The Signal (2007)

Dir: David Bruckner / Dan Bush / Jacob Gentry

A signal is sent across cell phones, radios and TVs that makes people go crazy and kill. Or does it? The problem is in knowing who's crazy and who isn't. Do you kill the person next to you because they're crazy and, if so, does that make YOU crazy? This is the eternal dilemma faced by all the characters in this wickedly original paranoid headfuck movie. Evoking early Cronenberg, early Romero and David Lynch at his finest, "The Signal" is an anarchic, stylish and deeply disturbing shock to the system. I don't want to say too much more, for fear of giving away too many of the (continual) surprises in the screenplay, but just go see this. Its raw brutality is made into a thing of beauty by the intelligence with which it's handled. It's amped-up Theatre Of The Absurd; I was laughing throughout a good half of it, yet still came away feeling frightened and shaken. When people talk about evoking the spirit of 70s horror, it's usually just an excuse to make something seedy. "The Signal" actually takes the true spirit of 70s horror and makes a progressive and smart movie that's also extreme and unpleasant. It's even got a Matt Skiba song in it. Repeatedly. Awesome, awesome, awesome. One of the best horror films of the decade. ****