Director Jacob Gentry has done some decent little movies throughout his career, including The Signal (2007) and, from what I have heard about it, My Super Psycho Sweet 16. Broadcast Signal Intrusion, based on a short film by the writers, Phil Drinkwater and Tim Woodall, could have been another one. It's a shame that, for want of a better phrase, it completely shits the bed in the second half.
Harry Shum Jr. plays James, a video archivist who stumbles across an eerie broadcast signal intrusion (aka a fleeting pirate broadcast that broke into the planned viewing schedule) and starts on a journey to find out more about it, which leads to him discovering some other intrusions, all in a similarly unnerving style. The original air dates coincide with the disappearances of various women, including James's missing wife. Will James find a satisfying answer within the videotapes that he examines over and over again, or will it lead him to a very dangerous, possibly fatal, destination?
Things build nicely here, and in a way you probably expect throughout the first half of the movie. The footage caught on tape is strange and unnerving, James meets a couple of different characters who can help him find a trail of breadcrumbs, and there's a feeling that things won't lead to a happy resolution. There's that added layer of romanticism and magic attached to the analogue format that helps to give this a strong sense of atmosphere throughout. And then it all starts to go wrong, from extra characters who don't really feel as if they add enough to the story (Alice, played by Kelley Mack) to scenes that feel like so much padding before a major discovery is made, it's clear that Broadcast Signal Intrusion may have been best left as a short.
Gentry doesn't do a bad job in directing the material. The shots all have a dark and dingy hue to them, but nothing is so dark that you cannot see what's going on. The big hurdle is the script, with Drinkwater and Woodall unable to do enough to keep things interesting or satisfying enough as the plot unfurls. This should be a languid serpent, with the fangs visible at the very last minute, when it's too late to back away from the coming bit. Instead, it's just some fake scare from a bit of material that only looked dangerous at the start, but soon showed itself for what it was.
Another problem, unfortunately, is the casting. Shum Jr. and Mack aren't good enough in their roles to carry viewers easily through some of the weaker moments. I have enjoyed both of them in other movies, perhaps because they were in supporting roles then, but they're certainly not doing their best work here. The better turns come from people given less screentime, such as Michael B. Woods (especially good), Steve Pringle, and Justin Welborn, which makes you wish they had been the focus in a few more scenes.
I can see why a lot of people like this. It has a style, created through both the visuals and the audio work, that complements the idea of a deep dive into a world of videotapes. And it has some impressively creepy moments here and there. It just ultimately leads nowhere interesting, presenting a third act so weak that it undermines the rest of the film. Nostalgia for the VHS era alone is not enough to make up for how widely this ends up missing the mark.
If I had bought this on video cassette, I would have enjoyed one viewing . . . and then taped over the gap that meant I could record over it.
4/10
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