Signs

Released 2002
Stars Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, Cherry Jones
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

I really enjoyed the first half of Signs. It's a creepy thriller that slowly builds the tension by making us wonder what's out there in the dark, much like The Blair Witch Project. I enjoyed how it quietly cranked up the suspense and toyed with us. What's behind these crop circles? Are there really aliens out there? If so, are they good or bad? I expected the entire movie to be a mystery which would leave these questions unresolved, but, instead, everything is openly resolved. That was surprising, but it would have been fine if there had not been a plethora of plot contrivances and logic holes in the second half of the movie. In fact, I was onboard during the entire first half of the movie, but there was a moment in the middle when it lost me.

Summary by Bill Alward, August 20, 2002

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