Signal 100 Drops On Screambox
Screambox original Signal 100 drops on January 24th.
Based on the manga written by Arata Miyatsuki and illustrated by Shigure Kondo, the Japanese horror film finds a group of high school students being hypnotised to play a game where an unknown command causes them to take their own lives.
Directed by Lisa Takeba with a script by Watanabe Yusuke the film takes place in a Japanese high school where a teacher has hypnotised a group of students to commit suicide under certain “signals”, which are specific actions that trigger the students to end their lives.
The teacher informs them that the only way to stop the hypnosis spell is to be the last one standing. So we basically get a Battle Royale type of story, but without them needing to kill each other, they’ll all just kill themselves by unwittingly doing something as mundane as picking their nose.
The students don’t know what the 100 signals could be so they try their best to find out. One of the first things about half a dozen of them do is get their phones out, big mistake as that’s one of the signals, that’s half a dozen down straight away, I mean that’s the one to kill most teenagers off isn’t it?.
The students split up to find clues to what the signals could be and come across a book, in English, with 50 of the 100 listed in it as it was a hypnosis carried out in the 8-‘s by members of a cult to ensure compliance. The students make notes of them and carry on looking as they realise a lot of the missing signals will be for modern living (like the mobile phone thing) . One of the signals is violence, so they know they can’t hurt each other.
One of the students appears to know more than he’s letting on and uses this to his advantages, essentially murdering a lot of his fellow students. The first one he takes out in such a horrible callous way, but the second is a comical relief in the scene.
He’s soon found out though but forms a little posse of fellow murderous types, lucky for him as one of the kills requires them to work together.
I won’t spoil anything else, just to say the film clips along at a nice pace, and being an hour and a half it’s not too long and doesn’t drag anything out.
Some of the deaths are novel, and one in particular involving a bit of stage lighting is absolutely inspired.
If you enjoy Films like Battle Royale, Japanese horror and a bit of blood and gore with imaginative kills then this is a movie for you.
Who will be the last person standing? Will they work out a way to get around the spell without all of their friends needing to die?
Find out when Signal 100 drops on Screambox TV on January 24th
