The Signal (William Eubank, 2014): USA

Reviewed by Shelby Harris at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2015.

The Signal  is a thrilling, suspenseful film about friendship, passion and facing fears. The realistic  storyline keeps the audience on the edge of their seats and constantly questioning themselves, what would you do placed in these characters shoes?

Three MIT graduates Nic (Brenton Thwaites), Haley (Olivia Cooke) and Jonah (Beau Knapp) are traveling cross country when their plans are set aside after being provoked by a fellow hacker Nomad. Determined to discover who the genius stalker is Nic, Haley and Jonah uncover the hackers location and are lured to an isolated cabin in the Arizona dessert. Strange activity occurs and the characters wake up in a underground bunker quarantined from the outside world. While in quarantine they are being tested against there will by curious scientist in high tech bio hazard suits. Planning their escape Nic, Haley and Jonah find that the world above isn’t quiet the way they remembered.

Nic is the determined protagonist who places his friendship before anything. After spending days of being probed at by the astronaut like scientists, he begins to plan his escape. The influence of florescent and bright lighting gives the audience and characters a feeling of confinement and illness. The audience is placed in the same realm as the characters, just as lost and confused about what is going to happen and why they are separated from the rest of the world. The count down is on as Nic plans his escape.

The use of special effects is efficient and used sparingly with the influence of slow motion to enhance the suspension. Slow heart beat also adds to the intensity felt by the characters themselves.

Laurence Fishbone who plays the main scientist in the movie also stared in the Martix (1999) and Predators (2010) notifies the audience that there will be some strange activity within the Sci-Fi realm.

The ending of the film contains a entangled variety of emotions including romance, joy and most of all confusion as the director concludes having you questioning reality vs fantasy.