By Nyan Su 10B
Reading about a sequence of scenes from ‘Signs’
Shyanalam’s epic and sensational film, ‘Signs’ holds us at the edge of our seat as one scene tensely moves to the next making it a thriller. This is done by the ascending and descending change of pace as the Hess family run away from the grotesque aliens with supernatural powers and godlike technology. It has many genre such sci- fi, supernatural and horror but some of the genres we might not have picked up are comedy and moralistic. It has some comedy in it with the little jokes e.g. ‘ We don’t even have hats to protect us from them reading our minds’. Later we will realise it is moralistic as the hidden story of the film is that Graham loses his faith when his wife dies but regains it after going in to the darkness of the basement which represents hell and danger. Because of the different genres it is classed as a hybrid movie that shocks and alarms the viewers.
The title of the film ‘Signs’ was chosen because of the strange and mysterious crop circles but also it has many hidden means, which Shyanalan slowly illustrates e.g. ‘Bo’s habit of not drinking contaminated water’, shows that she is pure and later shows that the pureness of water is the weakness of the aliens. These portentous signs will foreshadow later events in the film. Also these signs symbolize each character of the Hess family and what they are like e.g. Bo’s habit of seeing the future symbolises that she is a guardian angel. These ominous signs makes the viewer wonder if it they have a portentous meaning to them or if they mean nothing at all making us hang on the edge of our seat and also making us think. To show the deeper meaning of the film I will be deconstructing one of the most magnificent scenes in the movie. It begins when the aliens are heard around the house (1) till when Morgan has an asthma attack (63).
I will be analysing the use of camera angles, sounds, lighting, and mise en scene to show how Shyanalan has created a masterpiece of suspense and paranoia.
The soft deviating 3-note, non-diegetic sounds in the first scene rises as the camera moves from a still shot to a tilted, rolling and tracking shot of Merrill looking up stairs to the diegetic sounds of the aliens trying to get in. The High Angle shot combined with the toplighting makes Merrill innocent and small. It shows he is scared and no match for the Aliens, this is shown by the red on the wall but also it symbolises the family’s love staying together at the last moment. The sound bridge moves from scene 1 to scene 2 as the music gets faster and louder corresponding to Merrill ‘s heart beat and also harmonizes illustrating the increase of his fear. As the camera uses a swift tracking and tilting shot to let us see his point of view, we see a LA shot of the attic showing that the attic door isn’t going to hold. Shyanalan uses low-key lighting and chiaroscuro to create a dark colour template enhancing the terror, that continues onto scene 3 as the string instruments comes into the non-diegetic music combining the piano to show the two different yet same heartbeats of the children. Shyanalan then uses a tracking shot zooming into a MCU shot show the extreme fear in their eyes. As the camera moves into the MCU we can see the colours of Morgan, Merrill and Graham clothes (blue) and the exterior and interior paint (white and red) which draws attention to the metaphor that the family represent America, The colours show the American flag symbolizing that America is under attack, but it also shows them together and tells us they will not be divided in this time of need. Then in scene 4 the music reaches it climax as the percussion instruments arrive making it a full orchestra, showing they have reached the height of their fears as we see a tracking shot of alien’s hand suddenly reaches under the door. Because of this in scene 5 we see a MS of the family as they run to the basement door, the full orchestra shows that the aliens are not far behind. In scene 6 the music stops as we hear the footsteps and the LA shot of Graham going down the stairs to the basement. The mise en scene shows the stars and the moon in the background as it illustrates the light and the darkness (the middle, as the basement symbolise hell and the ground follow represent heaven). This also shows Graham’s loss and gains in his faith showing that he goes down into the basement descending from his faith.
