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The Signal starts out promisingly enough. Maya (Anessa Ramsay) returns home from a tryst with boyfriend Ben (Justin Welborn) to find that husband Lewis (AJ Bowen) is exhibiting a violent, murderous rage. She escapes, only to find that he's not the only one. Maya's story is the first of three that comprise The Signal, and it's the best executed. The second story falters tonally, going for a broad satire that undercuts the air of menace created by the claustrophobic realism of part one.

As the second story unfolds, the flaws in the plot construction quickly become evident. The psychotic behavior caused by a bizarre transmission coming from TVs and phones ends up being very arbitrary in its manifestations. Even worse, characters keep coming back to life after being brutally bludgeoned to death, though there's no indication that there's anything supernatural afoot here. Because there's no logic to the story, there's nothing to be afraid of, and the truest feeling it evokes is tedium.