The Shyamalan Experiment: Part 3 - "Signs"

Part 1: “The Sixth Sense” (1999) ** out of ****
Part 2: “Unbreakable” (2000) **** out of ****


The Shyamalan Experiment
Part 3
“Signs”
August 2, 2002
***½ out of ****
Cast: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin


Part one of my experiment was a part that I found clearly overrated. Part two of my experiment was a part that I found clearly underrated. Part three of my experiment, “Signs,” has been called both.

I watched “Signs” for the first time five summers ago. I woke up at around 4 in the morning and couldn’t fall back to sleep, so I decided to pop in two movies in the DVD player that I rented the night before – “Signs” and “Donnie Darko.” I watched “Donnie Darko” first, and at that time, I found it stupid and boring (one will find it funny that now it is one of my favorite movies ever). After that, I put “Signs” in my DVD player. I found it stupid, awkward, and just not scary.

And I have seen my fare share of bad-acting. The last UFC I did was for “The Hottie and the Nottie” and not even the beauty of Paris Hilton could have saved that movie. But the biggest problem with “Signs” was that this was only a one-man movie. With only four actors that actually take most of the space up, three of them were nominated for Oscars, and the only one that was worth a damn in this movie was Mel Gibson. Not even Joaquin Phoenix (who stars in part four of my travels) could save this movie. Basically, I wouldn’t like this again a single bit.

But as it turns out, when I revisited “Signs” for my experiment, a lot changed on me. Sure, it is still a one-man movie, but it is even better the second time around. I’ve come to notice about Shyamalan three movies in that he relies on human emotions more than scares, and “Signs” has the most emotions out of all of his films. It deals with thoughts of religion, death, beliefs, faith, and family. The reason why I found “Signs” so boring was I expected a horrifying movie that dealt with jumps and scares. Truth is, “Signs” is still a very scary movie, but one that doesn’t have to deal with jumps and scares. It pushes you to the limit and asks the questions– just how far can one go to protect their family, if it is something that they don’t believe in?

Reverend Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) has lost all faith in his religion after the death of his wife. (Patricia Kalember) He lives in a house in Bucks County (about fifty miles from where I live) with his two children (Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin) and his younger brother Merrill. (Joaquin Phoenix) On one random day, he wakes up to find his children in disbelief when they find out that there are circles where crops once stood.

Before this, Graham hasn’t had a single good conversation with his kids or his brother. His son doesn’t even like him, he is always complaining to his daughter about how she leaves half-full/half-empty water glasses around the house, and he doesn’t even want to associate with his brother half of the time. Mostly, their house has been filled with awkwardness and a lot of television watching.

But this event brings them all together, because they all begin to realize that it isn’t just there in Bucks County where the crop circles are appearing at. Oh hell no, they are appearing all over the place. So with the help of a baby monitor, a few books, and some old news clips, they all form the opinions that this is the works of aliens… except for Graham. He doesn’t know what to believe anymore, but throughout the movie he tries to reconcile with his family. When it comes to the point where he will have to reconcile and help save them, can he do it?

Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspense. Most people consider his best film to be either “Vertigo” or “Rear Window,” but I consider his best film (and the best film ever) to be “Psycho.” In the film, Alfred Hitchcock sets up the main character to steal an envelope filled of money and it brings her all the way to the Bates Motel, where she will later be murdered. Alfred Hitchcock set this entire event all up into motion to finish the rest of the movie. It hasn’t become a case as to who stole the money, but who murdered the main character. In the movie business, this is called a MacGuffin, a plot device used to drive the story and the emotions or intentions of the characters, which are later forgotten by the end of the film.

The reason I bring the MacGuffin up is because M. Night Shyamalan relies on the apparent alien attacks to drive the movie, but the alien attacks aren’t so much as to show fear and terror, but rather to show just how Gibson has to bring the family together. He doesn’t want the aliens to be the reason why we are so scared of the outcome. He uses this alien attack to bring all of these characters closer to each other. By the end of the film, aliens are forgotten about and we just care about this family spending their possible final moments together.

A scene shows Joaquin Phoenix’s character watching the TV and seeing a clip of a bunch of Brazilian kids seeing an alien walk in the backyard during a birthday party. Yes, this scene is definitely scary, and it sure as hell scared the shit out of me after I saw it, but I didn’t look at it the same way the audiences did. I didn’t care about the Brazilian kids. I cared about the Hess family. If you replaced the Brazilian kids with the Hess family, imagine the true horror of the film. And this was when they were still mad at each other.

And I’m sure that no one forgets the true reason why everyone watches these M. Night Shyamalan movies – their twists. You would think that with a film like “Signs” that there would be a great twist. Truth is, there really isn’t one. If there was a twist, it would have surely ruined the film. The only problem with the film that I had was the ending however. It was a let-go, but after being in the front seat of a ride like that, what else could you want other than a happy ending for these characters?

The acting didn’t bother me the second time around. Mel Gibson is still brilliant and Joaquin Phoenix engaged me in many of his scenes. The score was frightening, as it is with Shyamalan’s previous two films. If we cut out the last ten minutes of this film, “Signs” would probably be one of my favorite movies of all-time, needless to say my favorite film of his.


I'll probably have Part 4, "The Village," up later tonight. It's basically half-finished. Just don't expect nothing good.