The Signal
Focus Features | Release Date: June 13, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
15
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
EmpireKim NewmanMar 23, 2015
William Eubank continues to work his particular mind-stretching mix of acute character interplay and cosmic conceptual breakthrough. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt GlasbyMar 23, 2015
The best sci-fi trilogy you’ve never seen amalgamated into one organic whole. Surprising, exciting and, at times, strangely beautiful. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJun 13, 2014
The Signal is a road movie turned upside down and inside out. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJun 13, 2014
The Signal continues to get weirder, and creepier, and to bring up unusual questions for the viewer. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 12, 2014
It's more heavy lifting than some will be willing to engage in but there's something welcome about a motion picture that doesn't hand out a dumbed-down resolution in a neatly wrapped package. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithJun 11, 2014
Its young director, however, has a considerable flair for surprise and visual gusto, and he even, on a shoestring, delivers sharp-looking special effects. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyClark CollisJun 11, 2014
If all this sounds like a souped-up episode of "The Twilight Zone" or "The X-Files," then you're in the right ballpark — or underground bunker. Read full review
72
TheWrapTodd GilchristJun 11, 2014
Although the film's ultimate payoff feels a little too big, and too insufficiently explained, to justify all of the obfuscation that led up to it, the script keeps the audience engaged and guessing right up to the end. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleJun 18, 2014
Eubank's fizzy mix of self-conscious, set-piece image-making and small-scale human detail is admirable. Read full review
67
HitfixDrew McWeenyJun 16, 2014
[Eubank] creates some remarkable images and moments in this movie, and his sensibility leans towards a sort of painterly love of quiet and sustained imagery. He juggles some pretty big shifts in tone here, and doesn't always pull it off, but it's really interesting to watch him try. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleWilliam GossJun 11, 2014
The result is a bit like seeing a Nike commercial make a drunken pass at its friend’s manga collection while the X-Files DVDs watch from across the room; it may not make much sense, but at least it’s never boring. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramJun 12, 2014
While it’s hard to make sense of the narrative developments in The Signal, it must be said that it’s always visually compelling. And that some of the standout sequences (including, yes, the Mind-Blowing Twist Ending) suggest that Eubank could have a terrific future as a director. As a screenwriter, though, maybe not so much. Read full review
63
USA TodayScott BowlesJun 12, 2014
Had Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch made a movie together, it might have looked something like The Signal. Read full review
63
Boston GlobePeter KeoughJun 12, 2014
Including the high expectations set up by the film’s early going, Eubank had a thoughtful thriller in the works but along the way he got his signals crossed. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 12, 2014
The Signal is too ambitious for its own good: The movie is built on shells of ideas and concepts that haven’t been fully thought out, and once it’s over, the movie collapses the more you think about it. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJun 11, 2014
So even though Signal isn’t great sci-fi, you’d never know it to look at it and listen to it. Read full review
60
The GuardianLeslie FelperinOct 25, 2015
A banal and credulity-stretching finale that feels like a bad Twilight Zone episode, but the first hour or so is terrific. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 12, 2014
Acting (and story) take a back seat to the visual display. Eubank shows confidence with each shot, whether it takes place in a desert vista or a clinical government slab. What's it all mean? It's unclear, except meaning that Eubank is a talent to watch. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJordan HoffmanJun 12, 2014
Director William Eubank seems more concerned with building to an epic, superpowered ending rather than anything making a lick of sense. In the spirit of the characters and audience, though, it feels right. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMar 10, 2014
Captivating for a long stretch. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jun 11, 2014
The movie never becomes truly involving — mostly because it’s hard to get wrapped up in a narrative when you can’t shake the nagging feeling that the rug under your feet is being tugged. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJun 16, 2014
You spend a lot of the movie confused, but the great big reveals of its finale don’t feel very shocking at all. Yet it’s not a complete wash and, given the circumstances, that feels like an accomplishment. Read full review
50
IndieWireCarlos Aguilar Jun 13, 2014
Eubank’s talent for creating impressive worlds with few resources is the movie's strongest aspect, but the concept feels like a never-ending exposition of technique without sufficient depth. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldJun 12, 2014
William Eubank’s The Signal demonstrates the fine line between paranoid science-fiction fantasy and demo reel. Read full review
50
The PlaylistMark ZhuravskyMay 29, 2014
[A] lovingly crafted but insubstantial flash, though the mystery at heart sustains a first viewing. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezMay 28, 2014
The titular signal refers to the Nomad hacker's taunts, though it may as well point to the film's nature as a self-styled calling card. Read full review
50
VarietyGeoff BerkshireMar 10, 2014
Exceedingly stylish and ultimately quite silly, The Signal is a sci-fi head trip better appreciated for the journey than the destination. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyMar 26, 2015
The film’s wobbles begin at this stage and spread unstoppably through the last hour. It’s one of those steep-tumbling disappointments where almost every scene feels like an additional step in the wrong direction. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 12, 2014
As I watched the minimal plot unfold at a glacial pace in claustrophobic settings, I found myself wondering where the rest of the movie was. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichJun 12, 2014
Things quickly fall apart, with a pileup of sub–Rod Serling narrative twists, a choppy action sequence heavy on the Michael Bay slo-mo and a sequel-ready climax that reveals the whole project as little more than a feature-length calling card. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJun 10, 2014
The persuasive power of individual moments suggests that director William Eubank has a bright future — and could push himself harder when writing his scripts. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJun 12, 2014
The Signal has visual style to burn. And it takes good advantage of the current state of paranoia arising from our surveillance culture and the pervasive mistrust in government. On paper, this sounds like a good formula. If handled well, it could really pay off. Read full review
30
The DissolveNathan RabinJun 12, 2014
The Signal would desperately like to be a film of ideas, but the few it presents are vapid and secondhand. Eubank’s overachieving work on the film suggests he’s destined for bigger and better things, though given the airy nothingness of the film’s mind games, that’s setting the bar awfully low. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJun 12, 2014
The Signal starts off as an alien version of "Blair Witch Project" and then drifts off into cold plotlessness. But for a while, a little while, it seems like it just might be interesting. Read full review
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