The Signal

I really enjoy the concept of this movie. People become psychos after watching or listening to an electronic pulse emitting from TV's, radios, and cell phones. Or more elegantly told, the signal distorts ones mind to think that killing people is a normal thing to do. It creates hallucinations...or something like that. Where does the pulse come from? Who's doing it. We don't know. And that's a good thing! Because most big Hollywood films would eventually have us follow the main character to a plant where some evil government genius is plotting to take over the world and oooops! It's the main characters best friend. Dang man. Thats deep. PLEASE! No, The Signal stays away from Hollywood convention about 80% of the time and the result is fresh. Another thing I liked about this strange breed of comical and sadistic horror film is that the film was written and directed by 3 different directors who helm three different "transmissions" of the signal. My favorite was undoubtedly Dan Bush's "Transmission 3 Escape from Terminus." Not only is it directed ith extreme precision, but the strangest and most horrific things happen in it. Let's just say it involves, a severed head, a screw driver and an arm, and no face. Watch it and you'll know what I mean. The other segments were still well done and interesting, but they were either too goofy or a little bland for my taste. Transmission 3 kept the intensity, comedy, and horror on a balanced level. Now why can't I give this film a better rating? Because as creative as it was and as threatening as it wanted to be, I didn't feel the vibe. There were too many instances where I just didn't care about anything that was going on. I wasn't fully drawn into the film until the last transmission/section. It didn't help that section one had characters I didn't really like and section 2 was was too goofy and was mainly about the crazy husband who was kind of annoying. I just couldn't get into his character. He always felt forced. Clark on the other hand, the weird landlord was a fun quirky character that I thought was played off nicely and believable. I did enjoy the way the film ended. It was simple and well rounded with no far fetched resolution. Overall the film is interesting and worth a watch.