Dead Signal

Four struggling livestream investigators—Mara Velez, Eli Turner, Nia Brooks and Dante Reed—drive deep into the woods to investigate an abandoned emergency-broadcast station for what may be the final episode of their failing online channel. Local stories claim that years ago, people monitoring the station heard emergency broadcasts describing disasters before the disasters actually occurred. The four expect nothing more than another creepy location and perhaps enough frightening footage to revive their audience.

Shortly after arriving, Dante’s audio recorder begins receiving a mysterious transmission. A woman’s distorted voice says Mara’s name even though no one else can hear it. Inside the supposedly powerless station, an old emergency-alert tone suddenly sounds. Then a dead CRT monitor switches itself on.

The television is showing the four investigators inside the same building—but exactly eleven minutes in the future.

At first, they believe the images must be old surveillance recordings. Then the monitor predicts a small event that happens precisely eleven minutes later. Soon another transmission shows Dante being violently attacked in a hallway. The terrified group realizes they have been given an extraordinary advantage: they can see danger before it happens. They begin changing their actions in an attempt to prevent what the monitors show.

But every time they change the future, the broadcast changes with them.

Doors mysteriously lock. Their phones lose service. Emergency speakers begin talking in their own voices. A mysterious viewer appears on Mara’s supposedly dead livestream and sends warnings from eleven minutes ahead. Something tall and horribly unnatural begins moving through the corridors, but their cameras capture only fragments—a distorted silhouette, an elongated limb, reflective eyes, a figure standing impossibly close behind one of them.

Then Dante is dragged into the darkness. His radio continues talking. The problem is that Dante isn’t the one speaking through it.

Mara, Eli and Nia follow his signal into forgotten transmitter tunnels beneath the station, where they discover a chamber that should be physically impossible: it extends far beyond the dimensions of the building above. Ancient broadcast equipment, cables and machinery have fused into a gigantic structure that seems almost alive. They find Dante, but also discover the terrifying truth about the broadcasts.

The signal isn’t simply predicting their future. It is manipulating them into creating it. Every warning they obey moves them closer to the death the station has already shown them.

Mara makes the only decision the signal cannot anticipate: stop watching.

They destroy and turn away from the monitors and attempt to escape without knowing what happens next. The creature hunts them through the station as emergency speakers imitate their voices and give contradictory directions. Dante stays behind to hold open their escape route while Mara, Nia and an injured Eli reach the roof.

As dawn approaches, their phones suddenly reconnect. Mara discovers something incredible—the night’s corrupted livestream has somehow been broadcasting to thousands of people. The creature emerges onto the roof.

Using the station’s transmitter and emergency beacon, the survivors create a massive burst of interference. The creature disappears amid distorted electronic images, and Mara, Nia and Eli escape as emergency vehicles arrive. The station is sealed.

Days later, investigators examine the recovered cameras. Inside an evidence room, an unplugged television suddenly switches on. It shows the same empty room. The timestamp is eleven minutes in the future. On the television, the evidence-room door slowly opens. Something enters.