The Signal.

"If Paddy Chayefsky and Newton Minow had ever bonded over too many cocktails - secretly spiked by Neil Postman - the result might have been The Signal, a grungy warning to anyone who would rather watch than engage," writes Jeannette Catsoulis in Reverse Shot. "Exuberantly merging sci-fi, horror, and black comedy, three writer-directors each take responsibility for one third of the narrative; and if the outcome is more zealous than lucid that's not to say the experiment lacks merit. There's nothing like the combination of low budget and high anxiety for liberating the id."

Updated through 2/22.

"It seems there's a new, derivative horror movie hitting the multiplexes every week these days, drawing the usual audiences who know exactly what to expect and like it that way," writes Dennis Harvey at SF360. "Here's hoping they find their way to The Signal, which has something those movies don't: Originality."

"[T]his uneven but impressive shot-on-digital shocker earns a marker in the mausoleum of apocalyptic horror - a genre that's proving (un)surprisingly durable in the new century," notes Jim Ridley in the Voice. "Employing its interlocked multipart narrative more convincingly than anything Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu has done since Amores Perros - the appearance and recurrence of characters in each other's stories seems organic and unforced - The Signal borrows the most potent trope from the late-90s Japanese horror craze: the transmission of unspecified evil along the electronic teats plugged into every surge protector and car jack (TVs, radios, cell phones). Amusingly, The Signal - a radar blip at South by Southwest 2007 and a fanboy word-of-mouth sensation ever since - is busy insinuating itself into households using the same methods: MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube."

At FEARnet, Scott Weinberg talks with directors David Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry; producer Alexander Motlagh; and actors AJ Bowen, Justin Welborn and Scott Poythress.

Online listening tip. Ed Champion also talks with the cast and crew.

Updates, 2/21: "The recent commercial success of Cloverfield showed that Hollywood could easily exploit 9/11 anxieties for entertainment value, overruling the need for narratives exploring the frighteningly intangible threat of media saturation," writes Eric Kohn in the New York Press. "Fortunately, there's The Signal, the brilliant independent production from a close-knit gang of Atlanta-based filmmakers released this week. It takes this frequently neglected issue to task with McLuhanean efficiency, but it's also one badass horror film."

And the Reeler talks with the group.

Updates, 2/22: "A union of three 'transmissions,' each the work of one of the individual filmmakers, The Signal combines Pulp Fiction-style multi-plot storytelling with dystopic satire and enough body rending to satisfy the most discriminating torture porn enthusiasts," writes Bruce Bennett in the New York Sun. "Nevertheless, The Signal sparks with its own original energy even as it revisits and indulges its influences."

In the New York Times, Matt Zoller Seitz briefly considers the three parts of The Signal. More from Jim Emerson.

Posted by dwhudson at February 20, 2008 1:19 PM