3 out of 5

Directed by: William Eubank

‘The Signal’ looks amazing, is competently acted, and keeps upping the Interest ante successfully… until it doesn’t.  Until it reaches a point when you suspect that what you’re watching may all be for naught.  And while the bombastic ending as shot by Eubank (and scripted by he and his co-writers) manages to be loud and proud and distracting, that niggling suspicion will remain.  If you decide to watch the flick again to verify… well, your opinion will either get more positive or more negative, depending on how you feel about Message movies.

But to start: three students – Haley, Jonah and Nic – are taking a trip to Cali.  Nic and Jonah are good friends; Nic and Haley are dating but lately there’s been distance.  The first genre from which ‘Signal’ nips is the indie drama, and Eubanks smoothly uses film shorthand and some key flashbacks to let us know that these are some very smart kids.  While, as mentioned, the endpoint can bring the world building into question, this first portion of the movie we spend getting to know these characters is key for our initial investment, and the actors and dialogue definitely sell it.  We recognize each role but believe in these being real people.  So it doesn’t seem like a forced move when Nic impulsively decides to follow the signal of a hacker who’s been plaguing he and Jonah recently.  This actually leads to our second genre nod – horror – as the teens investigate a spooky abandoned house from which this signal seems to be emanating.  …Thereafter things just get stranger and stranger.

There’s really not a moment when the movie isn’t interesting to watch, so the movie passes on that most basic and important criteria.  But it’s about something, confirmed by the filmmakers, and to me, the structure of the flick draws into question most of what we see – whether or not it’s important, or just distraction / padding surrounding key lines and shots that support the Message.  Leaning toward viewing most of it as parable, it becomes a bit more questionable, as this theme / concept is given a couple lazy images for representation and then farted upon the screen.  So, yes, my second viewing lessened my opinion of the flick, but the fact that I was brought to consider what the movie was trying to say – and that this wasn’t a painful process – is absolutely notable, and makes at least a single watch worthwhile.  ‘The Signal’ is a very impressively produced feature; it may not deliver its message in the most effective or desirable fashion, but Eubank and crew at least had the good sense to keep things entertaining before the credits roll.