Signs Vista Series (2002)

"Two thumbs up!  Ebert & Roeper
"A suspense-filled Twilight Zone thriller.  Good Morning America
"...Gibson does some his best acting...  Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"...dry humor, jarring shocks...moments of breathtaking mystery.  Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
"A dazzling white-knuckler.  Rolling Stone
"...smoothly and stylishly blends scares and substance.  Susan Stark, Detroit News
"Thrilling. Frightening. Heartbreaking. Funny and deeply moving. You will have to see it twice.  CNN
"A beautifully crafted, white-knuckle, roller-coaster ride of old-school filmmaking...  Lou Lumenick, New York Post
"...the evil cousin to Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."  Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald

Editor's Note It's contaminated. That's what pint-sized Bo (Abigail Breslin) says about every glass of water that she tries to drink, then rejects. This is just one in a long list of strange occurrences that are changing the lives of the Hess family. Things go awry when Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) and his brother, Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), awake early one morning to find the dogs barking and the children--Bo, and her brother Morgan (Rory Culkin)--wandering bleary eyed in the corn fields. They discover a pattern of perfectly carved crop circles left the night before. Trying not to overreact, Graham ignores the media frenzy that has permeated all television and radio stations, and even shrugs off the oddly familiar information that Morgan reads in his book about extraterrestrials invading earth. The real challenge for Graham is to find the faith he needs to pull himself, and his family, through this unexplainable series of events. SIGNS is the long-anticipated film from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan (THE SIXTH SENSE, UNBREAKABLE), a suspenseful and uniquely chilling family story.

	Abigail Breslin
	Joaquin Phoenix
	Mel Gibson
	Rory Culkin
	Cherry Jones
	M. Night Shyamalan
	Patricia Kalember
	Michael Showalter
	Ted Sutton
	M. Night Shyamalan - Director
	Barbara Tulliver - Editor
	Frank Marshall - Producer
	James Newton Howard - Musical Score
	Kathleen Kennedy - Executive Producer
	Larry Fulton - Production Designer
	M. Night Shyamalan - Producer
	M. Night Shyamalan - Writer
	Sam Mercer - Producer
	Tak Fujimoto - Director of Photography
	James Newton Howard - Original Music By
	Keith P. Cunningham - Art Director
	Tak Fujimoto - Cinematographer

Los Angeles Times
"...Shyamalan's great gift is the creation of atmosphere, the conjuring of spooky, unseen menace....SIGNS is a tribute to Shyamalan's gifts..." 08/02/2002 p.C1

USA Today
"...Skillfully made....The movie keeps you watching..." 08/02/2002 p.12D

New York Times
"...Mr. Shyamalan is a master of control, with a sure grasp of the classical filmmaking lexicon. His suspense sequences build slowly and elegantly, and his is adept at evoking dread through shifting camera angles and careful manipulation of the frame..." 08/02/2002 p.E1

Entertainment Weekly
"...Lushly ominous....It's a high-octane doomsday vision built almost entirely around our sense of anticipation..." 08/09/2002 p.43-4

Chicago Sun-Times
"...SIGNS is the work of a born filmmaker, able to summon apprehension out of thin air..." 08/02/2002 p.29

Premiere
"...The movie offers several nicely turned pop-out-of-your-seat moments..." 09/01/2002 p.16-17

Sight and Sound
"...A terrific suspense movie..." 10/01/2002 p.51-2

Total Film
"...SIGNS turns out to be a primally petrifying experience....A very intimate and emotionally astute portrayal of a family under threat..." 10/01/2002 p.120-1

Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs" is the work of a born filmmaker, able to summon apprehension out of thin air. When it is over, we think not how little has been decided, but how much has been experienced. Here is a movie in which the plot is the rhythm section, not the melody. A movie that stays free of labored explanations and a forced climax, and is about fear in the wind, in the trees, in a dog's bark, in a little girl's reluctance to drink the water. In signs...The genius of the film, you see, is that it isn't really about crop circles, or the possibility that aliens created them as navigational aids. I will not even say whether aliens appear in the movie, because whether they do or not is beside the point. The purpose of the film is to evoke pure emotion through the use of skilled acting and direction, and particularly through the soundtrack. It is not just what we hear that is frightening. It is the way Shyamalan has us listening intensely when there is nothing to be heard. I cannot think of a movie where silence is scarier, and inaction is more disturbing...In "Signs," he does what Hitchcock said he liked to do, and plays the audience like a piano. There is as little plot as possible, and as much time and depth for the characters as he can create, all surrounded by ominous dread. The possibility of aliens is the catalyst for fear, but this family needs none, because it has already suffered a great blow. - Roger Ebert

ReelViews 8 of 10
Just when it seemed that every shelf in the "alien visitors" library had found an occupant, M. Night Shyamalan has uncovered an unused one for his own use. Although Shyamalan's Signs includes plenty of clues and cues from previous movies about the arrival of our stellar neighbors, his overall approach is radically different from the ones taken by Independence Day, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Contact, or other similar fare. By limiting the number of special effects shots and treating the film more like a horror movie than a science fiction spectacle, Shyamalan creates a claustrophobic atmosphere and keeps the tension level high. There were times during this film when I was strongly reminded of Panic Room...Like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, Signs is not easily pigeonholed into a single genre. It gleefully crosses boundaries and defies classification. In many ways, it is Shyamalan's most accomplished film to date. Unlike The Sixth Sense, it doesn't rely on bamboozling the audience. And, irrespective of its flaws, Signs is more satisfying than Unbreakable. Despite the financial success of his two previous outings (combined, nearly $1 billion worldwide), no one is yet ready to reserve a place in the director's hall of fame for Shyamalan, but, based on the evidence available in Signs, he is maturing nicely. - James Berardinelli