The Signal: Blood! Give Us More Blood!

 

Among the most graphically violent works of art ever committed to celluloid, this mindblower of a film transcends the slasher genre, playing more like a superhip hybrid of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Memento, Mulholland Drive, and Slither. The plot revolves around mysterious broadcast waves that interrupt television and telephone traffic in the fictitious town of Terminus. These waves, it turns out, make people homicidally crazy, and much killing with blunt instruments ensues. Meanwhile a pair of lovers (deftly played by Anessa Ramsey and Justin Welborn) try to escape the murderous wrath of a scorned, jealous madman (A.J. Bowen). Tonally, the film—directed by David Bruckner, Dan Bush, and Jacob Gentry—is pitch-perfect, featuring panicked, quick cuts that maintain a creepy, suspenseful mood throughout. And like the aforementioned Slither, there's some great campy comic relief: Chadrian McKnight, in maybe 10 minutes of screen time, damn near walks away with the film as a mustachioed, pussy-starved party guest who's completely unaware of the madness that has engulfed the town.