The Signal (2007, USA)

An interesting little science fiction horror comedy, The Signal may make more sense as three short films (different writers, different directors, different tones) linked by the same story, rather than as a continuous feature film. It’s an interesting concept, one that can’t help but be uneven in execution, though this unevenness actually ends up being part of its charm. The Signal filmmakers made the wise choice of a simple story – late one night, a city awakes to find all communications systems are jammed by a disruptive signal which incites people to random acts of violence (shades of Pulse). Playing in front of this backdrop are Maya, Ben and Lewis – Maya is unhappily married to Lewis, cheating on him with Ben, who wants her to leave the city with him and abandon her marriage.

Of the three segments, the first is the scariest, filmed in a similar style as 28 Days Later. Segment two (my favorite) turns the proceedings into a black comedy, while segment three has the unhappy task of wrapping everything up. Uniting the disjointed natures of the first and second segments while simultaneously providing closure on the story would have taxed the skills of a more accomplished filmmaker, and as it is, the denoument drags on too long in a less than satisfactory manner. All the same, The Signal is still a highly entertaining little horror flick, grounded in decades of precedent but still managing to forge an identity of its own.