Variety
A film more interested in surface flash than in narrative coherence or character depth.
Full review
The Signal
A genius hacker lures a group of college students to an open desert under mysterious circumstances, turning their roadtrip into a waking nightmare in this independent sci-fi thriller. From the director of 2011's Love, stars Laurence Fishburne and Twilight's Sarah Clarke. Plot details are being kept purposefully under wraps (see the viral website).
"Nick and Jonah are MIT freshmen with a passion for hacking. While driving cross-country through Nevada with Nick's girlfriend, Hailey, they follow rival hacker Nomad's clues to a location 180 miles away. After a terrifying confrontation with Nomad in the middle of the desert, the trio regain consciousness in captivity. Struggling to comprehend the true nature of their confinement, they discover they are part of a plot much larger than themselves... The Signal lets the circumstances behind the trio's imprisonment slowly unravel, leading to an epic and mind-blowing conclusion." (Sundance Film Festival)
2014Rating: M, Violence and offensive language95 minsUSA
MysteryScience FictionThriller
The Signal / Reviews
Total Film
Though it begins as an impressionistic road movie, segues into paranoid sci-fi, then morphs into something completely unhinged, The Signal has been made with much great care.
Full reviewThe New York Times
You wouldn't be surprised to see Mr. Eubank directing a bigger-budget movie down the road, but this film demonstrates some blanks in his approach that still need to be filled in.
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The Guardian
Sadly, this flubs the landing with a banal and credulity-stretching finale that feels like a bad Twilight Zone episode, but the first hour or so is terrific.
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Los Angeles Times
There's bravura manipulativeness to The Signal, the stylish, slyly funny question mark of a movie from director and co-writer William Eubank.
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Empire Magazine
Eubank continues to work his particular mind-stretching mix of acute character interplay and cosmic conceptual breakthrough.
Full review
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