| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | SIGNS (2002) |
| Director | M. Night Shyamalan |
| Writer | M. Night Shyamalan |
| Lead Actor | Mel Gibson |
| Cast | Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, Cherry Jones, Patricia Kalember |
| Genre | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller |
| Release Date | August 2, 2002 (United States) |
| Duration | 1h 46m (106 min) |
| Budget | $72 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDb Rating | 6.8/10 |
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SIGNS is another movie phenom by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable). This ambitious, young, promising Philly-based writer-director bends toward the supernatural. Now he uses the crop-circle mystery in this thriller about a worldwide alien invasion as experienced by a besieged Bucks County (Pennsylvania) farm family.
Adding depth to the terror is the father, Graham Hess (Mel Gibson). He has recently quit the Episcopal ministry and abandoned his faith because of the cruel death of his wife. He repeatedly reminds people not to call him “Father” anymore. “There’s no one watching out for us,” he says. “We’re all on our own.”
The flick doesn’t quite solve the difficulty of how to attach the faith lost and regained plotline, rooted in the old and quite serious Problem of Evil question, to the how do we repel the space monsters problem, also old but serious only in movies.
In the alien arena, the suspense is high but the action is slim. Graham’s family includes his two young children and brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), a former baseball star. All they know about world events comes from TV and visits by a friendly cop (Cherry Jones). But there are plenty of signs that the unseen but sensed extraterrestrials are hostile and moving in on their farm.
Shyamalan is skilled at low-tech scare stuff, using little more than actors looking past the camera to something unseen, or wind blowing through a dark cornfield, growling dogs or the kids’ spooky stares and whispered fears. He disappoints when fact must finally replace imagination in the climactic confrontation. Still, much is achieved with almost zero onscreen horror or violence.
On the religious side, while the ending is positive, it’s not necessarily knock your socks off theology that will work for everyone. What helps Graham’s hope is very good luck and his restored sense that good and bad luck both happen for a reason, that perhaps indeed we are not alone. In any case, Shyamalan remains a movie guy to keep an eye on. O.K. for adults and mature youth.
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