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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