Broadcast Signal Intrusion is a 2021 horror/thriller movie by director Jacob Gentry, available to stream on Shudder in the US.
It's 1999 and James is a video archivist working at a television station in Chicago. One night he comes across a mysterious pirate broadcast from the 80s centered around an 80s sitcom character named "Sal-e Sparks". Curious, James dives down a rabbit hole that takes him through government conspiracies, storage lockers, mysterious strangers, and even the disappearance of his own wife.
Broadcast Signal Intrusion provides examples of:
- Anachronism Stew: Among the usual "wrong cars wrong year" problem, one of the characters refers to a "burner phone", a phrase not in common usage until the late 00s.
- Analog Horror: Creepy television broadcasts, vhs and Betamax tapes, and mysterious signals. Unlike most examples though, the actual production aesthetic is fairly standard.
- Chaste Hero: James is hit on several times by his fellow group attendee with no interest and no reaction. Yes, he is in mourning but the trope still applies especially when he teams up with the Hard-Drinking Party Girl who needs a place to stay later in the film.
- Crystal Clear Picture: One scene has James using a projector to blow up pictures of the pirate broadcast, it has film-like resolution, despite being on a Betamax tape.
- Gainax Ending: After tracking down the man seemingly responsible for the broadcasts, (and apparently murdering him), James drives away only to hit a person on the road. He gets out to investigate only to find the person is a Sal-E Sparks robot, which starts twitching and spewing oil, and then the movie ends with no explanation given.
- Government Conspiracy: Hints of it. The tape of the second broadcast was seized by the FCC and archivists are told to flag anyone who requests it and report them to the FBI.
- It Amused Me: Stephen Meyer's stated reason for committing the hijacking. As with all the other explanations, it isn't clear if he's telling the truth or not.
- Riddle for the Ages: Who actually made the tapes, why they were made, and almost every question that James has eventually goes unanswered.
- Show Within a Show: Sal-E Sparks, a now-mostly forgotten sitcom about a gynoid living with a "Quintessential Nuclear Family". The pirate broadcasts center around a person in a Sal-E Sparks mask behaving in disturbing ways.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The movie was openly inspired by and in may ways mimics the infamous Max Headroom pirate broadcast
. - We Interrupt This Program: An unauthorized version of this is what sets off the main plot.
