The Signal

If you like horror and independent films, you will not be disappointed, however if you only like one or the other, you will be. I personally enjoyed The Signal, it was a great blend of horror, with the spin that only a budget of $50,000 can bring to a movie like this. The movie is broken into 3 chapters and each chapter has a different director, which is impressive for a movie that was completed in 13 days. Each part tells the story using a different genre, horror, black comedy, and romance. Seriously, it works.

HORROR: We meet Mya, a young married woman who is having an affair with a man named Ben. Before the signal is discovered, they lay together making plans to meet at the train station and leave the town together. Noticing the time, Mya freaks out after seeing the time, since this is an affair, I am guessing she doesn’t want her husband to suspect that anything is going on behind his back. But I’m sure the guy is a total prick. Ben gives Mya a mix CD to listen to and think of him and his suggestion of running away. When she leaves, Ben turns on the television and we are introduced to “the signal”, which is a hypnotic blur of colours and images.

On her way home, Mya is accosted by several people who have gone mad. She enters the house and her husband, Lewis, is home with guests setting up the tele for a ball game. The signal appears and Lewis bludgeons his friend as the other escapes. In a panic, Mya runs and hides until the morning when she decides to meet Ben at the station and leave her life and husband behind.

BLACK COMEDY: Lewis is released from his bonds, having been tied up by the third friend, by Ben who has been looking for Mya. Lewis attacks Ben and packs him into his exterminator van and goes searching for his wife. Seeing her car crashed outside an apartment building, he goes knocking on the doors until he is invited in by a woman who was planning a New Years Party until the signal caused her to kill her husband. A small group has formed in the flat while they try to figure out what is happening, however all are still affected by the signal. Lewis, still looking for his wife subjects one of the refugees to the signal and learns that Mya was heading for the train station.

ROMANCE: This being the conclusion of the movie I don’t plan to say anything about it. The movie is cleaver not quite as frightening as one would expect, but at the end I thought to myself “shit, that was good” and then I watched it again.