Cinema review
Directed by David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry Starring Justin Welborn, AJ Bowen, Anessa Ramsey
Release date 22 February 2008 (USA); TBC (UK)

Strange transmissions are being leaked through radios, mobile phones and television sets, turning people homicidal. In the midst of this madness, a man tries to locate his lost love…

The Signal is a bleak but not entirely humourless experience. It is also one of the rare sci-fi/horror films to have a sweeping, widescreen romance at its core.

Each of the three filmmakers credited on The Signal directs a segment of the movie (think Pulp Fiction, but with the odd axe-wielding psychopath thrown in) before a final coda ties everything together. The first of these focuses on Ben and his married lover Mya. We see her returning home to her abusive husband on the night when the mayhem begins to break out. In the comical second instalment we are introduced to three new characters, one of who (Bowen) might be “infected”. Finally, The Signal has Ben attempt to reach the airport where he and Mya were secretly planning on taking a trip away.

Clearly a comment on the inherent paranoia in contemporary American society, as well a very literal take on the idea that junk television “rots” the brain (the film begins with a “torture porn” flick playing on the small screen), The Signal creates more suburban panic on its small budget than Spielberg’s War of the Worlds and even Cloverfield. And praise does not get much heavier than that. Calum Waddell

VERDICT: 9/10
A signal of big things to come for cast and crew alike, this is an instant gem.