User Reviews

Maya Denton (Anessa Ramsey) has a love affair with her beloved lover Ben (Justin Welborn) that invites her to leave her husband Lewis (AJ Bowen) and Terminus City, meeting him in the Terminal 13 of the local station. Maya decides to go back home and finds a wounded man and his attacker in the parking area nearby Ben's house. When she arrives at home, she sees Lewis discussing with his friends Jerry (Matt Stanton) and Rod (Sahr Nguajah). When Lewis hits Jerry with a baseball bat on the head, Maya runs to the house of her next door neighbor Janice (Suehyla El-Attar) and realizes that the dwellers of her building have gone paranoid and crazy in an outburst of violence and hallucinations through the transmission and waves of television, cell phones and radios, feeling the need to kill.

"The Signal" is a refreshing horror tale that slightly uses the idea of mass control through television and cellular of "Videodrome" and "Pulse", leaving a message about the brain damage caused by the subtle message of television and excessive use of cellular. The plot is disclosed in three parts: "Transmission I: Crazy in Love", which is scary and the best one; "Transmission II: The Jealousy Monster" that is a boring dark humor comedy that does not work well in the context; and "Transmission III: Escape from Terminus" that returns to the main theme and has a good conclusion. The acting is great and the depressive cinematography gives a special climate to this good story. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

This movie is being hailed as one of the greatest horror films of all time. It is not. The film makers had a great idea, but did not develop that idea, leaving way too much up to the imagination of the viewer. I like using my imagination, but this felt more like a cop-out. There's no how/why, and that is a glaring omission that ruins the movie. If they had fully developed their idea, this could have been a great flick, but as it is, it's really more frustrating then it is enjoyable. I could probably sit here and create a back-story for the signal, explaining it's origin and raison d'etre, but I'm a movie-goer, not a movie-maker, and while the premise of this movie is interesting (if not a little unoriginal - Stephen King's 'The Cell' anyone?) the movie itself is a half assed disappointment that leaves much to be desired.

The Signal begins with a brain splattering blow to the head. But what we're watching -- a poorly made slasher reminiscent of The Last House on the Left -- isn't the movie we're supposed to be watching, its actually a movie within the movie. But pay close attention, because this shifting perspective is only the first of many gears and many perspectives to alternate throughout this low-budget, HD horror film set in the fictional city of Terminus.

When the mock-slasher's feed abruptly cuts out, it gives way to a mysterious and hypnotic type of interference. This strange signal, and its accompanying screech, is a blanket transmission pulsing through TVs, cell phones, radios and every other form of media. Watch or listen to the signal for too long and you will become a delusional and frenzied killer. While on the surface, this premise is nothing new -- it's the same type of idea behind Night of the Living Dead and dozens of other imitators -- it does qualify as being somewhat unique in that the zombies aren't really zombies...they're, living, breathing, thinking people.

The film is broken up into three segments (transmissions), each one an overlapping (not quite Rashomon-like) alternate perspective from one of three interconnected characters. The first transmission successfully borrows from the Romero inspired 28 Days Later, where every second is wrought with tension and paranoia. Gears dramatically shift as the second transmission begins and this time around we're in the black comedy, satirical vein of Shaun of the Dead. At first this dramatic shift in tone fails -- it is simply too drastic and as quickly as the first transmission had pulled us in, the second one repels us. But once we make the required adjustment, the second transmission pulls us in with its sly and incredibly bleak humor. By the time The Signal shifts into its third and final transmission, we're able to anticipate the established pattern, thus allowing the story to hit its stride. In this last segment we get a quixotic taste of being inside the heads of those afflicted by the signal, where delusions constantly pull us in and out of misleading and false perspectives. The mental struggle crystallizes when Ben (Justin Welborn) -- like someone fighting a bad acid trip -- regains control of his own mind and utilizes the signal's ill effects to his own advantage.

Like many worthy zombie films before it, the subtextual themes in The Signal are more complex than mere survival. The signal and its residual (murderous) effect works as a metaphor which comments on how we, as a 'wired' society, are coerced into living a false existence dictated by mass media. This idea is pushed to the extreme by stressing how lethal the power of the mind can be when outside ideas are subsumed, allowing us to rationalize any irrational or insane act. This metaphor isn't particularly new and some might even call it a rip-off of John Carpenter's semi-classic social satire They Live, but despite its many references to other films in this genre, The Signal does manage to establish its own voice. Even though this voice is shaky at times (possibly due to 3 directors vying for input), it does still speak intelligently enough for it to be worth listening to.

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'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.

The pest control man who repeatedly sprays poison in peoples' faces, bashes them with objects, has lost touch with reality and people shambling like zombies.

That sums it up. If that's what your looking for, then put your mind in "Park" and get ready for 1 1/2 hours of utter rubbish.

I'm not even sure what the director set out to accomplish as the end result is so scrambled, convoluted and irksome that it is almost an insult to the viewer's time invested in sitting and waiting for some sense to appear. There won't be any resolutions. It rambles to the very end.

The Signal can be summed up thusly in one sentence: A few men and a couple of women keep torturing and killing each other multiple times for 1 hour and 40 minutes. It is important to take special note that that it is *the same* few men and couple of women torturing and killing each other multiple times. No one stays dead in The Signal. Although The Signal shows the same 5 actors/characters die multiple times in the movie, they just keep coming back scene after scene to "kill each other" again. This renders all the violence and "kills" in the movie utterly meaningless. Senseless violence in the truest sense of the word.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good violent movie as much as the next person. Violence in movies can be very entertaining, and is great when it is done-well. The problem with The Signal is not the violence in and of itself, but rather that that is *all* that there is to the movie. The problem is also the violence in The Signal makes no sense whatsoever, and the violence in The Signal is merely *the same* actors/characters bludgeoning each other to death in repetitive ways over and over again. For this reason the violence in The Signal isn't even fun on a mindless entertainment level, because even mindless entertainment must have *some* small semblance of intelligence to be fun (Ie: The same actors/characters don't keep getting up after being killed and killing each other again multiple times).

A man in The Signal who takes a hammer blow directly to the back of the head ends up being fine, completely aware of his surroundings and able to run around like Superman and kill other people all night long. Just as much so even after he takes multiple gunshots.

A main character's head is gruesomely bashed in beyond recognition, on-screen, yet a minute or two later he is standing up with his head "magically" intact again with no explanation at all (because there is no possible way to even *attempt* to explain such absolute drivel!). By the point in the movie where this happens, it is probably already the 4th or 5th time where the two very same main actors/characters had "killed each other" in the movie. After this point in the movie, the same two actors continue to "kill each other" a couple of dozen more times for the next 40 minutes until the movie is over.

In the first half hour a character in The Signal claims the streets are full of chaos & anarchy, then the movie shows 5 seconds worth of quick cuts of a few people stumbling around the streets. For the entire rest of the movie, the streets are completely empty. The *only people* seen in the movie are the 3 actors and 2 actresses who they hired to kill each other multiple times for 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Many have pointed out that the vehicle a main character drives in The Signal "magically" changes to a *completely different* vehicle from one shot to the next.

There is a *good reason* why The Signal disappeared out of all theatres in less than a week and you've *probably* never even heard of it until stumbling upon the title by happenstance. That reason is because The Signal is an asinine movie that is unfit for theatrical release, and unfit for the cost of a DVD rental also. That it even *exists* as a movie is an embarrassment to the intelligence of mankind as a lifeform.

The first 3 minutes of The Signal set the bar very low already (and establishes that the movie is going to make no sense) by having no relation whatsoever to the rest of the movie. Just a generic scene of some women being chased through the woods and locked up in a cabin. In addition to being absolutely irrelevant to the movie, this scene has no resolution and no point.

I never thought I'd see a movie worse than a Uwe Boll movie, but The Signal *is*. Uwe Boll's movies are Oscar-worthy masterpieces *when compared* to The Signal.

A lot of people say that The Signal rips off Stephen King's "The Cell". All I can say is I darn sure hope not! Because if when The Cell movie comes out if it is anywhere near as bad as The Signal, it will be another blight against the intelligence of mankind, not to mention agonizing to watch.

The origin of "the signal" in the movie is never explained. The wide effect of the signal on the city or planet are never shown. The movie spends 100% of it's time following the same 5 actors through small apartments, hallways, and a few empty streets. That's it. The premise of The Signal sounds like you are getting an epic movie, but *really* the only thing you get from The Signal is *extremely* small-scale nonsense. There *might as well* only be 5 people on the planet during the course of the movie The Signal, because anyone else who may be present on the planet is not shown or discussed at all in the movie.

Note: I apologize for this review being fairly repetitive, but it was the only reasonable way to fully describe the content of The Signal, as well as give you a feel of what watching the movie will be like. If you found this review boring and repetitive, you will probably find watching the The Signal movie to be 50x more boring and repetitive.

The Signal is quite possibly the most ridiculous, asinine, nonsensical movie of all-time. But *not* in a good way. I would give The Signal a 0/10, but unfortunately IMDb forces me to give it a 1/10.

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.