So this isn’t what I expected at all. I thought this was going to be one of those Contact style movies where astronomers hear a radio signal from space, but it’s not. It’s more like… well, I think I’m supposed to say that it’s like The Twilight Zone, because they make a big effort to evoke midcentury television (by e.g. periodically showing a literal curvy-screen CRT TV with a black-and-white image on it); but I am a heathen and never watched the old Twilight Zone, so it actually reminds me of the videogame Control, which is probably trying to evoke that Twilight Zone atmosphere, too.

But maybe Control is a better comparison anyway, because one thing about this movie is that it’s super low-budget, so while it’s trying to do a quasi-SF/quasi-horror thing, they don’t really have the money for much in the way of effects, and so you get a lot of characters talking at length, in a way that feels like a cutscene or RPG conversation. I don’t know that I’ve seen a movie recently with this many long monologues in it.

But the good news is that it works. People telling unsettling stories with ominous music and weird sounds on the radio and flickering lights, well, it ends up at “unsettling” in a pretty reliable way, so the movie gets the mood it’s aiming for, despite its low budget. Add in good acting and some memorable camerawork, and you’ve got something that goes beyond the serviceable.

This isn’t mind-blowingly amazing, but it is enjoyable. Recommended for anyone who likes the kind of thing that this is.