Release Date:
Friday, August 2, 2002
M. Night Shyamalans talent in making creepy movies without spectacular special effects continues with Signs, an alien movie in the Blair Witch Project vein. Despite its lack of grotesque battle scenes, the pace is fast and the suspense is constant.
Shyamalan gets this party started right: crop circles quickly appear and frantic townsfolk are soon wondering what the hell is going on. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson), a former minister, tries to maintain some sort of order with his family, while also coping with his wifes death in a car accident and his subsequent loss of faith. Gibson does a good job as the alien-skeptic turned believer, while Joaquin Phoenix and Rory Culkins characters (the elder Hess brother and son, respectively) start preparing for the worst early on. Set in the-middle-of-nowhere, Pennsylvania, the film is shot like a breaking news story, with the familys television acting as their (and our) only source of information, as they huddle together in various parts of the house. Shyamalan throws some humor in the middle of the mystery, making fun of some popular mythsfor one, that alien mind-reading can be combatted with tinfoil helmetsto lighten the mood before dipping right back into the edge-of-your-seat terror. Definitely a traditional alien movie, Signs is unique in that it manages to avoid any gratuitous alien special effectsand, thankfully, Will Smith.
Shyamalan gets this party started right: crop circles quickly appear and frantic townsfolk are soon wondering what the hell is going on. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson), a former minister, tries to maintain some sort of order with his family, while also coping with his wifes death in a car accident and his subsequent loss of faith. Gibson does a good job as the alien-skeptic turned believer, while Joaquin Phoenix and Rory Culkins characters (the elder Hess brother and son, respectively) start preparing for the worst early on. Set in the-middle-of-nowhere, Pennsylvania, the film is shot like a breaking news story, with the familys television acting as their (and our) only source of information, as they huddle together in various parts of the house. Shyamalan throws some humor in the middle of the mystery, making fun of some popular mythsfor one, that alien mind-reading can be combatted with tinfoil helmetsto lighten the mood before dipping right back into the edge-of-your-seat terror. Definitely a traditional alien movie, Signs is unique in that it manages to avoid any gratuitous alien special effectsand, thankfully, Will Smith.