The Signal (2007) - Different enough to be decent

When I got round to writing this review for 2007's 'The Signal' I actually found that people seemed to either rate it with top marks, or bottom marks - I guess that means that the general consensus is that you either love it or hate it.  I wouldn't say that it's the greatest film ever made and the subject matter is hardly reinventing the wheel in terms of horror.  However, the way it's done makes it worth a watch if you're into your low-budget horror offerings/B-movies.

The titular 'Signal' is in fact a TV broadcast of weird, trippy colours on everyone's TV screen.  So, when the general population encounter such an inconvenience, instead of just putting on a DVD instead, or subscribing to Netflix, they generally go nuts... and generally slice people's throats open with pliers.

It's a film of three acts - even more literally than the general film-making story structure.  Although each part follows the same story about a pair of love rival men trying to track down the woman they are both in love with during this hellish apocalypse, each section is directed by a different director.  Naturally, this gives the film quite a unique feel, in as much as the style and tone do tend to shift with each segment.

It's important to remember that this is a 'B-movie,' therefore don't go expecting any A-list actors or major special effects here.  You probably won't have heard of any of the leads (or at least I hadn't!), but they all do a decent enough job and are quite competent for all their respective roles.  What 'budget' this film had attached to it obviously did its best to give us some major (and quite realistically disgusting!) gore splattered here and there, but luckily it never descends into an outright bloodbath.

Overall, if you're in the mood for a pretty dark little horror movie that tries to be as realistic as possible, give this one a go.  Although - and this is just my two cents - when I say it's 'dark' I'm mainly referring to the first and third act.  I actually found the middle part to be quite tongue-in-cheek with plenty of 'black' humour thrown in there.  So, sit back, enjoy the shifts in tone and the characters' perception of reality as this mysterious signal scrambles their brains and forces them to question reality with some pretty gruesome consequences.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that