Shortwave (2016) User Reviews (29)

Not awful but not great

[Dextronix · 4/10 · 28 October 2017]

The main thing this film seems to me to be is a vehicle for the director to show his liking for Juanita Ringeling. Some of her scenes could be outtakes from a Calvin Klein underwear commercial.

She can act decent enough, but there's really no need to see her in her pants quite so much.

The male actors were not great in this. The husband was annoying: he is studying the phenomenon concerned but still doesn't believe his own wife when she says she's affected by it???? Idiotic.

Effects are decent. It's shot beautifully. But it's a pretty weak attempt at a not too bad film idea.

You could take or leave this sci-fi/horror film very easily. But I guess it's a way to while away an empty couple of hours that's not too offensive. Do yourself a favour though and watch William Eubank's 'The Signal' instead.

It is THAT bad. How did did it get a 6.5 rating?

[kcspam · 3/10 · 13 February 2018]

A sci-fi thriller with a 6.5 rating...it sounded awesome. I persisted. And persisted. Annnnnd persisted.

What a waste of 90 minutes of life.

Spare yourself the pain.

What do you think it means?

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 10 October 2017]

Plot Spoiler: In the opening scene Isabel's (Juanita Ringeling) child is taken in an odd abduction case. Two years later after an attempted suicide, Isabel and her husband Josh (Cristobal Tapia Montt) live in an isolated fortress home. Josh is conducting a shortwave experiment with Thomas (Kyle Davis) attempting to contact aliens through hidden signals within the waves. Isabel hears and sees things related to the experiment. Things don't go as planned.

There seemed to be some plot continuity issues. They were talking about contacting aliens, but in reality they knew they were doing something different all along, so the conversations didn't make any sense. I still didn't figure out why the hostility either. Characters were so-so.

Guide: F-word. Solo sex. No nudity.

Sounded interesting. Ended porrly.

[eddiedover · 2/10 · 9 May 2018]

Honestly, the first 10 minutes of this were interesting and then it all went downhill from there. The actors were trying their best but the writing was complete garbage and it honestly seemed like the majority of this film was centered around getting the female lead into as many skimpy outfits as possible. Combine all this with completely unnecessary and not plot relevant sexual scenes and I think I can figure out what the Directors true motivation was.

If you want horror, you won't find it here. If you want 'thought provoking' you won't find that either. However, if you LOVE pretentious films? You'll absolutely love this film. Worst thing I ever saw.

I fell asleep

[chameleonaram · 1/10 · 1 January 2018]

Cannot remember any movie where I just fell asleep without being tired. This movie builds up so slowly that it really is a cure for sleeplessness! Honestly, if you have sleeping problems just watch this movie. Acting is also terrible. It missed everything but the main reason why I rate this movie 1 star is because those behind this movie tried to put some kind of emotion into it by putting a lot of attention into certain scenes but actually got the opposite. A shameful and laughable approach to a situation that is very serious when it happens to anyone in real life. Makers of this movie, do something else!

Overly ambitious faux-Outer Limits...

[MrGKB · 5/10 · 21 March 2018]

...that would likely have worked better as an extended short, this tyro effort by a bunch of people you've never heard of probably played a lot better in the writer/director's head than it does in the finished product. At times deadly dull, and other times messily incomprehensible, "Shortwave" has something to do with communicating with aliens who seemingly turn out to be violently disinterested in being bothered. The leading lady is attractive, one must grant, but eye-candy can't carry an ill-told story, especially when it's all tease and no delivery. The opening scene is cleverly executed, but once it's over, the film slowly sinks into the mire of its own artsy pretensions of mystery, all of which remain virtually inexplicable. Things occur that go nowhere. Hints are dropped and never picked up again. It all ends in a spate of death, furiously signifying nothing. I gave it an extra point or two for some nice DP work, but really, it's not worth the effort to seek it out or the time to watch it.

Slow, slow, slow

[daytamod-38118 · 3/10 · 3 June 2018]

This is a slow, drawn out movie that combines essence of "The Outer Limits" weirdness to a very slow and painfully drawn out conclusion of what seemed to be an intriguing plot. You learn very early about why Isabel and Josh have moved out to a location in the middle of nowhere, and the fact Josh is involved in a science project, but that's about all you know about for 25 minutes as the movie drags on and reminds you of these facts over and over again. The music does not help. The ambient backing track is hypnotic in places, and with the slow pace of the movie you'll be forgiven for falling asleep in places. I began to start skipping 10 seconds here, and 20 seconds there waiting for something to new happen.

The acting was OK, and there was a needless scene of Juanita Ringeling masturbating (there you go skip to 22 minutes in and enjoy). This is not a spoiler as it has very little relevance to the plot if any. The movie did not need it, but I suppose its one way to keep viewers from switching off at this point. I'm sure the writers will give you plenty of excuses for it being in the movie.

On the whole the movie was painfully slow, the writers struggled to make the plot stretch for 80 minutes. I had to turn on subtitles on halfway through because the actors were talking / shouting over each other and areas that were scary were only made so because of the very loud sound effects, otherwise, nothing makes you jump. How can I get these 80 minutes of my life back?

Snoozefest

[alanjames1960 · 1/10 · 23 February 2018]

The most boring and pretentious film i have ever seen! A waste of mine and your time.fell asleep 4 times,nothing happens and the acting is crap.Avoid.

Just go along with for the ride with Juanita

[tonymarchei-14176 · 7/10 · 4 March 2019]

This is not a bad effort for the budget it had. It keeps moving along nicely and kept me entertained most of the way. Juanita Ringeling acted the lead role very well, and was quite likable and charming in that I did not mind going all the way with her through the movie, even in her most gruesome scenes. The movie may have tried to do to much what it had at its disposal, but still I would recommend to watch.

Really?

[djhoschman · 2/10 · 30 April 2018]

So the Storyline sounded very Good. But thats all. The Actors are terrible, and not B Movie like terrible.. Absolutely terrible. It started ok, but went downhill in no time. Almost nothing in this Movie is remarkable or any good.

If you want to see a Movie that puts you asleep, well this is your Movie. But if you except something like White Noise with good Actors and a mediocre Writing, stay away from this.

I have seen hundreds of Movies with an Rating @ 4 who are way better than this time stealing "insert offensive content here" Movie.

Be careful about contacting the beyond

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 9 November 2020]

Josh (a solid and likeable performance by Cristobal Tapia Montt) and Isabel Harris (a fine and affecting portrayal by Juanita Ringeling) move to a secluded hillside research facility in the wake of the disappearance of their only child. Josh and his assistant Thomas (nicely played by Kyle Davis) experience a breakthrough on their work with a cryptic radio signal that in turn has a negative influence on Isabel.

Writer/director Ryan Gregory Phillips relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, takes time to develop the characters, grounds the fantastic premise in a believable everyday reality, ably crafts an eerie and unsettling mood, makes a poignant central point on the need for closure following the unexpected loss of a loved one, and even tosses in a pretty nasty twist at the end for good measure. Moreover, Dominic Fallacaro's pounding score and the evocative sound design further enhance the overall unnerving atmosphere. Lucas Garth's sharp widescreen cinematography provides an impressive polished look. A neat little sci-fi/horror item.

if you take the sex out of horror you're left with just forensics.

[imccullo · 7/10 · 23 December 2022]

A real slow burner this one so stick with it as after 65 minutes of torturous fasting the ending is 'everything you can eat' in 20. Josh and Isabel Harris have lost their infant daughter by some sort of mysterious disappearance/alien abduction which is never really explained save some momentary back story jump-cuts to imply the latter.

As to how at least 6 inquisitive children and one supervising adult simply evaporate into thin air from within a nursery school library without so much as a protesting shush!, in the time taken for Mrs Harris to visit the rest room is anyone's guess. The other yawning chasm in the plot is the lack of any Police presence at the house after the same Mrs Harris viciously attacks her husband's boss with a (very large) knife stabbing him repeatedly (but not fatally, we learn almost by way of a casual shrugging rejoinder in the aftermath) As the grieving couple, the performances of both Juanita Ringeling and Cristobal Tappia Montt are portentously overwrought to the point of 'method' slapstick and although I wouldn't dare pretend I know what it feels like to lose a child, it's clear the actors don't have the first clue either. The ending is extremely violent and on the cusp of gratuitously gory but as to why an alien species would resort to Grand Guignol slayings of these pesky humanoids in their midst is a question the Director needs to reverse engineer for his promised sequel. The art-house cinematography reminded me in places of Lars von Trier's obliquely hallucinatory Antichrist which is considerably more pretentious and also centered around a couple mourning a lost child. The radio transmissions that Josh Harris and his assistant (Kyle Davis) have identified as being of extraterrestrial origin makes for an intriguing story but apart from the aforementioned transparent artifice of setting up the inevitable sequel, no attempt is made to explain the events that are depicted. Intelligent movies don't need to continually remind us of the fact and Phillips has yet to learn that if you take the sex out of horror you're left with just forensics.

A new definition of Boring

[deloudelouvain · 2/10 · 28 June 2018]

Thanks to Shortwave I think we have a new definition for the word "boring", if not "extremely boring". First of all I am a fan of sci-fi movies. There is always alot of potential in that genre of movies because almost everything is permitted, even the craziest stories, but it has to be a good entertaining story. And that's the major problem with this movie, it is everything but entertaining. The story is boring and incredibly slow. The acting is a disaster, especially from Juanita Ringeling. She's so annoying to watch that it is difficult to do worse than her. I don't know if it was the director's orders but apparently the main thing she does is walk very slowly and caress all kind of random objects, like a tree, a bamboo stick, a door, a kitchen counter, her private parts and so on. I really struggled to stay awake and I was not even tired. How this movie got those ratings on here is just a mystery to me.

A short film padded up to feature length

[Andriyko3 · 4/10 · 20 December 2018]

This seems exactly like a student film trying to pass as a full length film just to serve as some guys' thesis work. The core idea behind it is actually cool, and if this movie was given the proper hard work and love it needed, it could've been something genuinely worth watching.

As it stands, it is simply a soft sci-fi short film that has been padded with an inexcusably large number of meaningless montages. You get a little bit of story, then a bunch of shots of the lead actress in her underwear, or some blurry flashbacks that contribute nothing to the story. It has some good shots, the acting is passable, but the audio design is glaringly bad. You should never be questioning the music choice while watching a movie, but they seem to have had no idea how to enhance the mood of a scene using an apropos soundtrack.

This movie just makes me sad, not because of the story, but because it is just full of wasted potential. Actors who seemed to really be trying, a story that really could have entertained and added something new to the genre, cinematography that was visually appealing but totally out of place. I hope the director of this film learns from it, and next time tries to put everything he can into making the movie a high quality production. A low budget is no excuse! With a good idea, good music choice, decent actors and careful cinematography, even a low budget film like this could be a great watch. Sadly, this didn't meet the criteria of something I would call entertaining.

WTF ???????????????????????

[japonaliya · 1/10 · 30 April 2018]

With a barely coherent and thin plot, this movie already has two strikes against it from the get go. However the direction is even worse and the attempt to be profound by the use of flashbacks and hallucinatory elements contribute to ending that makes no sense and the movie spends all 3 minutes trying to explain itself with pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo. I will not recite the plot as it is in previous reviews. I will only point out some of the things i remember that were either not explained, or made no sense and only confused the plot even more.



SPOILERS!!

1. Why does Isabelle in the flashbacks to hwer former happy life with her husband have a totally different hair style? In the flashbacks short blonde, and in the present brown long and mousy?

2. When Isabelle goes inside the bookstore dropping off her daughter to the reading group, she uses the bathroom for all for a minute, then she comes out to find her daughter missing. ABDUCTED? But wait, not only is her daughter missing, but all the other kids, the staff, the other patrons, in fact, the whole town is empty.! NOTHING is explained and then we jump to 2 years later where Isabelle is still suffering from PTS, but again no mention of where the whole town went?? 3. We never know if the entities are real or just in Isabele's mind. In some scenes she seems possessed, in others she just sits back and watches her husband die as if she has no control and the entities are separate from her.

4. The use of repetitive flashbacks that may or may not be real or imagined adds to the confusion, and the arty camera work, sometimes bright and in focus, other times compressed or even partially out of focus on the edges may be an attempt to convey states of reality or what was in Isabelle's head, but i only found it distracting.. I could go on and on, but my point is that this is a very amateurish film that "looks" like it is much more than it turns out to be.

I guarantee that anyone with a brain will be scratching their heads at the end of this one.

NOTE: A nice little horror/syfy movie I just saw with a good twist that is very low budget but at least makes sense when the plot reveal is told is "STEPHENIE"

It is the kind of movie that seems to start off normal, and than little by little things just get weird until we find out the truth. I didn't guess what the reality was until near the end, some may get it sooner. It is bit like "Sixth Sense" but I wouildn't put it in that class. Still, check it out, but don't read the reviews it you don't want to spoil the twist.

Unique and amateurish, but beautiful in its own way

[Harhaluulo54 · 5/10 · 25 October 2017]

Shortwave (2016) is on parallel with other amateur movies such as Primer (2004) and Coherence (2013). I am mentioning these two specific movies simply because this could be the 3rd big meme for that matter. Plus, it is better than either of those.

This film is less tedious and doesn't follow the basic "it's deep and I am smart for liking it" type of rating process quite yet, but I recommend giving it a go if you have better taste than reddit. For others, feel free to read my review few years after its original post date after seeing it on reddit/imgur under the caption "mindf#ck indie movies which you should watch" right between Primer and Coherence. Mark my words.

A swing and a miss.

[corytrevorson · 1/10 · 16 August 2018]

The tries hard to be "deep" and "thought provoking", but comes across as an embarrassing mess. The half-blurry cinematography was atrocious. The acting was uninspired and wooden. The most disturbing part was the amazingly bad wig the girl wears in her flashbacks.

Label it a HORROR movie, if you expect that, you might like it.

[KeithKenobi · 3/10 · 14 March 2021]

I am into Ham radio and I was disappointed they didn't do the "Shortwave" properly. It was filmed "pretty" but I fell asleep. What did I watch? ... nah, not gonna rewind and find out.

Clueless Hollywood set decorators.

[terrellmichaela · 1/10 · 20 October 2020]

You do not pick up signals from space with 50+ year old receivers made for Amateur Radio. They only receive up to 30 MHz, and most of what was shown in this movie were pretty much useless above 20 MHz. It takes large arrays of satellite dishes, and very expensive Telemetry receivers to find anything. Shelves full of antique junk just doesn't cut it. I built the receivers that are used for deep space work.

Good film, with a few problems.

[RheaStorm · 8/10 · 4 January 2018]

Mindbender of a film. The only detrimental things were a few actors just not being up to snuff, Thomas mainly, and a few plot beats.

STUPID!!

[africe · 1/10 · 14 August 2019]

Stupid waste! I couldn't get past the first 5 minutes! The beginning annoyed me so much I had to shut it off. Does the creator of this film have a fetish with women's calves while they run???? STUPID!!!!!

6.5 really?

[fullgore-44663 · 2/10 · 7 February 2019]

More than 1 hour of the movie dont tell anything, is just like a house video of spinning records, seen a model doing nonsense things on a bikini, non sense scenes, false dialogues, bad performance, 10 mins could be more than enough to tell same thing, i mean nothing. total waste of time.

Do not even try

[morgenstjernesammael · 5/10 · 1 May 2018]

I am a fan of sci-fi movies combined with a little terror or horror, but this one it's just too slow and makes no sense. It's like new directors only know how to scare people by using very sharp sounds and music but no drama, no story or lines. I can't believe a movie like this which had all the potential to be incredible, it's a >6 on punctuation.

Rate It Lower If I Could

[artbreyfogle · 1/10 · 15 October 2020]

"I want my 88 minutes back!"

Worst filck ever...Mean it as it is total garbage...

My personal memo... too much reliance on Science?...!

[R_Utah_E_F_C · 5/10 · 7 September 2021]

Not 2 Bad 4 me.

Am also bit weak on shortwave stuff, so it was killing me wiz noise but... What they tried looks so natural 4 us.

Looks as if Using handy cam stuff, switching n changing scenes but it looks realistic..

Felt film is asking us 2 grasps ideas with ur intelligence but thought too much reliance on science factors So, no offense wiz respect give 5.