The Signal
Starring: Justin Welborn, AJ Bowen, Scott Poythres, Anessa Ramsey, Sahr Ngauja, Cheri Christian and Chad McKnight
Written by: David Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry
Directed by: David Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Rated: R
Barely a year after its premiere at Sundance in 2007 – and after a successful series of screenings at film festivals across the country, including ours – David Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry’s psycho-sci-fi horror project The Signal will be commercially released this month on select screens nationwide. What began as an experiment in narrative filmmaking has become a promising showing by a trio of newcomers that could easily prove a substantial commercial success.
On New Year’s Eve in a fictional city called Terminus, a single broadcast signal has jammed all others in the city. It’s a jumble of ambiguous images, and people who see it become homicidal maniacs single-mindedly driven to kill everyone they see.
The Signal is presented in the exquisite corpse tradition, meaning that the directors took turns telling the story, and so it is presented from three different perspectives. Sadly, none of them manages to assemble an interesting narrative around the premise, although Bruckner, Bush and Gentry present mature, dramatic takes on the theme, which refreshingly avoids the trappings of B-grade in what is essentially a horror film. One aspect of the story line involves attractive, young Mya (Anessa Ramsey), who is cheating on her husband Lewis (A.J. Bowen) with an apparently nice guy named Ben (Justin Welborn). The acting is decent and the tension between the characters is compelling, but the interpersonal drama, while well-executed, does not feel cohesive.
With the exception of a few inspired moments of action, the characters and their conflicts with one another rarely interact with the larger story in any meaningful way. The characters sink, their relationships slacking against the core conflict, slowing the pacing to a virtual standstill in a way that makes the overall effect of The Signal very weak.VS
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