Saturday, October 9, 2010

Retro-Viewing: The Signal


The Signal (2007)

The Gist:
The Signal is kind of a mash between a b-zombie film and whatever The Happening might have been if it had been written and directed by anyone other than the hackjob that turned into the one of the top ten worst films I've ever had the displeasure of seeing. It's essentially about a random signal that's run over the tv, the radio, the phones, etc that turns people into paranoid psychopathic killers. However, the most interesting element is that there's a genuine pathos and logic (or illogic) and a distortion of perception that leads to their violence. The signal is really never explained, and so much the better because any explanation would have been so much less interesting than leaving it open ended. The film is also split into three parts, each directing by someone else, and the film has the awesome tonal switch from intelligent indie art-house horror film to black comedy and back again. I will say, however, that my initial high praise of the film is marred a bit by some bad bits of dialogue (one really overly expositional line that becomes a central part of the plot hurts my viewing in particular). However, I still find that I love the movie, it's a good smart indie cult film with a near perfect ending.

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