The Signal 2006

Following on the heels of past Sundance fright-fests like The Blair Witch Project, Open Water and High Tension comes the latest shocker to unhinge audiences. An ingenious triptych by three writer-directors that unfurls as one seamless whole of well-crafted terror, The Signal starts off as a love story that soon descends into one huge ball of bloody chaos. The titular signal is a malignant one, an eerily trippy image mysteriously delivered to the world via television, the internet and other forms of communication, causing its viewers to suddenly become totally homicidal, attacking all and sundry with the nearest weapon at their disposal. An engaging mix of edge-of-your-seat carnage and wicked black humour, this technology-gone-awry pulse-pounder is held together by solid performances and a low-fi sensibility that only heightens the tension. Fast paced, deranged, funny and disturbing, it's a twisted examination of what happens when societies ignore fundamental laws and our genetic call to heed them.