The Signal
Tags: comedy, violence, cult, flashback, insanity, romantic, entertaining, sadist

Plot synopsis:
Three MIT students – Jonah, Nic, and Haley – are on a road trip to move Haley to California, a decision that stresses Nic's relationship with her. Haley feels Nic is distancing himself from her and Nic explains he doesn't want his disability to hold her back (Nic walks with forearm crutches, and the possibility of muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, or some other degenerative disease is implied but never specified). During their stay in a hotel, Nic and Jonah discover that a hacker named NOMAD, who nearly got them expelled for breaking into MIT servers, has found their location and is taunting them with strange and ominous emails. They track NOMAD to an abandoned house in the middle of Nevada and decide to go after him. After finding nothing in the house, Nic and Jonah hear Haley scream and run outside, only to see her pulled into the sky before disappearing into a white light themselves.
Nic, now with the number 2.3.5.41 tattooed on his arm, wakes up in a strange and sterile underground research facility where he is questioned by Dr. Wallace Damon, the head of the "transition group" in charge of helping Nic to cope with his strange situation. Damon tells Nic what they encountered near the house was an EBE: an extraterrestrial biological entity. Nic remains in a state of disbelief. Dr. Damon then shows him footage from Nic's own video camera and pauses where an alien face can be seen peering from behind a tree. Nic is taken to his room where he hears Jonah talking to him through a small vent in the wall, saying "(his) body feels weird." Nic also notices that his legs, previously weak but functional, are now completely numb. When Dr. Damon questions him again, Nic tries to get answers about Haley's condition (she is in a coma at the time), but is unsuccessful. Following an unexplained experiment on a cow in another part of the facility, a security alarm goes off and Nic, along with other personnel, finds large dents with scorch marks running across the walls and no sign of Jonah. Nic asks Damon where Jonah went but Damon tells him that Jonah was never recovered from the house. Increasingly agitated, Nic tries to break Haley out but is intercepted. After being restrained, he's shocked to discover that his legs have been amputated and replaced by prostheses made from alien technology. Nic then uses these super-powered limbs to break Haley and himself out of the facility, only to discover they're in the middle of a vast barren desert.
After hitching a ride with an old lady who seems sweet yet oddly troubled, Nic and Haley hijack an 18-wheeler truck to try to find a way around the seemingly endless canyon that extends around the facility and surrounding area. At a visitor's center, they come across Jonah disguised as one of the facility workers dressed in a white HAZMAT suit. Jonah reveals that he too had limbs taken from him, as his forearms and hands have been replaced with the same alien technology as Nic's legs. Jonah speculates that they're all in Area 51 and that this is all a test. After Nic discovers indications of alien technology also implanted in Haley's spine, the trio drive up to a military checkpoint where Jonah tries to hack into their systems, only to be stopped by a hail of gunfire from the facility personnel. Nic and Jonah hug as the fatally wounded Jonah prepares for his final stand that will allow Nic and Haley to escape. Jonah uses his remaining strength and prosthetic alien arms to subdue the group of soldiers. However, Nic and Haley's escape is short-lived; as they approach the only bridge that would take them over the canyon to the outside world, they run into Damon and his military men, who blow out the truck's tires. Haley is evacuated by helicopter beyond the canyon and, knowing that Nic has mastered use of his legs, Damon tells Nic "you can't reach her." After hearing a loud horn coming from the sky, Nic realizes Damon is NOMAD. Damon then explains that it was Nic who came looking for him, that this was his fault, and adding that Nic is "the perfect integration of human will and alien technology. Our finest achievement." Agitated and emotionally compromised, Nic's bionic legs enable him to sprint at supersonic speed across the bridge in the direction of Haley's chopper where he hits an invisible barrier and breaks through.
Nic finds himself inside what appears to be a different facility behind a projected image of the outside world beyond the canyon. Turning back toward the bridge, he sees Damon remove his helmet to reveal he's actually a robotic alien. Nic walks towards a window and realizes he isn't in a facility, but is on an immense alien spacecraft numbered 2.3.5.41 (matching the numerical tattoo on his arm) that is about to dock at their home-world (signaled by the horn).

Review: Even as an avid horror buff, low budget titles like this tend to slip through the net usually simply due to their lack of big name distribution.Let's hope that with "The Signal" however, this doesn't happen.Why?
Because this movie is powerful, thoughtful and downright terrifying in its execution.The movie opens with a young couple, Mya and Ben, in a tryst where it soon becomes apparent that Mya is married but very much not in love with her husband, Lewis.Suddenly the TV is blasted on, transmitting a noisy psychedelic signal which is echoed throughout every other media form from radio to mobile phones.Mya leaves Ben to return home to her husband only to find everyone going crazy...
Thrown into a violent and chaotic world, the story focuses on the three of them and the truth about their intertwining relationship as the city of Terminus literally goes to hell around them.The film's three directors each take on board a different aspect of the overlapping narrative, with the running time evenly divided into 3 parts.
In a society where media has taken over every facet of our lives, technology is rife for abuse, and this movie exploits that paranoia to great dividends.This original chiller is the American equivalent of "28 Days Later" mixed with Romero's "The Crazies" via Stephen King's novel "Cell".Some visual and plot aspects may have suffered due to budgetary constraints, but therein also lies its charm."The Signal" will surprise, thrill and terrify.
Independent films have always been enjoyable to watch for me because they normally show the real side of things, but, that not being the point of emphasis in The Signal (hah) I was nervous about seeing it, especially because I wasn't sure about the three different genres mixed.
There's a decent, if not original, idea at the heart of this movie, but the film makers are trying too hard to be arty and clever for it to ever really work.Telling the story in three parts is a terrible idea.
The acting was all over the place, with some pretty bad examples on show (unfortunately including a character who appears predominantly in all 3 parts)I really did want to like this film, but I just can't do it.
The Signal starts like some bad horror films do: a maniac is torturing two young women.But...wait a minute!...It is a trick!
The maniac belongs to a movie the authentic characters from The Signal are watching, until the transmission is cut.That is the beginning of this excellent film.One of the most interesting things I found in The Signal is that what could have been a simple post-apocalyptic tale has a vein of intense romance and honest emotions which makes the movie more engaging.This film tells three different stories, and each one of them was made by a different director.That was a simultaneously original and risky idea, because dividing the narrative in chapters could have taken cohesion or integrity out to the global story.However, the stories are very interesting, and the sensibility and vision from every filmmaker are perfectly well complemented, bringing as a result a fascinating and highly recommendable film with unusual deepness, ingenuity and dramatic consistency.It is a pity that The Signal went so unnoticed.It has been available in DVD for three years, but even then it had a time of being "in the shelves" (as a proof of that I can mention the CDs reproducer one of the main characters constantly uses...how long has it been that that technology was replaced by the iPod and similar devices?).But its anachronism does not decrease the value of the interesting story, solid performances and even the black humor from the intermediate segment, which brings a very grateful respite after the intensity from the first segment, and which prepares us for the anguish from the conclusion.There are some moments of brutal violence in this movie for the fans of gore, but one of the best things from this movie is not what it shows, but what it omits.That automatically makes us participants of the fear and uncertainty the characters experiment, and we share their mystery about the phenomenon which is happening to their city.The only thing I would criticize about this film is that the final segment is a bit longer than it should have.However, that does not avoid me from giving an enthusiastic recommendation to this hidden gem from horror cinema..
I watched this with no preconceptions, and was totally entertained throughout.It manages to mix Bloodied gruesome horror, dark comedy and savage humour with absolute finesse, and definitely makes you think what you would do if you was in the exact same situation.I will admit that the first two parts of the film were the most entertaining, but it still didn't end with any disappointment.Well worth watching!.
Yet another potentially great horror movie utterly ruined by some really terrible directing choices, mainly the 2nd reel.It was very compelling through the first act and I was really enjoying it, then it suddenly changed into a wacky dark slapstick comedy seemingly out of nowhere in the second act, it's very stilted as it seems to just come out of nowhere and it's very out of place.
Playing out in various acts (i.e. Act I: Transmission and such...) maybe the feeling isn't so much homage as one of trying to be clever and post ironic, but either way the film has the feeling of a particular type of grainy horror flick.The driving force seems to be AJ Bowen's possessive husband, tracking his unfaithful spouse (Anessa Ramsey) after being driven mad by a twisted transmission in the tellys, leading to a whole succession of mad plot twists, until saviour (hopefully) arrives in the form of Justin Welborn's more rational bit on the side.
Too Many Cooks Spoil The Pot. It's terrible to see a movie with a first act this good because I'm absolutely certain that if David Bruckner had been given his Georgian turn as writer-director of an entire feature you'd see a critical and commercial success in The Signal.
As it is what we have is a brilliant third followed by a haphazard tailspin into mediocrity where the other filmmakers treat the source material like the film they ape at the beginning, a bad Horror movie.
It's just too bad the script was poor and the plot wasn't as well played out as others like to portray in their reviews.The only good thing about this movie was the acting.
This movie starts like a terrible cult-like 70's style horror flick, transforms into something that actually on the subconscious level critically comments on today's society with all it's electronically transmitted influences, then slides into comedy, quickly goes back to sheer and utter gore and horror and ends up leaving the viewer really depressed.
That's reserved for movies WITH bloody-violence throughout(like Dead Presidents and Wild Bunch)It's such a a shame for this could have gone a step further against the incredible beginning of "28 Days Later".That's the first disappointment.Now let's talk about the story and lets find out if what was was saying was true.
What could have been a great horror movie with a good story and graphic violence was turned into a low-budget mystery soap opera with violence thats a bit greater than an episode of CSI.and for the last time, Graphic violence isn't bad for a movie.
I realize that "Plan 9 From Outer Space" is considered by many to be the worst movie of all time, but I think "The Signal" is a serious contender for at least the modern record.The acting wasn't that bad -- just stupid.
Or that might have just been the awful acting by the mismatched and talentless cast, it's really hard to tell.I don't know who picked up this script and decided to greenlight this thing; the plot is like a throw-away idea from the corporate habit of sucking dry the popularity of the recent horror trend: Some kind of technology goes awry and causes things to happen that involve lots of blood.Basically, what you'll be seeing when you sit down to watch "The Signal" is the same trash that the horror film-making industry has been throwing at us since 2002, only worse, due largely to the lack of vision or talent from anyone involved.
I haven't seen a good horror movie like this in a really long time.
A lot of people there are now like crazy zombies shouting with rage about "Putin for world President".Movie even offers solution for such zombism - to think with our own independent head and make choice to discern hallucinations from reality.
Had heard good things about this movie before I watched, with comparisons made to Romero's underrated classic 'The Crazies', and while to some degree they are indeed very similar, this movie is a whole different beast and to fresh and original to ever be considered just a re-hash of Romero's film.First thing you should know is that the first couple of minutes are no indication of what's to come, the cheap looking 'Last house on the left' cloned is simply a film within the film, a cheeky red herring before we pull out if the film, into a young couples bedroom, as the film is replaced by the movie's eponymous 'Signal'.From this point on the film is divided into three chapters.
I felt that this chapterwas perhaps the strongest of the three, it's gallows humour a terrific juxtaposition to the intensity of the previous part, with each performer showing great comic touches and bizarre characters emerging from the woodwork at the most inopportune moments ( it had to be said that AJ Bowen, playing the husband, is the clear standout in the movie and acquits himself brilliantly in this section).Chapter three takes much the same approach as the first, llurching back into straight, frightening and suspenseful horror as various characters seek each other out to exact revenge or rescue loved ones, culminatingin a wonderfully acted confrontation in a desolate bus station.The most impressive aspect of this movie was it's vivid depiction of madness and the descent into it.
Whilst some movies are content to simply show characters as nad by making them rant and behave violently, thus movie takes great pains to try and immerse the viewer in the chaos and confusion, swapping out actors and roles to create a truly believable and authentic take on how it might feel to lose your mind.Overall I was incredibly impressed by the quality if every aspect of 'The Signal', from it's terrific performances, taut direction and original takes on stale genre themes, very, very highly recommended.
This one is a very low budget horror flick which went highly unrecognised when it has first released but trust me its one of the best ever to come out of Hollywood in these "infected" genre movies.
Amidst the chaos, a young man searches for his lover, pursued by her jealous husband.For a film that deals with extreme psychosis on a global scale, The Signal is a fittingly schizophrenic movie, one that begins in standard apocalyptic fashion, abruptly turns to black humour midway, and deliberately culminates in confusion and ambiguity, leaving viewers as uncertain about proceedings as the characters on-screen.For many, these marked shifts in style, the result of the film being directed in three parts by three different people, will be too jarring and the cause of much annoyance, whilst others will find the sudden changes in approach refreshingly original—all of which accounts for the polarised opinions here on IMDb.As for me, I'm definitely in the latter camp: I've yet to come to a satisfying conclusion about the ending, but the intriguing manner in which the tone of the film radically altered throughout kept me enthralled for the duration..
However, the way it's done makes it worth a watch if you're into your low-budget horror offerings/B-movies.The titular 'Signal' is in fact a TV broadcast of weird, trippy colours on everyone's TV screen.
What 'budget' this film had attached to it obviously did its best to give us some major (and quite realistically disgusting!) gore splattered here and there, but luckily it never descends into an outright bloodbath.Overall, if you're in the mood for a pretty dark little horror movie that tries to be as realistic as possible, give this one a go.
I stump upon this movie last night when searching for a good horror movie to watch and soon when it over i rush into the IMDb page to write a review about it.This is my review about The Signal (2007) a highly underrated horror movie deserve more love and recognizable for all hardcore horror fan out there seeking to see something new.The movie involving a strange signal that been transmission through all cell phone, radio, and television turned people nearby it into psychopaths with only one intended in mind is killing people and when all hell breaks loose a couple of non related people has to figure out the way to survive this situation when they started to question why they not infected.It sometime part black comedy which some truly hilarious scene and part brutal gory action that lead you go from a somehow normal scene to all out terrifying.Minus point is the movie never explained how and why the signal been broadcast with a confusing final arc but hey this is a cult movie you either love it or hate it to death.
This experiment in a horror film, where three directors direct three "Transmissions" based around the premise of a television/broadcast signal turning the mass populous who watches/hears it turning into crazed killing wackaloons, is consistent with its terrifying mania.
This starts out funny, and then turns incredibly horrific immediately afterward.Which is the tone of the segment later on (this was the moment my friend and I all shut up watching the film, when Lewis really shows his nastier side all based around the mania with his wife, Mya, who is off to "Terminal 13" to get away from this hellhole of a town): dark humor giving way to brutal but recognizably human terror.
OK this movie starts buy introducing the main characters but the film wastes little time throwing them to the "wolves" if you will.
"The Signal" starts off like a straightforward horror film on the order of "Night of the Living Dead" or "28 Days Later," but about a third of the way through, it turns into a tongue-in-cheek parody of the whole apocalyptic-thriller genre.It's New Year's Eve, and a mysterious, hypnotic signal is being broadcast on TVs and radios across the planet, resulting in a mass psychosis that turns ordinary, average citizens into cold-blooded killers.This is a fun, good-natured spoof that is as creepy as it is amusing, at least up to a point.
I cannot understand how people are rating this as good in their reviews...They are probably trolling...SPOILERS*****This movie started very good with a nice idea for a story but after Mya left the car and Rod the movie was a complete failure and waste of time.
Having said this, now and again, a movie comes along which changes your mind about low-budget film-making.
This movie is being hailed as one of the greatest horror films of all time.
It really, really doesn't.Set in a city called Terminus, the basic plot of this film is that all TVs, phones and radios start broadcasting a mysterious signal that drives people violently insane.The first segment of the movie focuses on Mya (Anessa Ramsey), an unhappy woman with a controlling, jealous prick of a husband named Lewis (A J Bowen).
Lewis is introduced as an unlikable dick at the start of movie, then he's forced on us as the main character in the middle of the film and he's even more present in the third segment than Mya. If the story had even attempted to give us some reason to care what happens to Lewis, it might not be so bad.
You can't expect the audience to connect with a character when the film ignores him for such a long stretch of time.The Signal is also a fairly stupid movie.
Although The Signal shows the same 5 actors/characters die multiple times in the movie, they just keep coming back scene after scene to "kill each other" again.
The *only people* seen in the movie are the 3 actors and 2 actresses who they hired to kill each other multiple times for 1 hour and 40 minutes.Many have pointed out that the vehicle a main character drives in The Signal "magically" changes to a *completely different* vehicle from one shot to the next.There is a *good reason* why The Signal disappeared out of all theatres in less than a week and you've *probably* never even heard of it until stumbling upon the title by happenstance.
Problem 2) Halfway through the film, the oh-so clever director tries to trick us into thinking we're watching a zombie movie, if for no other reason then to add an extra excuse to bring on the gore.
There really isn't enough plot or story line in this movie to justify keeping the audience in the dark as to the characters motivationsWithout knowing the meaning behind the signal, this film becomes nothing more then an excuse for glorified violence on film.
The story never interested me & I didn't like the character's either, the way the madness is presented in Crazy in Love with mindless violence & killing seems totally different to the other two segments where it's more of a paranoid madness which sends people over the edge.To add to the confusion, & unfortunately the run time, there's a small pre-credits sequence which has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the film & in fact turns out to be a sequence from The Hap Hapgood Story, whatever that is.
The acting is alright from no-one I have ever heard of before but all of the character's are pretty unlikable.The Signal is a film that I didn't like at all, just because it's different doesn't mean it's any good.