Fan Rant: If You Like Horror Movies, You MUST See 'The Signal'!
Filed under: Horror, Sundance, Distribution, Fan Rant
Thirteen months ago, at a midnight screening at the Sundance Film Festival, Scott Weinberg and I saw a new horror film called The Signal. We loved it. We were sitting next to some guys from Ain't It Cool News. They loved it, too. Scott wrote a review for Cinematical; I wrote one elsewhere (I wasn't on the Cinematical team yet); the AICN guys raved about it on their site. If I can presume to summarize all our feelings, they were: Wow. This is a really, really good horror flick. Magnolia Pictures bought the distribution rights and finally released it last weekend. Weinberg reminded us about it the day before, having already shown us the trailer. We were glad it was finally seeing the light of day.
And then nobody watched it.
According to Box Office Mojo, The Signal played on 160 screens last weekend and grossed only $144,836, or $905 per screen. If you don't follow box office numbers, I'll just tell you: $905 is awful for an opening weekend. I Am Legend, playing on the same number of screens, grossed more than The Signal last weekend -- and it's been out for 2 1/2 months!
So why didn't people see it? I think the trailers and TV commercials made it look like just another generic (i.e., bad) horror flick about zombies or murderers or whatever. The true horror fans -- the ones who are SICK of generic (i.e., bad) horror flicks -- were probably turned off by those ads, thinking this was more of the same. The sad irony is that those people would LOVE The Signal, if they'd been given any reason to see it.
The limited release plan relies on promising ticket sales and positive word-of-mouth to keep the film alive as it expands to more cities. (It's also seldom effective for horror films, which tend to thrive on mass marketing over niche marketing.) But at the rate we're going, that's not gonna happen. New movies are usually guaranteed to play for two weeks before theaters drop them. That means you have another nine days or so to see The Signal, boost its numbers, and keep it in circulation.
Otherwise, what'll happen is, it will disappear from theaters and come out on DVD in a few months -- at which point you'll rent it, watch it, and say, "Damn, why didn't I watch this on the big screen?" So see it now and spare yourself the regret, OK? Even if you don't love it, I can almost guarantee you'll agree it's better than 90% of the "horror" films released in the last year.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-27-2008 @ 12:58AM
Kevin said...
I live in Fullerton, CA and the audience gets so into this film that two people were stabbed during the film.
http://cbs2.com/local/Stabbing.Fullerton.The.2.662553.html
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2-27-2008 @ 9:23AM
Christian Toto said...
Desperately wanted to like this one, but the film just let me down. The horror of the first act disappears as the comedy steps up, and the film utterly collapses in the final 20 minutes.
Saw it at a screening and at least six people walked out. Granted, it's not for everyone, and I think it's comedy/horror approach could grant it minor cult status. Still, it should have been better.
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2-27-2008 @ 9:54AM
E said...
Was this made before or after Stephen King's "Cell" was published? It kind of looks like a rip off of that book and Eli Roth is making a movie based on that book.
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2-27-2008 @ 10:00AM
JTS said...
Agree with you 100% here, Eric. I loved this film, and even went as far as to call it one of the finest indie horror features I've seen in years when discussing it on the Bloody Good Horror podcast this past weekend. The worst part, is that when excellent films like The Signal don't succeed, studios get skittish about picking up these types of films, and it gets harder for the next horror indie to find distribution.
http://bloodygoodhorror.net/main-blog/bloody-good-podcsast-ep-17
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2-27-2008 @ 10:37AM
Don said...
As a horror fan and critic, I will say that "The Signal" is original but far from excellent. That opening half-hour is tremendous, but the abrupt switch into comedy does not work at all, especially when that itself is interrupted by a jarring torture porn sequence. And the final third of the movie is all over the place. I would have loved to have seen the rest of the movie that the director of the first third might have made. I don't understand the point of three different directors taking three different approaches to the movie's three acts except to lend the premise some kind of arty hipness. The bottom line is that the experiment failed.
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2-27-2008 @ 11:07AM
kevjohn said...
I'd be glad to go check it out, if it came anywhere near my little shitheel Florida college town, that is. Maybe they should start being more selective with where they open these limited releases. This is just the kind of movie that would do great here.
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2-27-2008 @ 11:08AM
SM said...
Ditto to what The Addict said, but exchange Pittsburgh for Richmond. Limited release horror films never make it here.
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2-27-2008 @ 11:29AM
Glynnjamin said...
maybe if one of the 1000s of screens in Phoenix would show it, I could see it...5th largest city in country people...we like movies too...(and ellipsis)
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2-27-2008 @ 12:29PM
ragtimepianist said...
I've been following this movie's progress since I first heard about it playing the festivals. Unfortunately, I live in rural Missouri, so no amount of willpower can make me drive hundreds of miles to see it. Perhaps it's not our fault the movie isn't doing well, with a wider opening it could see some real success.
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2-27-2008 @ 2:06PM
Azteclobo said...
I saw this 2 nights ago due to the cinematical hype around the film and the fact that it was well-reviewed by several critics. But I am with Christian and Don on this one. The first part is very good and I specifically like the romance in the opening sequence contrasted by the eery feeling perceived by the female protagonist. This is unusual as most romantic sequences in horror films occur in the latter part in order to serve as a conclusion to the conflict rather than the exposition.
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2-27-2008 @ 2:20PM
The Addict said...
I'd love to see it. Unfortunately, nothing ever happens in Pittsburgh.
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2-27-2008 @ 8:04PM
Eric D. Snider said...
The similarity to Stephen King's "Cell" is coincidental. The filmmakers were frustrated about that when the film premiered at Sundance in January 2007. Of course, the idea of cell phones controlling people isn't *terribly* far-fetched, so it's not surprising that more than one person thought of it.
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2-28-2008 @ 1:28PM
Christopher said...
Even though this looks like a rip of of Stephen King’s "Cell" meets "Pulse", I still wouldn;t mind seeing this film being the horror fan that I'am, but alas I might have to wait for DVD since PHoenix, Arizona as yet to get this film as well!
What was sad, was George A. Romero's "Diary of the Dead" came to Arizona, but it only played in 1 theater for 1 week only, and in a theater in another part of town that I couldn't get to!
SEE TOLD YOU THE ARIZONA FILM MARKET SUCKS!!!
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3-07-2008 @ 11:26PM
Userless said...
I saw The Signal this weekend, as per recommendations from here and AICN and I wasn't disappointed. Unfortunately only 6 people were in the theatre but they all seemed to really like it, near as I could tell. I've told others to go check it out, but I think people are just going to sleep on it and it'll gain some cult status on DVD.
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