Review of The Signal (2014) by Amybenevento — 19 Mar 2021

I was intrigued and confused when watching this film.

The beginning drew me in. The acting was natural, and the characters were defined, but I wondered what the heck was going on. As I continued watching, I experienced more and more confusion, and dozens of questions were never answered.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

What disease does Nic have? Multiple sclerosis? Something else? Like everything in this movie, it's not explained. I guess "open-endedness" is supposed to be cool and artistic. I do appreciate movies that are open-ended, but this was too extreme for me, where I understood next to nothing, and as the film progress, so did my confusion.

Even the camera work was confusing. The scene of Nic and Jonah in the deserted house looking for NOMAD was intriguing and held my interest, but the scenes were quick and hard to follow. Then Haley screams, and they rush outside to find her missing from the car, and then there's this bright light. What happened? I couldn't see. I pressed REWIND and had to view the scene a couple of times to see what was going on, but I couldn't make it out. Was it an explosion? Did someone clobber then over their head and their vision went white? Again (and again and again), I didn't know what was going on.

Then the confusion got even worse.

Was Dr. Damon trying to help them? Was was he so very cold and detached? Why wouldn't he answer any of Nic's questions?

Why was Nic tatooed? Why was Dr. Damon giving Nic simple questions such as "what color is this?".

I love films that make you think, but throughout this film, I kept asking "What?" and "Why?!?" and "Huh?!?".

Then, the most confusing part... Dr. Damon shows Nic a film of Nic and Jonah in the house searching for NOMAD, then the film stops at a tree, and Nic is shocked. Why? Once again, I played back the scene. What was so shocking about the tree? Huh? What?

Why did Dr. Damon tell Nic that Jonah was never in the facility?

Why did Dr. D. keep Nic apart from Haley?

Why did the staff pull Nic's hands away from Haley?

What the heck was with the cow?!?!?

Again, that was never explained.

Why were there dark streaks on the wall?

How did Nic's neck get cut so badly?

After they break out, why are all the people in the barren dessert acting like mental zombies? If the alien experiments made them that way, why wasn't Nic and Jonah and Haley acting like mental zombies? (well, Haley kind of was).

Why couldn't Jonah remove his gloves? What was going on with his hands? I, for the hundredth time, had to rewind the film and replay, but dialogue was mumbled and the scenes were too quick to see what was going on.

If they gave Nic new legs, and Jonah new arms (which I finally figured out in the end when Jonah had super-powers and took out the metal post that kept their 4-wheeler truck from moving), why didn't they fix Jonah's eyes?

Why the quick reference to Area 51?

Were they in Area 51? Again, this was never explained or taken any further than just a quick reference or statement suggesting Area 51. There were hundreds of references that were never taken any further.

If Damon's team worked so hard on these humans to make them super human with alien technology, why did they decide to kill them with a gun, after investing so much in them? And if they had such super alien technology, why use such archaic guns? This film just didn't make sense.

Why did Jonah not die immediately after dozens of bullets pummeled his back?

Haley is evacuated by helicopter -- is this by Dr. Damon's crew, or the outside world rescuing her? Guess we'll never know. They don't explain that either.

And what in god's name did Nic break into in the end? It looks like he entered a computer game, like TRON. I was hoping he'd reach the real world, but I didn't know if the real world still existed. I thought maybe a nuke had destroyed the real world, but of course that wasn't explained. I think maybe Nic was never human, but was just a computer character in a game and finally realized his existence, but I'm not sure. Dr. Damon was either an alien to start with and made to look human, or he was human to start with, then altered with alien technology... who knows.

I kind of hated this movie. I felt mostly confusion, frustration, with a tad bit of interest. I waited for answers that never came. The movie tried to show how artistic and primal it was, but it missed for me. If it slowed down a bit and showed the scenes more clearly, it might have gotten a better rating. As it was, the movie ended with a need for me to throw my shoe across the room.