Datk signal movie6/22/2023 ![]() The one thing this film has going for it, without spoiling the big killer reveal or its thematic implications, is the big showdown between the Wedlock Killer and the final girl. It’s just a messy, largely pointless story that can’t decide if it wants to be a mystery, a ghost story or a procedural. Which is a shame, because visually, the film has style and atmosphere. Remember the Wes Craven season of “Project Greenlight?” Every scene of Dark Signal feels like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon rolling their eyes at your inability to embrace the rewrite process. You can see the individual index cards stuck to a corkboard that make up every beat. It feels like the first pass of a script, because every plot point or piece of character is doled out with amateurish exactitude. But it takes a good 40 fucking minutes to get to the ghost bit, and the basic, bumbling way all the other character machinations are set into motions is beyond boring. Something about the analog hiss of radio noise and ghosts and crossed voices all feels right for this kind of moody thriller. Now, that sounds like a cool idea for a movie. ![]() ![]() Sarah, through the assistance of a psychic guest on Laurie’s radio show, claws from the afterlife through the airwaves to help catch the man who ended her life. The film begins with a flashback to a young woman named Sarah (Eleanor Gecks) being murdered by The Wedlock Killer, who slays women and cuts off their ring fingers. Ben invites Kate to the show, but she’s gotta be the getaway driver for Nick (Duncan Pow), a guy so blatantly scummy his name may as well be Red Herring. What links the two women is Ben (Gareth David-Lloyd), Laurie’s producer/engineer and an unrequited love interest for Kate from an online dating site. There’s Laurie Wolf (Siwan Morris), a radio DJ with a tragic past who’s hosting her last show ever and Kate (Joanna Ignaczewska), a broke single mom whose shitbag boyfriend ropes her into helping with a burglary. Its simple logline, “slain girl haunts radio show,” has so much potential but man does writer/director Ed Evers-Swindell miss the boat on making it shine. At its center, there’s a striking hook to hang a genre exercise on, but the journey there and back is just not interesting enough to warrant the buildup, even if the release is weirdly satisfying. Dark Signal is a serviceable horror film with a strong premise marred by some shoddy writing and uninspiring execution. ![]()
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