Director: Edward Evers-Swindell
Writer: Edward Evers-Swindell, Antony Jones (Screenplay)
Starring: Siwan Morris, Gareth David-Lloyd, Joanna Ignaczewska, Duncan Pow, Cinzia Monreale, Eleanor Gecks
Plot: The spirit of a murdered girl returns with a message for the staff of a local radio station.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Horror Divided in Two Parts
Story: Dark Signal starts as radio host Laurie Wolf (Morris) is preparing for her final show with her producer Ben Evans (David-Lloyd), Ben has a mutual friend in Kate (Ignaczewska) who is desperate for money to support her sick son and this drives her to work with Nick (Pow) in a robbery in the middle of the Welsh countryside.
We learn that there is a serial killer on the loose who cut of the wedding finger of his victims before killing them and as Kate is alone she starts to believe she is being stalked by the killer, but back at the radio station an unknown voice is recorded leading to the guest a psychic Carla (Monreale) leading to the show trying to make contact with the ghost they believe is trying to communicate.
Thoughts on Dark Signal
Characters/Performance – Laurie Wolf is the radio host, she is about to lose her job and wants to go out with her final show her own way, she will push the boundaries but doesn’t believe in communicating with the dead, Ben is the producer that pushes her to believe what she hears and is professional when it comes to his work, Kate is drawn into a robbery gone wrong finding herself needing to fight for her life when she is mistakenly believed to be a killer. The rest of the character who offer us the idea of what is going on through the film.
Performance wise, I think most of the performances are good through the film without being amazing, they all know their roles and show us enough to make it believable.
Story – The story feels very mixed because we spend a lot of time split between two different stories, the first with the final radio show and second being a midnight countryside robbery, they do meet in the final third but making it there is hard work getting through what feels like a couple of random storylines.
Horror/Mystery – The horror side of the film comes from wondering what the spirit is haunting them and who is the serial killer in Wales, the mystery is why is the spirit communicating with the radio station so far away.
Settings – The settings do stick with three main locations, the radio station, the countryside home and the family home of Kate, having just the three does work for the film keeping us on edge in the moments around the scenes.
Special Effects – The effects are mostly used well but are not overly important to where the film goes.
Final Thoughts – I feel this film spends too much time with the separate storylines and not focusing enough on where things needed to go, we also have terrible decision making in the situation that is meant to be about desperate needs for money.
Overall: This is a horror that doesn’t get to the point sooner enough to save it.
Rating
