Honorable Mention for Best of Film, 2002.
M. Night Shyamalan's latest thriller Signs is an intriguing portrayal of an all-American family in the days leading up to a War-of-the-Worlds-type invasion by aliens. There are a few things that make this film stand out-- a thoughtful, layered, complex script; the acting; and the manner in which Signs is filmed.
With an alien invasion film, Night could have told a story similar to that of Independence Day, in which we see the invasion through the eyes of many people, including the aliens. But he reins in any sort of obtuse storytelling and focuses on one family, the Hess family, who live on a farm in rural Pennsylvania and who, have recently lost their mother in a tragic automobile accident, and who, upon waking one morning, find giant crop circles in their cornfields. But even more than this, Night chose to focus on the father, Graham (played by a thoughtful Mel Gibson) and his struggle of faith. You see, Graham used to be a minister. But after the tragic death of his wife, he gave it up. The reasons for doing so are kept deep inside him and we can only sense the shadows of them for most of the film, like we see the shadow of the cross on his bedroom wall. But as is normal in times of hard trials or imminent doom, in this case being destroyed by aliens, we see Graham finally deal with his problems. This is where the real story is and it is a good one.
Shyamalan’s method of filmmaking is pure Hitchcock, focusing not on the visual horror but on the horror invoked by our own psyche. What really is frightening is simple fear—that fear that arises when you know you have seen or witnessed something unknown or shocking but you have to question yourself because it happened so quickly that it might be mistaken for "just seeing things" or not enough sleep. The worst nightmares are those in which you know that you are trapped and that something is coming for you. This method accentuates the film’s primary focus, which is how the Hess family experience the invasion.
