The Signal
Short description
Three college friends on a road trip through the American Southwest are led off course by a signal from a gifted hacker. Nic, his girlfriend Haley and his friend Jonah pursue the trail to a remote, isolated spot, where everything goes dark. Nic wakes to find himself held in a strange underground research facility, questioned by a man named Dr. Wallace Damon while dressed in a protective suit. Separated from his friends and unable to explain what has happened to them, Nic tries to work out where he is and how to get out, as events around the facility grow stranger and more threatening.
The Signal is a science fiction thriller directed by William Eubank, who wrote the screenplay with David Frigerio and Carlyle Eubank. It was Eubank's first feature as director, followed later by Underwater, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, Land of Bad and further films. Brenton Thwaites plays Nic, with Olivia Cooke as Haley, Beau Knapp as Jonah and Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Wallace Damon; Robert Longstreet and Lin Shaye appear in supporting roles. The film was made for about 4 million dollars and took roughly 3 million dollars worldwide, a modest return against its cost.
Audience response has been mixed but steady: on IMDb it holds 6 out of 10 from around 72,000 votes, and on TMDB 6 out of 10 from about 1,900 votes. A critics' rating of 5.8 out of 10 from 87 reviews places professional opinion close to the audience scores, with neither side regarding it as more than a middling example of the genre.
What's left behind the scenes
- Director William Eubank wanted the audience to think they already knew where everything was going and how it would end, only for all their guesses to be proven wrong in the next moment – and this continued throughout the entire film.
- The climax of the film was shot on a steel arch bridge over the Rio Grande Gorge in New Mexico, which is considered one of the most spectacular and highest (172 meters) in the United States.
- The time period of internet hackers and smartphones echoes an earlier era when cassette players and landline phones were popular. This was done intentionally. Director William Eubank decided that this would further confuse the audience.
- The film's composer, Nima Fakhara, personally crafted some of the unique instruments used to perform the film's music.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
