Sorry, this movie sucks

Please don't spend money on this.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

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. What is great about it, and what sets it apart from other horror films made today, is how much it sticks with something that makes for real horror (the kind that one could see in The Shining): the uncertainty principle that you can't really know what's going on. Because so much of what happens to the characters and what they do is based around being all messed up from this signal that "tricks" as one character says, we try and trust what the character is seeing/doing (such as mass beating or murder), but it's not really the case. It becomes a visceral experience of what is most frightening is the worst brought out from ourselves.None of the character start out being bad... actually, that may not be accurate. There is a character, Lewis Denton, who becomes super defensive of his wife and his ideal of "home" after the signal screws with his mind. But he becomes even more of a psycho from it compared to other people, who are, granted, still psychopathic and unable to discern from the reality around them. But Lewis just gets to a point where his presence just gives one the shivers by his one-track-mind about it. It's even conceivable that he was a dick before the whole signal business happened. Somehow, amid all the craziness (and a supporting character in the first episode - I won't say how he is "just" a supporting character in that part - who is pretty damn nuts too), he is the villain of the story (and with a wonderfully, hard-and-cold performance from AJ Bowen).But what is insanity? And what is it that makes us so paranoid and distrusting? The Signal takes one of the most potent fears and stretches it to a point that is horrifying but, surprisingly, also quite funny in a super-dark sort of way. Midway through the film, the segment "The Jealousy Monster", takes the aspect of a party that another married couple is throwing in their place and takes it to a level like Luis Bunuel - only still as the horror movie mold it's in. A couple of guests do come, and they seem a little awkward by what they see, which is the married couple all bloodied from the mayhem (and when Lewis comes on the scene looking for his wife it gets much crazier), it's all part of how psycho it gets. But what's so startling is how far the director of this segment takes the comedy that should be, and is, seen which is the surrealism of, say, a random guy outside on fire running past the window, or when the wife's sister or relative or what-have-you seems friendly and sane enough, but is beaten to a pulp anyway. 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. It could all be in us to do horror like this, maiming and killing and beating with the rage pouring out like a metal-head on meth-amphetamines. And what's more it comes to the point where after a director shows us something- a character beating up someone, brutally, savagely, with a hammer or a big tank or something- and then later shows it was all in the mind, it makes it further a mind-f***er. I loved not knowing what was going on because I felt so much in confident hands, capable of recognizing that if the pieces are set up, and characters who are likable to start off with like Jerry and Mya, we're with them through the long-haul. The atmosphere is bloody and savage, and most of it is all about perception. It also understands how this all can be absurd, how it can be taken dramatically, and seeing intelligent beings brought to masses of jelly by their collective fears - being alone, being without love, being without the world - manifests completely. This isn't a bump-scare flick, and it doesn't need to reside in the dark. Sometimes what's right in front of us is enough. The Signal is a stellar example of modern psychological horror, and one of the best in recent memory; that I couldn't really tell one director's style from another (that is they were all serving to tell the same general story with some variation midway through) is to its credit: a truly fruitful independent ($30,000 budget!) 9.5/10

When a mysterious TV broadcast signal suddenly starts making the viewers go into psychotic violent rampages, a group of survivors try to find a way of stopping both the broadcast from turning more into blood-crazed killers and the source of the signal.This is an incredibly maddening and very flawed effort. The main part that really hurts this one is the fact that it's presented as an inter- connected anthology, which really makes no sense. By choosing on several individuals that aren't all that interesting this one just doesn't stay exciting during this time. The second story, with the party being thrown by those under the influence is the greatest example of this since the people portrayed are raving maniacs which just makes it clueless why we're there around them for so long as this party without learning anything or even being given a scary or exciting scene as what's portrayed isn't scary, thrilling or suspenseful. These scenes are just boring, and as the longest segment just drags the film on endlessly. The first one is slightly better as it contains some nice scenes of the affected going crazy and killing each other, but once we get off that nothing is all that interesting or engaging with the scenes of everyone trying to figure out what's going on. While the finale offers some explanations it's just too late to really care here since we've been given an anthology effort that tells one continuous story for no reason. The only thing worthwhile in the film is the blood and gore, which gets off some decent splatter gags of spiked baseball bats being shoved into different body parts or hacked up with knives, but otherwise not a whole lot here really works.Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and Brief Nudity.

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. It's such a basic story that's being told that it feels more like a way to extend it to feature length than a worthwhile method of story telling. Part 1 is dark and brooding, part 2 is like a comedy and part 3 tries - but fails - to tie the whole thing together.I liked part 1. It had a great atmosphere and such a feeling of dread that's it's the only part of this 'horror' movie that even approached being scary. It's also getting somewhere when it cuts to part 2, which is so tonally different that it's like a different movie. Don't get me wrong, I liked part 2, but it would have been better on it's own rather than lodged haphazardly between the far more similar parts 1 and 3.Part 3 struggled to do something and provide a satisfying conclusion. The trouble was that this movie went from the madness caused by the signal turning people into homicidal maniacs into people who talk at random and don't know what's happening. Add the misplaced cutaways and editing tricks and it just becomes a confusing mess. The end just fizzles out and its unsatisfying, muddled and dull nature just about sums up the movie.Having these three parts as three separate stories would have made for a better experience overall. The main story could have easily been told in Part 1, Part 2 (with a few tweaks) could have stayed the same and then Part 3 could have been a proper finale rather then the delay of something that could have happened an hour beforehand.The best part of this movie can be found much better elsewhere. 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. A nice effort, but just not a very good result.

It's so refreshing to watch a horror film that isn't full of clichés. I don't know anything about the directors or the actors (most of them don't have profile backgrounds on IMDb) but I'm guessing the undeserved but current 6.1 rating of this film is due in part to people's expectations of the usual slasher movie with pretty girls. If you want that, don't watch this. Yes it has pretty girls, and yes there's quite a bit of slashing too, but this is incomparable to the Hollywood blockbuster clichés.Performances by all cast was solid and believable. The sense of urgency and desperation comes across really well and I was hooked from the word go. When I get a sick feeling in my stomach from the apocalyptic nightmare of a film then I know it has done its job. The Signal achieves this without effort.I also like that this was in three parts, each directed by someone different. This does not detract from the flow of the film though, it stitches together really well so credit has to go to David Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry.