The Signal (film)
Encyclopedia
The Signal is an independent
psychological horror-comedy film written and directed by David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry and produced by Alexander A. Motlagh—four filmmakers who have been collaborating since 1999 in Atlanta, Georgia
. The movie was completed for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival on a budget of only $50,000 and shot over the course of 13 days.
The film premiered January 22, 2007 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
, where it was acquired by Magnolia Pictures
and released on DVD
on June 10, 2008. The Signal is rated R for strong brutal bloody violence throughout, pervasive language, and brief nudity.
horror film
told in three parts, in which all telecommunication
devices broadcast only a mysterious "Signal" turning people insane
. The film is broken up into three chapters ("transmissions
"), each of which had different directors during shooting. Each part manifests elements of the following genres: splatter film
, black comedy
, and a post-apocalyptic
horror
-love story
.
) with a man named Ben (Justin Welborn
). The lovers plan to escape from the city of Terminus (the old name for Atlanta) on a train together that night, which is New Year's Eve
. As Mya exits, Ben turns the TV
on, showing a bizarre, psychedelic
sequence of images. Mya begins to listen to a CD
given to her by Ben, but is menaced by men who are acting strangely in a parking garage. When she reaches her apartment building, she finds people acting strangely as well. Unknown to Mya, the Signal, a static-like interference that is coming through the TV, radio and telephone amplifies each person's negative emotional traits, causing them to act irrationally and in most cases violently.
Once inside her apartment, Lewis and two friends, Jerry and Rod (Sahr Ngaujah
) attempt to fix the TV, but Lewis, the first to react to the Signal, beats Jerry to death with a baseball bat
over a minor argument. Mya escapes in panic, leaving Rod and Lewis in a struggle. After escaping, she finds the whole building in chaos with people killing each other. Mya hides out in the nearby apartment until morning. When she decides to leave and re-enter her home, she finds an unconscious Lewis, bound to a chair with duct-tape. He awakens only to see her leave him behind and exit into the hall listening to Ben's CD, but encounters Rod who drags her into a janitor's closet. He then tells her of the night he spent trying to survive in the apartment complex. It becomes evident that the Signal affects each person differently, and that there is the possibility that Rod is also crazy, though he seems to largely have control of his own judgement. Together, they escape, and attempt to drive to safety, but after being shot by a policewoman and almost left behind by Mya, Rod turns on the radio in anger, exposing himself to the Signal. He goes violently insane and attacks Mya, who crashes the car. Rod is incapacitated and trapped in the vehicle, and Mya flees, telling a passerby named Clark (Scott Poythress) that she is going to the train station to leave Terminus.
The story turns to Ben, who finds the duct-taped Lewis and loosens his bonds. Lewis knocks Ben unconscious and puts his body in the back of a pest control
van. At a nearby apartment, Anna (Cheri Christian) is setting up for a New Year party. The Signal has affected her so that her dutifulness as a homemaker is amplified, and despite having killed her crazed husband in self-defense, she has continued planning for the party as if nothing has happened. Clark, who is her neighbour and a conspiracy theory
nut, soon arrives. The two begin attempting to figure out what is happening, and Clark also admits that he had decapitated
Rod, who had attacked him after being freed from the car wreck. Eventually Lewis makes his way to the apartment, wrongly under the belief that Mya has been there because her car is crashed outside. At first, Lewis befriends Anna and Clark, and they convince themselves that none of them have been affected by the Signal, and that they have to band together in order to survive. Lewis, whose violent and paranoid
tendencies are clearly amplified by the Signal, immediately kills Anna's niece, Laura (Lindsey Garrett), who arrives at the door seeking help. He dismisses the act as self-defense, but Clark convinces him not to attack the next arrival, Jim (Chad McKnight) who is apparently oblivious of the situation. While Anna hallucinates that Clark is her husband, Lewis hallucinates that Jim is Ben, taunting him. He beats Jim to death, then attacks Anna, spraying her with insecticide
until she is blind. Once he realizes she knows nothing about Mya's whereabouts, Lewis forces her to ingest the poison, killing her. He then exposes Clark to the Signal in order to convince him to tell him where Mya had gone. Ben, having woken up and freed himself from Lewis's van, enters the apartment and attacks Lewis with the pesticide canister, knocking him out.
Lewis wakes up and follows Ben and Clark. He attempts to kill them in a tool shed, but they fight him off and escape. After Ben convinces Clark that the Signal "is a lie", thus breaking its effect on him, Clark informs Ben where Mya was headed. Ben and Clark make a run through the now mostly-dead city and arrive at the train station. There, they find Mya tied to a chair, being forced to watch the Signal by Lewis, who attcks them and strangles Clark until he is unconscious. Ben then resorts to use Lewis's own paranoia against him, eventually tricking Lewis into believing that their roles are reversed, and that Lewis is the one man he hates most: Mya's "other man". Lewis punches a signal-broadcasting TV in a frustrated rage, electrocuting
himself.
The story ends ambiguously. A series of scenes showing Ben and Mya escaping with Clark, stocking up on supplies, then Ben and Mya going separate ways from Clark, suggesting they've succeeded. However we then see Mya still tied to the chair, seemingly lost due the prolonged exposure to the Signal. Ben places Mya's headphones
on her and she closes her eyes, a tear rolling down her cheek, before the credits appear. Whether this is the final reality, or a flashback before Ben and Mya's escape from the city, is left for the viewer to decide.
of Lou Reed's
"Perfect Day" by Jon Thomas Hall in the soundtrack
, the film was theatrically released on February 22, 2008. The song finally used is a cover of Joy Division's
"Atmosphere" by Ola Podrida. As a promotion for the film, a new short podcast
was released bi-weekly through bloody-disgusting.com, a horror film news site.
On February 23, 2008, two men were stabbed in a Fullerton, California
movie theatre during a showing of The Signal. One suffered non life-threatening injuries to his arm, while the other suffered a lung puncture.
, with consensus that "The Signal is gruesome, funny, and has big thoughts about society, but those disparate elements fail to come together convincingly." As of August 2009, it is user rated 6.2/10 on Internet Movie Database
.
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
psychological horror-comedy film written and directed by David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry and produced by Alexander A. Motlagh—four filmmakers who have been collaborating since 1999 in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. The movie was completed for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival on a budget of only $50,000 and shot over the course of 13 days.
The film premiered January 22, 2007 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
2007 Sundance Film Festival
The 2007 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 18 until January 28, 2007 in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah and Ogden, Utah. It was the 23-rd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival...
, where it was acquired by Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor, and is a holding of 2929 Entertainment, owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban. Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films....
and released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on June 10, 2008. The Signal is rated R for strong brutal bloody violence throughout, pervasive language, and brief nudity.
Synopsis
The Signal is a science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
told in three parts, in which all telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
devices broadcast only a mysterious "Signal" turning people insane
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...
. The film is broken up into three chapters ("transmissions
Transmission (telecommunications)
Transmission, in telecommunications, is the process of sending, propagating and receiving an analogue or digital information signal over a physical point-to-point or point-to-multipoint transmission medium, either wired, optical fiber or wireless...
"), each of which had different directors during shooting. Each part manifests elements of the following genres: splatter film
Splatter film
A splatter film or gore film is a subgenre of horror film that deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence. These films, through the use of special effects and excessive blood and guts, tend to display an overt interest in the vulnerability of the human body and the...
, black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
, and a post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics, supernatural...
horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
-love story
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
.
Plot
The film opens, showing that Mya (Anessa Ramsey) is cheating on her husband Lewis (A. J. BowenA. J. Bowen
Uncle Alfred C. Bowen, Jr. , better known as A. J. Bowen, is an American stage and film actor who appeared as Lewis Denton in the film The Signal.-Movie career:...
) with a man named Ben (Justin Welborn
Justin Welborn
Justin Welborn is an actor and singer best known for his roles in the films The Signal, Dance of the Dead, and The Final Destination.- Filmography :- Television :- Video :*2008 - MGS: Acquiescence - Stunt...
). The lovers plan to escape from the city of Terminus (the old name for Atlanta) on a train together that night, which is New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
. As Mya exits, Ben turns the TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
on, showing a bizarre, psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
sequence of images. Mya begins to listen to a CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
given to her by Ben, but is menaced by men who are acting strangely in a parking garage. When she reaches her apartment building, she finds people acting strangely as well. Unknown to Mya, the Signal, a static-like interference that is coming through the TV, radio and telephone amplifies each person's negative emotional traits, causing them to act irrationally and in most cases violently.
Once inside her apartment, Lewis and two friends, Jerry and Rod (Sahr Ngaujah
Sahr Ngaujah
Sahr Ngaujah aka Sahr is a theater director and actor of Sierra Leonean descent, born in the United States, now living in Amsterdam.He began his career in theatre, working in Atlanta with the Freddie Hendricks Youth Ensemble of Atlanta, through 7Stages Theatre in Little 5 Points...
) attempt to fix the TV, but Lewis, the first to react to the Signal, beats Jerry to death with a baseball bat
Baseball bat
A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the game of baseball to hit the ball after the ball is thrown by the pitcher. It is no more than 2.75 inches in diameter at the thickest part and no more than 42 inches in length. It typically weighs no more than 33 ounces , but it...
over a minor argument. Mya escapes in panic, leaving Rod and Lewis in a struggle. After escaping, she finds the whole building in chaos with people killing each other. Mya hides out in the nearby apartment until morning. When she decides to leave and re-enter her home, she finds an unconscious Lewis, bound to a chair with duct-tape. He awakens only to see her leave him behind and exit into the hall listening to Ben's CD, but encounters Rod who drags her into a janitor's closet. He then tells her of the night he spent trying to survive in the apartment complex. It becomes evident that the Signal affects each person differently, and that there is the possibility that Rod is also crazy, though he seems to largely have control of his own judgement. Together, they escape, and attempt to drive to safety, but after being shot by a policewoman and almost left behind by Mya, Rod turns on the radio in anger, exposing himself to the Signal. He goes violently insane and attacks Mya, who crashes the car. Rod is incapacitated and trapped in the vehicle, and Mya flees, telling a passerby named Clark (Scott Poythress) that she is going to the train station to leave Terminus.
The story turns to Ben, who finds the duct-taped Lewis and loosens his bonds. Lewis knocks Ben unconscious and puts his body in the back of a pest control
Pest control
Pest control refers to the regulation or management of a species defined as a pest, usually because it is perceived to be detrimental to a person's health, the ecology or the economy.-History:...
van. At a nearby apartment, Anna (Cheri Christian) is setting up for a New Year party. The Signal has affected her so that her dutifulness as a homemaker is amplified, and despite having killed her crazed husband in self-defense, she has continued planning for the party as if nothing has happened. Clark, who is her neighbour and a conspiracy theory
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
nut, soon arrives. The two begin attempting to figure out what is happening, and Clark also admits that he had decapitated
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
Rod, who had attacked him after being freed from the car wreck. Eventually Lewis makes his way to the apartment, wrongly under the belief that Mya has been there because her car is crashed outside. At first, Lewis befriends Anna and Clark, and they convince themselves that none of them have been affected by the Signal, and that they have to band together in order to survive. Lewis, whose violent and paranoid
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
tendencies are clearly amplified by the Signal, immediately kills Anna's niece, Laura (Lindsey Garrett), who arrives at the door seeking help. He dismisses the act as self-defense, but Clark convinces him not to attack the next arrival, Jim (Chad McKnight) who is apparently oblivious of the situation. While Anna hallucinates that Clark is her husband, Lewis hallucinates that Jim is Ben, taunting him. He beats Jim to death, then attacks Anna, spraying her with insecticide
Insecticide
An insecticide is a pesticide used against insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against the eggs and larvae of insects respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and the household. The use of insecticides is believed to be one of the major factors behind...
until she is blind. Once he realizes she knows nothing about Mya's whereabouts, Lewis forces her to ingest the poison, killing her. He then exposes Clark to the Signal in order to convince him to tell him where Mya had gone. Ben, having woken up and freed himself from Lewis's van, enters the apartment and attacks Lewis with the pesticide canister, knocking him out.
Lewis wakes up and follows Ben and Clark. He attempts to kill them in a tool shed, but they fight him off and escape. After Ben convinces Clark that the Signal "is a lie", thus breaking its effect on him, Clark informs Ben where Mya was headed. Ben and Clark make a run through the now mostly-dead city and arrive at the train station. There, they find Mya tied to a chair, being forced to watch the Signal by Lewis, who attcks them and strangles Clark until he is unconscious. Ben then resorts to use Lewis's own paranoia against him, eventually tricking Lewis into believing that their roles are reversed, and that Lewis is the one man he hates most: Mya's "other man". Lewis punches a signal-broadcasting TV in a frustrated rage, electrocuting
Electric shock
Electric Shock of a body with any source of electricity that causes a sufficient current through the skin, muscles or hair. Typically, the expression is used to denote an unwanted exposure to electricity, hence the effects are considered undesirable....
himself.
The story ends ambiguously. A series of scenes showing Ben and Mya escaping with Clark, stocking up on supplies, then Ben and Mya going separate ways from Clark, suggesting they've succeeded. However we then see Mya still tied to the chair, seemingly lost due the prolonged exposure to the Signal. Ben places Mya's headphones
Headphones
Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers, or less commonly a single speaker, held close to a user's ears and connected to a signal source such as an audio amplifier, radio, CD player or portable Media Player. They are also known as stereophones, headsets or, colloquially, cans. The in-ear...
on her and she closes her eyes, a tear rolling down her cheek, before the credits appear. Whether this is the final reality, or a flashback before Ben and Mya's escape from the city, is left for the viewer to decide.
Release
After long delay due to the search for a song to replace an unlicensed coverCover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Lou Reed's
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
"Perfect Day" by Jon Thomas Hall in the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
, the film was theatrically released on February 22, 2008. The song finally used is a cover of Joy Division's
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...
"Atmosphere" by Ola Podrida. As a promotion for the film, a new short podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
was released bi-weekly through bloody-disgusting.com, a horror film news site.
On February 23, 2008, two men were stabbed in a Fullerton, California
Fullerton, California
Fullerton is a city located in northern Orange County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 135,161.It was founded in 1887 by George and Edward Amerige and named for George H. Fullerton, who secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway...
movie theatre during a showing of The Signal. One suffered non life-threatening injuries to his arm, while the other suffered a lung puncture.
Reception
The film received 55% of positive reviews at Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, with consensus that "The Signal is gruesome, funny, and has big thoughts about society, but those disparate elements fail to come together convincingly." As of August 2009, it is user rated 6.2/10 on Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
.