Alrighty, as promised in my review of The Other Side, this post discusses the film The Signal (2007), written and directed by David Bruckner, Jacob Gentry and Dan Bush, which will most certainly be a love it or hate it experience for many. Personally, I find something new to love every time I watch it.
4 stars out of 5
Watching THE SIGNAL I experienced every emotion known to man except disappointment. There were some really bloody, violent scenes that made me cringe. Then there was a good 20 minutes or so where I thought I’d pee myself from laughing so hard — the scene with Clark and Lewis, “not Jim Parsons…” was friggin’ hilarious whilst being an excellent way for the writers to show us just how deranged some people might be in that situation.
I didn’t realize THE SIGNAL was directed by three different people until after I’d already watched it; however, that totally explains the three sequences and their almost bipolar variances in dialogue, tone and atmosphere. I enjoyed the basic plot of the film: a signal broadcast over the TV and radio causes people to go homicidal (“Do you have the crazy?“) but not in the traditional zombie sort of way.
The love story / love triangle, which had me pulling for Mya and Ben until the very end, was vital to the film’s success. Had the writers not given me someone to care about before the darkness set in I might not have connected with the story. And hands down, without Anessa Ramsey, Justin Welborn and AJ Bowen, I would not have enjoyed Mya, Ben and Lewis quite as much.
Despite repeated views, I’m not quite sure I get the movie or its ending, but I was definitely entertained. Like I wrote earlier: a love it or hate it flick, for sure. Oh yeah, the brief nudity mentioned in the rating is a quick shot of Justin Welborn’s butt at the beginning of the film.
Very weird movie; check it out for yourself.
Do you ever question the effects of all the signals zooming around us every day? Or what would happen if someone manipulated those signals?
WEB RESOURCES
The Signal official site | on IMDb | on Netflix | Purchase from Amazon
(Watched Instantly on 6/14/08)
I’d totally forgotten about this movie! You watched it with moi at my place. I can’t remember much of it, other than it was really weird. Definitely a head scratcher.
Did you ever read “Cell” by Stephen King? It’s pretty much the same thing as here, except with cell phones. Not his best work, but still better than what most can churn out.
Aloha – fabulous blog post!
quite mind-blowing day! Do you use twitter? Id like 2 follow you if that would be okay. 1 am undoubtedly enjoying ur story not 2 mention look forward 2 new updates. 🙂