MEDIA AS MASSACRE

The Signal

Technology is one of the few major preoccupations of modern society that predates 2001. At the box office, sci-fi dread has a populist appeal: The Matrix imagined life as a computer-processed nightmare, and Minority Report suggested imperfection in the utopian dream of systematically ending violence. The recent commercial success of Cloverfield showed that Hollywood could easily exploit 9/11 anxieties for entertainment value, overruling the need for narratives exploring the frighteningly intangible threat of media saturation. Fortunately, there’s The Signal, the brilliant independent production from a close-knit gang of Atlanta-based filmmakers released this week. It takes this frequently neglected issue to task with McLuhanean efficiency, but it’s also one badass horror film.

Read the rest of the review in New York Press...