The Signal

(2007) ***½

Mya is having an affair with Ben. She is just leaving his apartment to head home to her husband Lewis. She tries using both the regular and her cell phone to call home but there is only a weird static like noise coming through the phone. She leaves and finds a man in the parking lot bleeding and asking her to help him. Another man starts approaching so she gets in her car and leaves both of them behind. When she gets home she finds an angry Lewis with his 2 friends trying to fix the tv but the only thing on the screen is a scrambled image and again that static garbled noise. Lewis starts grilling her about where she was and after convincinghim she was out with the girls from work he goes back to his friends. An arguement breaks out resulting in Lewis smashingin the head of one of his friends with a baseball bat. Mya escapes to the hallway only to find the whole world has gone mad.

After spending a fearful night hiding in a neighbors apartment Mya ventures out only to be grabbed and taped up by Lewis' friend Rod. He has made a weapon out of knives and duct tape and questions her to see if she has "the crazies" before untying her.

He tells her he taped Lewis to a chair and the two of them decide to head out. As they are driving Rod turns on the radio, bad move. Guess what's coming through the radio, yup more of that signal. Rod goes mad and Mya crashes the car and runs off on her own.

Ben shows up at Mya & Lewis' place to try and save her but only finds a tied up Lewis. For some reason he decides to untie him, what an idiot. He ends up whacked in the head and in the back of Lewis' van. While Lewis is occupied Ben regains conciousness and leaves the van. Will Ben get to Mya before Lewis does?

Does Ben have the crazies?

Is Mya even still alive?

All these questions and more will be answered before the end of the film. I really liked this movie, it moved along quite nicely and even got a jump or two out of me as it went along. I had never heard of it before but it sounded interesting. I was surprised to find that it was another solid choice. The madness is convincing and is not overexplained to death. No super scientists come along to save the world. It's just a story about what happens to a small group of people when the world decides to go mad. Nicely done.