The Signal reviews/discussion - 2009 DVDTalk Horror Challenge Day 9

[Trevor]

IMDB link for The Signal (2007)

Selection made by clckworang.

These "2009 DVDTalk Horror Challenge Day #" threads are for the discussion of the films in the 31 Films in 31 Days subset.

General discussion on the 2009 DVDTalk Horror Challenge goes here, your list for the Challenge goes here.

The plan is for everyone to watch this film on the October day in the thread title, and to start discussing it the morning of the following day. You may start discussion early if you want, but the preferred plan is for this to be as much of a group exercise as possible, with all of us viewing it "together" and discussing after.

Of course, you are totally encouraged to participate in these threads even if you haven't watched the movie on the designated day. Even if you haven't watched it in years, or are not participating in the Horror Challenge, please feel free to chime in.

Spoiler tags will not be needed, as it will be expected that anyone here has seen the film.

Do not read this thread if you have not seen the film, unless you don't mind the ending being spoiled for you.

[clckworang]

Since this was my pick. I thought that I would talk a bit about it. I bought the Blu-ray a while back because it was on sale real cheap. I hadn't seen it before but had heard it was pretty good so decided to give it a shot.

It sat there for a really long without me watching until I decided to put it on really late one night, thinking I'd only watch about 30 minutes before going to bed. All I really knew about it was the basic premise: some type of signal is causing people to go crazy and kill each other. Well, I immediately became engaged in the film. I thought it was intense and a bit brutal. I was loving it, and then we went to Transmission 2.

Next thing you know, I found myself really laughing. What a shift in tone! But most surprising was the fact that the shift in tone worked; I actually was finding it funny. But even within that framework, the film would throw something a bit disturbing in to remind us that things just aren't quite right with the world right now.

Admittedly, Transmission 3 is probably the weakest, but at that point, I was already invested in the movie enough that I still really enjoyed it. Plus, I appreciated the mind games that the movie was playing with us along with those being played among the characters.

So, for me, this movie was a total shocker, a rarity. Here was a film that actually gave me a whole lot more than what I had planned. If the movie had been 90 minutes of stuff like Transmission 1, I would have still really like the film, but not to be content with that, it actually became sort of a satire -- and a pretty good one.

Is it a perfect film? No, I wouldn't say that. And it's one of those films that probably isn't for all tastes. I can understand people not responding to it, but I thought it was really great.

The extras on the Blu-ray were really good, too, showing how little time and money this film had. Plus, I had no idea that each Transmission was actually directed by a different person. It makes sense, but it really flowed well together. There are also some good scenes in the extras showing other scenes from around the city.

[droidguy1119]

Yeah, if the third act was a little stronger, I don't think I'd be able to stop myself from endorsing this film to everyone and anyone I see. By then, I'm tired of Lewis as a villain, and the second part is so good. The very ending is great, though, wonderfully tragic, IMO.

[Abob Teff]

I, too, did not realize (until the end) that the three segments were directed by different people (but that made sense when I saw the credits). Honestly, I could have survived without the last segment. It wasn't bad, but bookending the 2nd "transmission" didn't work well. Personally, I'd like to see Transmission 2 made into a feature ... I thought the humor here was great.

The tonal shifts were disconcerting, but overall it worked.

[Trevor]

Loved it, and agree with most of what's been said above.

Third act was a bit weak, but the nice ending and overall quality make me quickly forgive it. Absolutely loved the humor in act two.

[takingchase]

This is easily one of my favorite horror movies to come out in the past few years.

[smashthesymbols]

Transmission 2 was easily the best part of the movie. The entire thing should have been done that way.

[clckworang]

Happy to see that people enjoyed at least parts of the film. I wouldn't have minded seeing more of Transmission 2, either.

I invited a friend over to watch this with me on the scheduled night, and I'm happy to say that my friend really liked it. And then we followed it up with Death Bed. Talk about a tonal shift!

[Abob Teff]

I'm going to go deeper with this thread ... what is the significance of the city's name, "Terminus?"

I saw the name "Terminus" somewhere the other day (TV, another movie?) and it clicked ... "Aha! There is some significance!" Now I can't recall what I saw. Looking it up online I find that terminus is:

Latin, meaning "boundary stone" ... the end of a marked road ... another name for the Roman god Jupiter, who, among other things, ruled over laws and order ... the original name of Atlanta, Georgia ... used in various fashions in sci-fi, none of which seem to jump out at me.

Some of those definitions add a simple answer ... but I know it was something more ... oh man, did the transmission get me? Why are you looking at me like that?

[smashthesymbols]

Well the movie was shot in Atlanta, so there's your simplest answer for the name Terminus. Wouldn't surprise me if they meant for it to mean more beyond that though. I just know I'm not going to try to figure it out, I couldn't make sense of most of the movie.

[llandros]

This movie aggravated me after seeing it. I really liked where it was going in the first transmission. The second was kind of jarring, but I warmed up to it's twisted humor. If only the third transmission had been stronger, I would have really praised it more. I guess knowing the segments were filmed by different people might have helped prepare me for the tone change, but maybe a repeat viewing will make this one better for me.

[Trevor]

Does anyone see the pic in the first post?

I know imagehosting doesn't last forever, but this appears to be the one thread where the image isn't showing.