Graham Hess (Gibson) loses faith in God he decides to grow his crops. But when he finds strange, mysterious circles in them, his brother-Merrill (Phoenix), his son-Morgan (Culkin) and his daughter Bo (Breslin) face an invasion that could leave them over-run by aliens.
After the discovery of the crop circles-Graham tries to think that this is some prankster playing jokes on his family. But as soon as the truth reveals its self, Graham doesn’t believe it! With mysterious television broadcasts and alien interference in Bo’s baby monitor, the Hess family have to help themselves from invasion of their Pennsylvanian Farm House.
M. Night Shyamalan (Director, Writer and Producer) of all his films bring that special something into what makes a film. Shyamalan also has his small cameo roles in this film playing Ray Reddy, the vet who killed Graham’s wife one night. Shyamalan includes other familiar images, from movies, particularly those in which characters are trapped and isolated (most obviously, The Birds, Night of the Living Dead, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, even Panic Room).
The music that brings the whole film together is something that adds tension in Signs. James Newton Howard bases his music on a three-note motif-which is like a Psycho, Jaws effect, which plays through-out the film building tension and suspense to every scene of invasion!
Shyamalan utilizes great special effects that subsequently create our extraterrestrials. Scenes vary with special effects in Signs because of different reasons. One scene that was extremely brilliant in which special effects related to the character was nearer to the end, when we see Morgan in the arms of our friends! Making Graham see half of the alien’s finger gone and realising-that he has seen that hand before. Signs doesn’t computer generate its way through special effects, although, it has great impact on the invaders.
Shyamalan uses great ingenuity by using Graham’s wife from her death by using flashbacks. Throughout the film we see the occasional flashbacks from the scene of Graham’s late wife. While being invaded by strange beings, mysterious things are happening over the world and Graham has his occasional flashback, which help him to forget about the invasions. One part in the film where Graham and Merrill have finished discussing about what they believe in Graham has a flashback. This flashback shows Graham pulling up to and accident scene where Officer Paski is slowing Graham down, then suddenly it cuts off. Throughout the film we see another story happening of a death and this brings a lot of emotion to Signs.
One particular scene, which I thought was very convincing, was where Graham, Merrill, Morgan and Bo are sat at the table eating dinner just before the alien invasion. Gibson delivers emotion and faith to this scene while eating, which is quite hard to do. Although, Phoenix doesn’t give a ‘smile’ in this scene (but who would if they were being invaded by aliens!), as he sits there like someone waiting for his eyeball to be taken out! This is not one of Phoenix’s best scenes but this is one scene that focuses mainly on faith and emotion.
What threw me at the end of the film was that it moved directly from the invasion to the future, six months after, which I thought was a bit eccentric. The three-minute scene at the end just focuses on one person and how they have overcome themselves. Shyamalan gives a poor ending to the audience. In my opinion he should have left and created a cliff-hanger, which would have been more of a shock to people.
What I thought was unbelievably untrue is one scene where Graham and Merrill are running around the house searching for someone that Graham saw on the top of the barn. After running around the house this ‘someone’ jumps on top of the house and misbelievably jumps straight over the top of Graham or Merrill without seeing it! (Obviously Shyamalan hired a good high-jumper to jump on top of a ten foot roof!)
With excellent performances and excellent adaptation, M. Night Shyamalan brings great suspense and emotion to ‘Signs’, its one film that keeps you on the edge of your seat, dallying to see what happens next. This is a film that will bring great quality sci-fi to your boxes. This is an essential see film.
