Post by bigtuna on Dec 8, 2008 4:28:49 GMT -5
Ok. I have these two friends, Dave and Pete. They both live in Dave's mom's house, and I spend a great deal of my time there as well, despite having an apartment of my own. The reason? Well, there's two of them, actually. One, my room mate is a weiner, and two, we're all huge movie buffs, and there's a rental store around the corner.
The three of us frequent this video store on a regular basis. For weeks, we'd gone into this store, and in the new release section, saw the case for a movie called The Signal. We never really considered renting it, because the only thing that ever made us look at the case was the look on the angry black man's face as he was swinging a rather nasty looking weapon. it was funny, we lol'd, and then we moved on.
Until one fateful day, Dave rents the movie, and watches it alone. The next day, he goes out and purchases the movie, calls me up and we have this conversation:
Dave: "Dude, remember every time we go to prime pics, we see the case for The Signal?"
Joel: "Nope!
"
Dave: "it's the case with the funny looking guy swinging the axe thing."
Joel: "...no....yes....wait....no? maybe...what about it?"
Dave: "Well, i finally rented it, and it was freaking awesome, so i went and bought it. Pete and i are coming to your place and we're watching it."
Joel: "k. just let me put some pants on."
And then they came over and we watched it. It was the single greatest thing Dave had ever done.
This movie was amazing. It was beautifully shot, it was well written, it was funny, it was gory, it was sad, it was scary, it was damn near perfect.
It's an independant film, starring unheard of actors, directed by three unheard of directors. It's split up into three acts, or transmissions, as they're called in the film, and each director oversaw an act.
The film takes place in the fictional city of Terminus, where Mya is cheating on her husband, Lewis, with another guy named Ben. For some reason, a mysterious signal shows up on tv's computers and radios, that makes most people go insane and start killing things.
The first transmission, Crazy in Love, begins with Ben and Mya, post-coitus, in Ben's apartment. Ben suggests that Mya leaves her husband, and goes with him to explore the world or something. We get some hints that Lewis is an all around bad dude, and not the kind that gets asked to save the president. Finally, she leaves, but not before he gives her a mix cd.
She arrives home, to find her husband hanging out with some buddies, trying to watch the game on tv. Only, instead of the game, they get to watch some weird colours flash around the screen. Lewis begins to talk to Mya, and is just menacing enough that you almost expect him to find out she's cheating, and hurt her, which is really a tense scene. Then he ends up beating his friend's head in with a baseball bat, because he thinks he's trying to mac on Mya.
Mya bails, only to discover that people all over the apartment are running aruond killing eachother and she has no idea why. She decides to gtfo the building, only to run into another one of Lewis's friends, who is all paranoid and trying to defend himself from the crazy people. The audience isn't sure if he's crazy, or actually trying not to get killed, and that's really tense as well. Eventually, they escape the building together, in Mya's car, which she crashes because Lewis's friend finally goes crazy and hits her a bunch of times.
The second transmission, Jealousy Monster, is vastly different from the first transmission. It begins in a small, tidy home where a young couple are getting ready for a party. We soon discover that the wife has killed her husband, and eventually, The landlord shows up, soon followed by Lewis, who is searching for Mya. Hilarity ensues, as this transmission progresses. We are treated to silly dialogue, and heaps and heaps of dark humour. It's still fairly disturbing in scenes, as Lewis kills character after character, mostly with a large can of insecticed. Eventually Ben shows up, and he and the landlord have to escape, by talking to the decapitated head of the man who had helped Mya escape the building. (seriously.) Also, Lewis beaths the crap of Ben, and it looks like it hurt, alot.
Inthe Third and final Transmission, Escape from Terminus, Ben and the Landlord find out that Mya had gone to the train station to meet Ben. Unfortunately, Lewis also hears about that, and races to meet her first. Ben and The Landlord run around searching for Mya, and when they find her, ho crap, it turns out Lewis got her first and is forcing her to watch the Signal. Ben manages to save the day, but i won't ruin the ending.
As i said, the movie was beautiful. the colour, the angles, the movement of the camera, everything was just right so that i almost considering watching it with the sound off so i could just stare at it.
The actors are all really talented, and i was surprised, because all too often, Indie films, at least that i've seen, when they use actor's that no one has heard of, maybe one of them can act. maybe. IT was refreshing to see such competent actors for a change.
Although some people find the switch from horror to comedy to horror too extreme, i find it works well and every director does a marvellous job. I'd like to see each directore helm their own film at some point.
Needless to say, i recommend this film to everyone. seriously, see this movie or i'll stop being your friend.
FUN FACTS: The film starts out with what appears to be an old exploitation horror movie from the 70's. turns out it was a shortfilm that one of the directors made for a film festival.
The DVD comes with some short stories that show different scenarios of people killing eachother. they have nothing to do with the film, but are fun to watch anyway.
as an added bonus, this is the cover we saw in the store:
The three of us frequent this video store on a regular basis. For weeks, we'd gone into this store, and in the new release section, saw the case for a movie called The Signal. We never really considered renting it, because the only thing that ever made us look at the case was the look on the angry black man's face as he was swinging a rather nasty looking weapon. it was funny, we lol'd, and then we moved on.
Until one fateful day, Dave rents the movie, and watches it alone. The next day, he goes out and purchases the movie, calls me up and we have this conversation:
Dave: "Dude, remember every time we go to prime pics, we see the case for The Signal?"
Joel: "Nope!
"Dave: "it's the case with the funny looking guy swinging the axe thing."
Joel: "...no....yes....wait....no? maybe...what about it?"
Dave: "Well, i finally rented it, and it was freaking awesome, so i went and bought it. Pete and i are coming to your place and we're watching it."
Joel: "k. just let me put some pants on."
And then they came over and we watched it. It was the single greatest thing Dave had ever done.
This movie was amazing. It was beautifully shot, it was well written, it was funny, it was gory, it was sad, it was scary, it was damn near perfect.
It's an independant film, starring unheard of actors, directed by three unheard of directors. It's split up into three acts, or transmissions, as they're called in the film, and each director oversaw an act.
The film takes place in the fictional city of Terminus, where Mya is cheating on her husband, Lewis, with another guy named Ben. For some reason, a mysterious signal shows up on tv's computers and radios, that makes most people go insane and start killing things.
The first transmission, Crazy in Love, begins with Ben and Mya, post-coitus, in Ben's apartment. Ben suggests that Mya leaves her husband, and goes with him to explore the world or something. We get some hints that Lewis is an all around bad dude, and not the kind that gets asked to save the president. Finally, she leaves, but not before he gives her a mix cd.
She arrives home, to find her husband hanging out with some buddies, trying to watch the game on tv. Only, instead of the game, they get to watch some weird colours flash around the screen. Lewis begins to talk to Mya, and is just menacing enough that you almost expect him to find out she's cheating, and hurt her, which is really a tense scene. Then he ends up beating his friend's head in with a baseball bat, because he thinks he's trying to mac on Mya.
Mya bails, only to discover that people all over the apartment are running aruond killing eachother and she has no idea why. She decides to gtfo the building, only to run into another one of Lewis's friends, who is all paranoid and trying to defend himself from the crazy people. The audience isn't sure if he's crazy, or actually trying not to get killed, and that's really tense as well. Eventually, they escape the building together, in Mya's car, which she crashes because Lewis's friend finally goes crazy and hits her a bunch of times.
The second transmission, Jealousy Monster, is vastly different from the first transmission. It begins in a small, tidy home where a young couple are getting ready for a party. We soon discover that the wife has killed her husband, and eventually, The landlord shows up, soon followed by Lewis, who is searching for Mya. Hilarity ensues, as this transmission progresses. We are treated to silly dialogue, and heaps and heaps of dark humour. It's still fairly disturbing in scenes, as Lewis kills character after character, mostly with a large can of insecticed. Eventually Ben shows up, and he and the landlord have to escape, by talking to the decapitated head of the man who had helped Mya escape the building. (seriously.) Also, Lewis beaths the crap of Ben, and it looks like it hurt, alot.
Inthe Third and final Transmission, Escape from Terminus, Ben and the Landlord find out that Mya had gone to the train station to meet Ben. Unfortunately, Lewis also hears about that, and races to meet her first. Ben and The Landlord run around searching for Mya, and when they find her, ho crap, it turns out Lewis got her first and is forcing her to watch the Signal. Ben manages to save the day, but i won't ruin the ending.
As i said, the movie was beautiful. the colour, the angles, the movement of the camera, everything was just right so that i almost considering watching it with the sound off so i could just stare at it.
The actors are all really talented, and i was surprised, because all too often, Indie films, at least that i've seen, when they use actor's that no one has heard of, maybe one of them can act. maybe. IT was refreshing to see such competent actors for a change.
Although some people find the switch from horror to comedy to horror too extreme, i find it works well and every director does a marvellous job. I'd like to see each directore helm their own film at some point.
Needless to say, i recommend this film to everyone. seriously, see this movie or i'll stop being your friend.
FUN FACTS: The film starts out with what appears to be an old exploitation horror movie from the 70's. turns out it was a shortfilm that one of the directors made for a film festival.
The DVD comes with some short stories that show different scenarios of people killing eachother. they have nothing to do with the film, but are fun to watch anyway.
as an added bonus, this is the cover we saw in the store:
"If I'm going to be desensitized into a mindless stock animal, I may as well do it with a cushy ergonomic seat and magnificent THX-certified sound. -Kevin Murphy