The Signal proves once again budget restraints prove no barrier to ingenuity: this scruffy; rough-around-the-edges horror film has a strong central idea and a habit of jolting you with real shocks. Something in TV and radio transmissions is getting into the brains of ordinary people and turning them into homicidal maniacs--something other than the usual homicide-inducing stuff; that is. (Incidentally; this movie was shot before the arrival of Stephen King's novel Cell; which has a similar idea.) We learn the concept in a nerve-slicing opening act; as a young woman (Anessa Ramsey) leaves her extramarital fling (Justin Welborn) to tell her husband she's splitting. Unfortunately; this is the moment a mysterious signal has infiltrated TV transmissions and cell phones; turning most of humanity; or at least the people living in the city of Terminus; into murderous savages. Serves them right for living in a city called Terminus. Why some people get "the Crazy" and some people don't is one of the problems with the film--horror movies generally rely in certain rules to carry them through--although the biggest issue viewers might have is the hodgepodgey style. Three Atlanta-based directors; David Bruckner; Jacob Gentry; and Dan Bush; helmed the three distinct sections of the movie; thus the exciting opening is followed by a jarringly comic second act; and wrapped by a somewhat bleak finale. There's enough invention here to justify the film for genre buffs; despite the nagging feeling that it doesn't quite hold together. --Robert Horton