The Signal [David Bruckner; Jacob Gentry; Dan Bush, 2008]

• The Signal is a rather muddled film, but with ultimately more good ideas than flaws
• broken into three "transmissions," the first and second are nearly exceptional in their own ways while the third breaks off into self-importance and leaves a bad taste in one's mouth by the end
• first transmission does a fair job of explaining the story without beating it through viewers heads, and is shot in a truly scary manner, dimly lit hallways and faces almost always too shadowed to make clear
• second act is a sudden but understandable shift to black comedy, and good comedy at that. everyone is crazy by now, some because of the signal and others because of the people with the signal. they're not that much different
• third bit isn't worth going too far into, it's loaded with dialogue and empty of importance. it's the final stage of delirium but that doesn't mean we want to see incoherent blabber for the last fifteen minutes

6/enough talent to be considered a success