Broadcast Signal Intrusion

For those who are passionate about fantasy and science fiction cinema, the name of Jacob Gentry is not totally unknown as we owe him some rather successful films such as Last Goodbye (2004), The signal (2007) (co-direction) and especially Synchronicity (2015). His new film Broadcast Signal Intrusion on a screenplay by Phil Drinkwater, Tim Woodall is like an excellent paranoid thriller that holds our attention from the first to the last minute.

While recording tapes of decades-old television shows, video archivist James (Harry Shum Jr.) discovers a surreal and disturbing clip that he believes is the product of a mysterious broadcast signal hack. His discovery takes a sinister turn when he finds similar intrusions that send him on an obsessive mission. Now he faces two very real possibilities: the videos could be clues to a crime beyond comprehension, and the person behind the videos could be acutely aware that James is getting uncomfortably close to the truth.

In this disturbing universe that will remind some of David Cronenberg's film Videodrome (1983), we follow with interest the crusade of the main character who seems to be constantly followed or observed. With its perfect tempo, the great care given to the use of the sound background but also to the photography, Broadcast Signal Intrusion has imposed itself as one of the strong films of the official selection of the SXSW festival.

The director Jacob Gentry, by placing the action in Chicago in 1999, that is to say in the middle of the decline of the video cassette while the DVD support starts to take over, gives to his film a very particular aura. We find in this film relics of a bygone era like Betamax tapes, outdated cameras and other relics of the pre-digital era. While James is still searching for his missing wife and participating in support groups for the bereaved, he tries to hold on to a world that is slipping away. The result is a paranoid thriller in which the main character sinks to the point of no return and finally puts a name to his wife's murderer, even if it means losing part of his mind.

Broadcast Signal Intrusion juggles with real efficiency between the horror film and the conspiracy thriller and shows us once again that the search for the truth often involves personal sacrifices but also having to put one's life and that of one's loved ones in danger. Far from a Hollywood cinema that plays the card of permanent overkill, it is good to find the basics of a cinema we grew up with, that is to say, an emphasis on the human (script, direction, casting, photography) rather than on the use of digital special effects that partly spoil all the magic of the cinema when it is badly used or only present to mask the superficiality of unfinished and disappointing films.

Broadcast Signal Intrusion
Directed by Jacob Gentry
Produced by Greg Newman, Brett Hays, Giles Edwards, Nicola Goelzhaeuser
Written by Phil Drinkwater, Tim Woodall
Starring Harry Shum Jr, Kelley Mack, Chris Sullivan, Jennifer Jelsema, Arif Yampolsky, Justin Welborn, Michael B. Woods, Steve Pringle
Music by Ben Lovett
Cinematography: Scott Thiele
Edited by Jacob Gentry
Release date : March 16, 2021 (SXSW)
Running time : 104 minutes

Seen on March 18, 2021 (SXSW)

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