The Signal

MOVIE #1,459 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 03.19.24 What's so fascinating about these three films is how incredibly different they all are: a low-budget and very obscure documentary, an MGM release that's ½-misguided satire and ½-teenage romantic comedy, and this, a semi-experimental indie horror anthology with three directors. This veers off tonally but they still manage to create a continuum in this world despite the change in director from one segment to the next. One major problem is that the humor (mostly in transmission #2) quickly devolves into painfully unfunny and edgelord/offensive territory that totally took me out of it. There’s a gradual escalation in terms of gore and absurdity. But, like a pileup wreck, it's difficult to make sense of the underlying ideas let alone the plot and rules of this zombie-style situation.

It's an ambitious concept that plays with the anthology format, which too often feels disjointed (sometimes by design) and/or tiresome (via lack of execution). But this doesn't seem to have much swirling beneath the surface aside from vague ideas the viewer can form to their liking. A film has to make you want to do that, though, to inspire you to make those connections. And it simply doesn't feel worth the effort here.

Of the three directors, David Bruckner has gone onto have the most interesting career. He worked on the original V/H/S anthology and made the excellent 2019 psychological horror The Night House.

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The Signal is a 2007 American horror film written and directed by independent filmmakers David Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry. It is told in three parts, in which all telecommunication and audiovisual devices transmit only a mysterious signal turning people mad and activating murderous behaviour in many of those affected. This was released on January 22, 2007.