As great as it is to have digital, HD Television and hundreds of channels to choose from, we’re kind of nostalgic for the era where you actually had to tune in to a particular network in order to watch whatever toy commercial was being spoon-fed to you alongside commercials for beers and window cleaner. Even better was, if you lived in Chicago back in the ’80s, if the signal was interrupted by pranksters and your eight-year-old brain was annihilated by the wild-ass surrealism of pranks breaking through the broadcast. Enter Broadcast Signal Intrusion, a fun horror movie that we caught back at SXSW earlier this year, and which seeks to take those ’80s pranks and wring some decent horror out of them. It’s mostly successful at doing so, and, if you’re willing to take the plunge, this new trailer for the film might hint at what’s to come.
Peep it:
Here’s a synopsis for you to peruse at your leisure:
“While logging tapes of decades-old TV broadcasts, video archivist James (Harry Shum Jr.) discovers a surreal and disturbing clip that James believes is the product of a mysterious broadcast signal hacking. His discovery takes a sinister turn when he tracks down similar broadcast intrusions that send him on an obsessive mission. Now James must confront two very real possibilities: that the videos may be clues to a crime beyond all comprehension; and that whoever was behind them may be very aware that James is coming uncomfortably close to the truth.
The film stars Harry Shum Jr. (‘Glee,’ ‘Crazy Rich Asians’), Kelley Mack (‘The Walking Dead’) and Chris Sullivan (‘This Is Us,’ ‘Stranger Things’). ‘Broadcast Signal Intrusion’ was inspired by actual broadcast interruptions that occurred in the Windy City in the late 1980s, and remain unsolved to this day. The film is an unsettling journey into our collective technological nightmares, confronting our deepest, darkest fears of both man and machine.“
Broadcast Signal Intrusion arrives in theaters and on VOD platforms on October 22.