October Horror 2012: The Signal

The Signal is really pretty interesting.  It was written and directed by David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry and released in 2007 for Sundance.  The movie is actually broken into three "chapters" of a continuing story, where each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character which brings about a radical shift in genre.  This does make a nice segue into Anthology week.


The basic setup is that Mya is having an affair and wakes up with Ben (her lover) to weird looking TV static.  They're so invested in each other they ignore it.  This is the Signal, an unexplained broadcast that turns normal people into violent psychopaths.  She returns home to her husband Lewis, who is jealous because he knows she's cheating.  Lewis and his friends are arguing about the TV static interfering with some sports game before Lewis snaps and beats one of his friends to death with a baseball bat.  Mya flees and hides overnight in a closet, listening to her CD player.  This seems to be her main defense against the Signal: she's constantly shutting everything out and listening to her walkman.  After she wakes up the first chapter begins.

Crazy In Love
The first chapter is a play on the slasher genre, complete with a hilariously gnarly looking weapon and an abductor who's immune to pain.  Mya escapes him by crashing her car and running away, passing the narrative to Clark, who was outside at the time and offered to help her.  This is amusing, and kindof tense.

The Jealousy Monster
The narrative passes briefly to Anna, who is setting up a New Year's Eve party despite having just murdered her husband in self-defense.  Clark comes over and tries to calm her and hides the body.  Shortly after, Lewis shows up, on the trail of Mya and the story takes a turn for the awkward as Lewis...and Clark...try to play party with Anna.  This is where characters start hallucinating a lot making it much harder to tell for sure what exactly is going on.  Does the Signal give people powers?  Does it make them nuts or does it just make them see everyone else as nuts?  This is probably the funniest bit, but it's really dark.  Lewis eventually snaps and tortures Anna to death before Clark reveals where Mya has gone.  Ben appears and knocks Lewis out, escaping with Clark and following Mya.

Escape From Terminus
After some brief flashbacks showing Ben's progression over the last 2 chapters, we shift to him and Clark convincing each other of their sanity and discussing the nature of the Signal.  Clark wraps his head in tin foil.  They arrive at the train station to discover Lewis has beaten them there and strapped Mya to a chair directly in front of the Signal.  This bit is the shortest part of the story so it's hard to discuss the overarching developments without giving away how the movie ends.

Suffice to say, it's suitably mind-bending after the hallucinations and questioning of the characters' sanity.

Overall the movie is brisk, darkly witty, and violent.  It's really satisfying to watch because it keeps hitting great beats and then quickly moving on to a different mood somehow managing to not seem schizophrenic.  The way the narrative follows the characters is very fun, and lends a certain amount of non-linearity keeps it from feeling too breakneck.  But it's kept in check so you never really lose where you are in the story.

It's a pretty great close to internet week.

Tomorrow the marathon moves on to Anthologies, starting with the 1982 classic: Creepshow.

I'm going to try to follow this format of giving brief synopsis of the framing story, followed by a quick overview of each short and then final impressions.