The Signal

Mya (Anessa Ramsey) steps into a hallway filled with corpses.

Horror movies have become popular again of late, but with a slightly annoying aftertaste; seems like everyone’s trying to make a scary movie that “transcends the genre” and becomes something else, whether its self-reflexive comedy, social commentary, or a “message movie,” seems like nobody’s willing to let buckets of blood just be buckets of blood. Whatever happened to the scary movie that just tried to, you know, scare you? Out today on DVD, “The Signal”’s a throwback of sorts, because it lacks any kind of annoying ambition. It’s a genre exercise, pure, simple, and refreshing. Not to mention frightful, intense, and horrifically fun.

“The Signal” is split into three parts, each directed by someone different, which sounds like a game we used to play in my creatie writing class. Maybe it’s the limitation that keeps the directors modest; the movie covers pretty familiar ground as far as B-movie horror flicks go, and maybe that’s because you don’t want the next guy monkeying with your pet brilliant idea. The differences in direction aren’t flourescently obvious, except that David Bruckner (who directs the first segment) has a better ear for dialogue and David Bush (who helms the second) has a taste for black comedy. The third, by Jacob Gentry, likes to play with the character’s heads. All three directors know how to engineer a scare, and must’ve signed some pact to keep the gore to a minimum. You see a guy bash another guy’s head in, but the movie’s edited so that only rarely do you see the bashed in head itself.

It’s New Year’s Eve in Terminus, a city where every citizen should be on constant alert just because of the city’s name. Suddenly, all the TVs, radios, cell phones, and anything else one might be influenced by start emitting the same signal. The movie never tries to explain what the signal is or where it comes from (aside from one character’s technobabble that we’re clearly not supposed to be able to follow) and it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that the signal turns everyone who gazes at it/listens to it into homicidal maniacs. Soon the streets are filled with corpses, and you can’t trust anyone. The story centers on an adulterous woman, her lover, and her jealous husband. There’s also a maintenance guy who wears a tin foil hat and seems to be the only one who knows what’s really happening, a spacy party hostess who doesn’t see why the end of the world would be reason to let her hors d’ouevres burn, and a party guest, who’s just hoping this year he won’t have to kiss the dog at midnight. Throw in a decapitated head that can be made to talk via battery cables, and we’re ready to roll.

“The Signal” is essentially a zombie movie, though zombies are usually dead before they start killing people. It borrows its technophobia, and thus what passes for social commentary, from several recent horror flicks. Jacob Gentry smartly updates the zombie formula in the third segment by allowing the signal to wear off – but still bounce around inside the characters’ heads, so that they’re sane one minute, and dangerous the next.

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6ep_mDE1Q0]

This may not be the scariest movie you see this year, but I’m betting it’s one horror film fans will keep coming back to over time. This is a horror movie made by folks who love horror movies, and its willingness to not try and transcend or reinvent its own genre are what set it apart. Its willingness to just be a scary movie, to not belabour the plot, not give the characters names, histories, or much concern beyond staying alive, and not try to deliver some deep societal or moral message will keep it fresh when others go moldy.

Recommended

• for real fans of a good scare.
• for those who’ve gotten tired of horror films trying to be more than just horror films.
• for anyone who’s grown tired of a good scary movie also meaning lots of nudity and excessively excessive gore.

Not Recommended

• for, well, the obvious…(scary movies aren’t for most.)
• for fans who watch horror for the social commentary, self-references, etc.
• for folks looking for ghosts, or demons, or vampires, or stuff like that.

“The Signal” releases today, June 10, on DVD.