Shyamalan has the touch

Rating: 7/10 (26 August 2003)

Shyamalan is master of orchestrating the buildup of tension and atmosphere. The fact that in the film aliens actually appear just four brief times is a testimony to deft and skilled direction. The same is true of the 6th sense - all that tension and fear, and you only see dead people about four times in 2 hours.
Gibson and Phoenix are an excellent casting choice - they complement each other very well and are thoroughly believable as brothers. Phoenix has the haunted look down pat - just what the film needs.
There's no need to recap the storyline - other reviews have done that already. But it is necessary just to counter some of the criticisms that have come Signs' way. A lot of people out there were griping about the fact that the aliens were quite primitive - having to use ground signs to navigate, and being vulnerable to water. I think this is simplistic - why do people always assume that aliens, if they do exist, are more advanced than we are? Couldn't it be possible that humans are in fact the most advanced life form in the universe?
Shyamalan makes his film more believable by not equipping his aliens with every gadget in the book - and at the end of the day its a film about ordinary people, who are emotionally stretched, reacting and coping with extraordinary events.