice touch in my humble opinion) which are essentially three separate stories that intertwine quite effectively.
You get the first part (which I thought was the best) which follows the beginning of the signal and it’s transmission.
If you’ve seen “28 Days Later” and always wondered what happened in between when the shit hits the fan and when our main character wakes in the hospital, this movie is TOTALLY for you. The chaos of what would happen in this kind horror, where mankind blindly turns against all reason, is captured so brilliantly that you can’t help but marvel at it all. It’ll terrify you and fascinate you in that awful rubberneck-at-the-freeway-accident sorta way. The fact that it’s superbly delivered to you on a huge screen only drives the chaos home more that you’d care to admit.
Not to mention the acting is just perfect and might be more than the over all concept of the film deserves.
From the get go, you can see that the actors read the script and despite any kind of pay off that they might/might not receive, they truly put their all into this movie. I haven’t heard of any of them. But I’ll be damned if they didn’t affect me, each and every one of them, right down to the poor bastards lying dead in the street.
The story itself is pretty basic. It involves a small core group of people that revolve around a love triangle that is just about to implode. A young woman is cheating on her husband with a seemingly great guy, which, relationship-wise, is a whimsy away from leaving him completely, then the signal emits. When all hell breaks loose, she heads to the one place that she knows her new lover might find her. This leaves her husband and her new boyfriend to battle it out in a desperate attempt to find her first.
What I love about the initial plot, is that I bought it. The boyfriend is a great guy, he’s funny, he obviously is crazy about her and her about him. The husband at home worrying, he seems like a good guy, though we, the viewers, aren’t given much, because we’re introduced to him as soon as the signal emits. He obviously cares deeply for her though and wants to be with her forever. Unfortunately, under the whims of the signal, he looses all sense of humanity and will stop at nothing to find her before anyone else.
The second act, or “Transmission”, lapses into some pretty insane black comedy. We are immediately confined to the innards of a small apartment and are forced to watch what our main characters need to to do to survive. It’s at this point in the move that we realize that the signal effects people in different ways. It’s not cookie cutter. It’s more, “different strokes for different folks” and we bare witness to it all. You get wives that refuse to let go, husbands hell bent on revenge, New Year’s guests that just want to get laid and a boyfriend that just wants to make sure his love is safe in this sea of madness.
That said, the second act was my “least favorite” of the three “transmissions”. From the acting, to the subject matter, to the soundtrack, to it’s place in the over all story arch. While honestly, it was everything you could hope for, it differed enough from the first act that it detracted from everything prior. Like that kid who tried to be too cool at the party when he didn’t need to be, the second act was a little too hammy for me.
BUT, it should be recognized that this is the only act that made me squirm, and I’ll always welcome that.
It should also be noted that Mel totally DUG the second act, so if you need to hear another perspective from a burgeoning horror aficionado; there you have it! Mel loved the movie: top to bottom! Truly, she had a great time, and nothing could make me happier!
Moving on!
The third act excels, but, unfortunately it is choked by the film’s over all ambition. The “one-two punch” is achieved with spades, but you can’t help but feel that the climax is bursting beyond the scope of what this film’s resources and budget could afford.
As I’ve stated before, “The Signal” is exceptional, but you might (and this is a HEAVY “might”) feel the burden of this film’s message in the tail end of it’s duration. It’s not that’s it’s bad at all. It’s just that the first two acts were that good!
I’m being intentionally vague here and that’s about all I’ll divulge, because it’d be REALLY awesome if even a fraction of the tadandmel.com reader base went out to see this. The story, in my opinion, is merely a back drop to what “The Signal” is trying to get across.The origin of the signal is never explained. There is no “why?” or “how?”. It just happens, and frankly: I love that.
What sticks is what our technology and our connection to it has brought us. And that, essentially, is our own oblivion.
Has this theme been covered by past movies?
Hell yes. “Pulse”, King’s “The Cell”, the “28” movies, hell, even “The Matrix”. But has it been delivered in such a real and conceivable notion? I don’t think so.
So if you see “The Signal” playing in a your local theater, go and see it, but not because it simply is a great horror movie. It’s because it is independent movie making at it’s best. It’s the blood, sweat and tears of three guys who wanted the world to see this for well under a million bucks.
To me, they hit this one out of the park! The story, the acting, the production and the ambition.
Honestly, I can’t wait to see what they have in them next.
