Broadcast Signal Intrusion (2021)

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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V/H/S: Viral (2014)

I really liked V/H/S. I also quite enjoyed V/H/S/2, despite not finding it quite as good as the first movie. So I guess it's only natural that I ended up disliking a lot of this third entry in the anthology horror series.

Things start off badly. The wraparound idea this time is the worst of the lot. It just feels too erratic and static-filled, despite the fact that it links everything together effectively enough. Just. Thankfully, things pick up with the first tale, "Dante The Great". It is, like many of the better V/H/S tales, an old idea given a bit of a modern makeover. Justin Welborn plays a magician who finds his act getting better and better when he takes possession of a cloak that used to belong to Houdini. The cloak can give him amazing powers, but it needs something in return. The next tale is "Parallel Monsters", all about a man (Alfonso, played by Gustavo Salmeron) who finally completes his invention, a machine that serves as a doorway to a possible parallel universe. He meets another version of himself and the two decide to swap universes for a very short amount of time. Unfortunately, there are some major differences that Alfonso didn't take into account. Last, and least, is "Bonestorm", a fast and loose piece of nonsense about some skateboarders who find themselves in the company of some nasty demon types. And everything ends with the climax of the wraparound tale, which I should have mentioned was all about a man tracking down his girlfriend in the middle of some crazy events.

The strange thing about V/H/S: Viral is that the more I think about it . . . . . . . the more I try to convince myself I liked it. That's because of how good the first main tale was, and of how many individual moments helped keep the thing from every feeling too weak and slow. But, putting my more rational head back on, it IS too weak and slow. As much as I enjoyed "Parallel Monsters", for example, it's a tale that could have been told in half the runtime without any detrimental effect on the impact of the scares/gags. And I wish I didn't feel the need to go on and on about how bad "Bonestorm" was (from the guys who gave us the fantastic Resolution) but I do. Because it's one of the worst anthology segments I've seen in years, with the exception of anything from Ti West.

I've already mentioned Welborn and Salmeron above, and with good reason. They're the two best performers in the movie, involved in most of the best scenes. Everyone else is either hampered by bad material or epileptic camerawork, or both (yes, I'm on about "Bonestorm" again).

As for the talent behind the camera, Gregg Bishop is the hero of the hour, for it is he who wrote and directed "Dante The Great". Nacho Vigalondo is the man who wrote and directed "Parallel Monsters", and Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are the guys who have to take the blame for "Bonestorm". Marcel Sarmiento co-wrote and directed the wraparound tale, "Vicious Circles", which shows a huge step down from than some of his earlier work, and that covers all of the main names.

Would I still watch another instalment in this series? Yes, because when it works it works REALLY well. But I was looking forward to this movie, as I had looked forward to both of the previous films in the series. I won't be so optimistic for any future entries.

5/10