The main problem with the end revelation is that it shows we have a film constructed more in terms of a series of wild head-turning spins than any strong underlying rationale for why things are happening. It turns what we start out thinking is a film about returned alien abductees into some completely bizarre variant on Dark City (1998). The final revelations about who we are dealing with, who we think the authorities are and where everything is located is waaaaay out there. It gets even weirder when, during their escape, they are picked up by kooky Lin Shaye who talks about angels coming down from above, before she is apprehended and questioned by Laurence Fishburne, seems to get caught in a feedback loop during the questioning and starts leaking purple goo from her ear before he opens a steel briefcase and pulls out a gun presumably to eliminate her. This is so unbelievably terrible that for this review I am. Brenton Thwaites and Olivia Cooke make an escape from the facility and through the town in a semi-trailer, only to discover that the highway abruptly ends at a vast artificial canyon around the town. Yet at the exact same time, it is one of the best times I have had watching a film in a little bit. (l to r) Brenton Thwaites is questioned by Laurence Fishburneįrom this point onwards, The Signal becomes a film that is constantly, unexpectedly pulling the carpet from beneath the audience where the sense of reality and everything that is happening is constantly being thrown on its head. Things become completely bizarre after Brenton Thwaites is recaptured from his escape attempt, is placed in a hospital bed and falls out to reveal that both of his legs have been replaced by gleaming angular metal prostheses of what we are later told is alien design. There is the supremely uncanny moment where Laurence Fishburne informs Brenton Thwaites that the friend he has been talking to through the grill only exists inside his own head. Thwaites then finds his girlfriend Olivia Cooke in a coma and tries to escape with her – but because he is wheelchair-ridden, this means towing the bed she is on behind his chair all the while trying to hide from people in the hallways.Īt this point, The Signal seems to be heading towards somewhere between The Andromeda Strain (1971) and an alien abduction drama. Thwaites talks to his friend Beau Knapp through the ventilation grill, although Knapp seems disoriented and confused, insisting that he has no legs. The questions keep disconcertingly coming back to ones about alien abduction. Thwaites then wakes up in what appears to be a US government biological containment facility where he is being questioned by people, in particular Laurence Fishburne, who are inside hazmat suits. They trace him to a remote house, something unclear happens. The crippled Brenton Thwaites, his girlfriend Olivia Cooke and best friend Beau Knapp are on a cross-country journey on the trail of an uber-hacker who taunts them by sending them pics and video of where they are. Director William Eubank had previously made the less well-known science-fiction film Love (2011) about an astronaut stranded in orbit and subsequently went on to make a further SF film Underwater (2020), followed by Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021).įor a good half-hour in, The Signal is a slow burner. It was snapped up for what was initially promised as widespread distribution, although this eventually transpired as a limited theatrical release. Sadly, this flubs the landing with a banal and credulity-stretching finale that feels like a bad Twilight Zone episode, but the first hour or so is terrific.The Signal – not to be confused with the fine mass insanity outbreak horror film The Signal (2007) – gained good word of mouth at its premiere at Sundance. That means credibly geeky dialogue, and more emphasis on suspense, character and sterile white corridors while the synths shimmer in the background than the kind of action-movie manoeuvres favoured of tentpole sci-fi. It seems they may be infected by an alien life-form, according to Laurence Fishburne from inside his protective suit, but can they trust those dead eyes? This cerebral, stripped-down, and mostly low-tech sci-fi movie shares aesthetic DNA with some of the new, indie-style contributions to the genre from directors like Neill Blomkamp (more District 9 than Chappie), Gareth Edwards (Monsters) and above all Shane Carruth (Primer, Upstream Colour). On a cross-country road trip, three MIT students (Brenton Thwaites, Olivia Cooke and Beau Knapp) stop off in Nevada while looking for an enigmatic hacker and end up incarcerated at a secret governmental facility.
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