The Signal (2014) Brenton Thwaites, Olivia Cooke, Beau Knapp, Laurence Fishburne, Lin Shaye Movie Review

The Signal (2014)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Brenton Thwaites in The Signal (2014)

The Chosen One

Nic (Brenton Thwaites), Haley (Olivia Cooke) and Jonah (Beau Knapp) are 3 talented students who whilst on a road trip have been trying to track down a malicious hacker, following his signal online. But when they reach the destination not only does it appear to be abandoned but suddenly everything becomes dark. When Nic awakens he finds himself being held in a sterile room with Jonah in an adjacent room whilst Haley appears to be in a coma in another. With no recollection of what happened Nic finds himself being interrogated by Damon (Laurence Fishburne), who when ever they talk dons a Hazmat suit.

Watching the start of "The Signal" reminded me a little of "Monsters" with that low-budget feel but not overly artsy. At the same time director William Eubank does this wonderful job of giving the audience just enough information for them to start putting together where they think the story is going as we discover the trio are following a digital signal to try and find a malicious hacker. That may not sound that intriguing but there is certainly an air of mystery to where this is going to go and whether it will descend into some sort of cliche horror.

Laurence Fishburne in The Signal (2014)

But here is the trouble trying to review "The Signal" as the less you know when you watch the better it is as a viewing experience. What I will say is that whilst we observe Damon's probing questions we also see Nic trying to come up with a way of escaping. But there is more to it than that and so whilst we have the super intelligent Nic trying to come up with an escape plan we have a lot of revelations, twists and surprises along the way which keep on turning what you think you know on its head. Most importantly whilst I am not going to say that "The Signal" is a great movie it is certainly one which is worth watching due to the cleverness and the intrigue.

What this all boils down to is that "The Signal" is one of those movies where you are going to have to trust me and say it is worth watching as long as you are a fan of not only sci-fi movies but more importantly movies which are soaked in mystery and ambiguity.


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