Badmovies.org Forum

Do YOU have the crazy?  I certainly do if I think I can review a film I saw once months ago at 12:30 at night and being really tired... But I'm bored so here goes!  :twirl:



I managed to catch this film earlier on in the year at the Melbourne International Film Festival by pure chance.

Going into seeing it I knew nothing about it, which was a nice change, plus I had been out at dinner and had been drinking.  :teddyr:

But perceptions be damned, this film was FUN!

The SIGNAL [2007] (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780607/)

The Signal is told in three parts from three different perspectives, that of Mya, her lover Ben and her husband Lewis.


A [quite] low budget horror/comedy, The Signal is about a mysterious signal that has taken over every electronic source; the television is putting out a weird transmission that transfixes those who watch it closely, all telephones have a strange similar noise coming out of them, and generally chaos reigns.

The first part centers on Mya and the beginning of this signal.  It is late at night, and she's been with Ben, her lover.  It is clear that she isn't altogether fond of Lewis, her husband, and that she is quite taken by Ben, but despite his protests, she leaves to go home.  Of course all is not as it seems, as she drives home to her apartment block somewhat zoned out listening to Ben's mixed CD he gave her.  On returning to her apartment, there is quite a bit of noise.  People are yelling at each other in the halls and their homes, and whilst nothing serious has happened, Mya is understandably quite perturbed.

On arriving home she finds Lewis with two of his mates attempting to fix the TV so they can watch 'the game'.  He is of course suspicious of her but finds himself distracted with the TV and tells her to go in the other room.

On returning, Lewis and his friends are arguing.  Lewis starts acting irrationally and BAM!  Smacks his friend in the head with a baseball bat, to which a fight starts.

Freaking out, Mya leaves the apartment only to find chaos has spilled into the hallways, in the form of a man with a set of shears, and his keen ability to slice jugulars.

From here we are faced with a series of 'crazies' who irrationally kill.   What follows is her escape from the apartment block to try and find Ben, the one person in the world she wants most of all.

Things get brutal, and also in parts quite funny, courtesy of one of Lewis's friends who has been up all night trying to sort out what is going on.

The next story centers on Lewis and his hunt for Mya after she leaves him tied up in their apartment.  The second part is by far the funniest, with Lewis acting rationally, but obviously with messed up priorities and perceptions.  Also involved are the guests of a potential New Years Party.

The third centers on Ben and his hunt to rescue Mya, the one person in the world he wants most of all, so they can leave the madness behind them.


Yes it's a vague outline, but I'd prefer you to watch it.  Though of course being a limited run, I would imagine that unless it gets alot of popularity, this one is going to be a DVD to hire due to unavailability.

The film works on a few levels.  Acting is terrible, but is helped by the low budget, as per normal.  Also since the situation the characters are put in is so odd, their stilted and sometimes over the top acting actually fits in well.

The comedy aspects worked well with me, as the film gets more and more ridiculous during the second part, until another change of pace in the third.

Overall it was a surprising hit for me, and nice to see such an unusual idea/approach on the big screen.

I recommend this as a dvd, but if you can, catch it at cinemas; there's something to be said for hearing the signal broadcast on the big screen through the cinema speakers... 

It's not a classic by any means, but I quite enjoyed it.  Liberal portions of wine beforehand were hopefully not involved in this decision, but at least you've been warned.  Good for people who want a frantic, chaotic which is ludicrously funny in parts, but also happens to bring out some unexpected almost terrifying moments, and funnily enough most of the film is set during the day.  Chaos of this sort during the day is quite different for a horror film.

I give it 4/5.  Watch the trailers to get a bit of an idea.  They don't show the funny parts, which is good: the comedy jumps around the scary parts quite well in a nice balance.

Apologies again for the terrible review, but I just had to get it out of me, and I really did enjoy this one.

Well I'm glad you liked it.

I just watched it and while for being made on a $50,000 budget it wasn't half bad, but then again it was half good either. The actors must have worked for free, as the F/X wasn't to shabby for it's budget. I mean they must have used $10,000 in fake blood.

Maybe I wasn't into it, but at times it was a little hard to follow or it was the pacing. It seems to drag on and on I thought I have been watching it for 2 hours and I looked at the timer and only 1:02 had passed.

Ok there is this signal from the TV, ok where did it come from? What is it a pirate signal, was it something the government did? What? Was it all an illusion? Maybe they were all just trippin' on acid. There was enough paranoia in this movie for a 100 films.

Spoiler:

I think everything that happened, happened only in their head. It really was just that an illusion and didn't really happen in the movie. Like a series of twisted dreams. You're not going to animate a head with some screws and a battery charger.

Pretty much all it was, was a series of people bashing each others heads in with everything from a Fire Extinguishers, shovels, bolt cutters, baseball bats, pretty much any tool you could get your hands on.

So I'm not going to write it off, since I was tried when i watch it and I might of not been in the right mindset. I'll just have to see it again to be fair.

I've already stated my absolute love of this film over in the GOOD movies board. 

I do want to take on one of Cheeze's complaints.....SPOILERS ENSUE:

Cheeze, they didn't actually animate the head.  The guy was bat-sh*t crazy and only believed that he saw the head talking.  Having the other character hook it up to a power source and then hallucinating that the head was talking to him was his way of getting information from himself if that makes any sense.

A lot of the film was hallucinations, but they were caused by the signal itself.  I loved that there isn't an explanation as to where the signal comes from.  I don't like having films spelled out for me completely....leaving a little mystery always works for me.