But James is a man that wants rationalization, wants answers, wants punishment, no matter if it’s legitimate or not, and it is near the end of the film, when James’ obsession reaches its zenith, that Shum really shines.Harry Shum Jr. “Never attribute conspiracy to that which is more appropriately labeled coincidence,” warns his colleague. ![]() is solid as a man still haunted by the disappearance of his wife, and despite his attempts to come to grips with it through his group therapy sessions, when he discovers that one of the intrusions came just after she disappeared, his character immediately clings to the information like a lifeline. There’s some pretty horrific robot malfunction stuff in this. If animatronics that look like they stepped out of the film Tourist Trap ain’t your bag, you may want to skip this one. The videos themselves feel akin to the Poughkeepsie Tapes in their surreal strangeness: brief, nightmarish images of a masked person as well as an animatronic figure based on a fake 80’s sitcom with staccato movements, emitting electronic wails, buzzes, and hums that can’t help but creep along your spine. The film goes all in on the 90’s era thriller vibe, with its washed-out colors and sinister shadows, particularly with regards to the soundtrack by BEN LOVETT, which lends itself to a hard-boiled, noir, detective film. At one point, Alice asks James if he had any hobbies, and James admits that he can’t seem to remember anything from before his hunt into the intrusions started. ![]() I fixed them all,” they get pulled more and more into potential danger, as well as James’ own unhealthy obsession with these intrusions. As they watch and decipher the tapes, finding breadcrumbs hidden amongst the images and static buzzes to go off on, including a voice saying, “I fixed them. As he continues to search, James uncovers a possible conspiracy that links these intrusions to the disappearance of several women, including his own wife, Hannah.Īs James becomes increasingly obsessed with tracking down the source and meaning of the broadcast signal intrusions, he enlists the aid of the mysterious Alice ( KELLEY MACK), who may or may not have her own ulterior motives for helping the still-grieving man. He chooses to investigate reports of a similar intrusion that occurred during an episode of a sci-fi TV show, only to discover that the FCC took all of the station's copies. The video is difficult to hear clearly, but he is immediately fascinated. Set during 1999, James (played by HARRY SHUM, JR.) is archiving video tapes for a Chicago television station when he discovers that one contains a broadcast signal intrusion where a person is disguised in a black wig and distorted female face mask. ![]() JACOB GENTRY’S 2021 horror-thriller, BROADCAST SIGNAL INTRUSION, now available on Blu-ray, takes these true-life incidents as a springboard to explore the ideas of internet conspiracies and personal obsession. ![]() Despite an extensive FCC investigation and years of dissection by conspiracy and internet groups, the culprits were never caught. The two hijackings lasted a total of less than two minutes combined, but during the incidents, the masked person made references to Max Headroom's endorsement of Coca-Cola, the TV series Clutch Cargo, WGN anchor Chuck Swirsky and "all the greatest world newspaper nerds", a reference to WGN's call letters, which stands for "World's Greatest Newspaper." The video ended with the person's exposed ass being spanked by a woman with a flyswatter before normal programming resumed. The signal hijacking occurred in single night in 1987, when the television broadcasts of two Chicago television stations were interrupted by a video of an unidentified person wearing a Max Headroom mask and costume, backed by distorted audio and a metal panel in the background to imitate the geometric background effect of Max Headroom’s TV spots. Before the days of internet hacking groups like TeaMp0isoN, Lizard Squad, and perhaps most famously, Anonymous, there was the infamous Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |