100 Scariest Movie Moments: #77 Signs

Everyone remembers how stupid the aliens are in Signs. They attacked a planet that is 70% covered with a substance deadly to them, while naked an unarmed. Let me give an interpretation of the film I picked up on the internet to deal with this issue… The characters incorrectly believed them to be aliens when they were actually demons. Mel Gibson's character, being a priest, blessed the water, so they were harmed by holy water. There we go. The movie makes sense now, which is why I've come to adopt that theory.

Resolving that issue is the single easiest part of analyzing this movie. All of the dialogue and human interaction is so unbelievably awkward and stilted that I have no idea what anyone involved in the project was going for. It's not bad though, simply bizarre.

The film has a certain uncomfortable, dream-like feel to it, created by the awkward interactions. But, the effect is periodically broken by characters commenting on how ridiculous the dialogue of another character is. There's even a scene where Gibson's own facial expression indicates his character knows he said something absurd.

“The police are here and I'm with them. I'm a police officer.”

Beyond “there's an alien invasion, and Mel Gibson and his family are under siege in a farm house,” I have no idea what to describe about the plot. Graham Hess (Gibson) was a priest, until his wife died in a wreck, and she said some strange things that turned out to have been a vision of the invasion. Other than that, I have absolutely no idea which parts of this movie are supposed to be significant, and which parts are merely weird dialogue intended to establish characters.

The most notable thing about the movie is the score. The music is legitimately unsettling, and helps to back up some fairly creepy imagery. Even with the explanation of demons however, the ending does come across as quite anti-climactic. The movie attempts to become heartwarming instead of frightening, and ruins what was otherwise a decent (if awkward) setup, with the aliens/demons being defeated with little effort and the protagonist regaining his faith in God.

I don't hate Shyamalan the way that many people do. I feel that he can make good movies, when he makes them for his audience instead of himself. Hell, I thought The Happening was enjoyable, if only for morbid amusement of watching mass suicides. This movie however, I put in the same category as The Village and Lady in the Water. It's boring, and feels the need to constantly remind you of just how important the things you're watching actually are.

As with some other movies on this list, I wouldn't really discourage anyone from watching it. The experience is certainly interesting. But you might find yourself staring at the screen for five minutes afterwards, wondering what exactly you just saw.