A viewed-from-the-basement alien movie

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2005)

M Night Shyamalan is used to take usual and known subjects to make the screenplays of his movies. Sixth sense was a ghosts love story. Unbreakable was a super-hero movie. This is an alien movie. And, unlike any other alien movie, we never see the menace. But this is not quite the fear that the actual War of the worlds gives to us. Signs is REALLY SCARY. It makes you jump of your seat, or maybe fall of it because you are always at the edge. When you are not screaming or bumping, you are laughing, so the few and really funny humor touches are that funny because of the fear around the whole action. Without fear, that humor is just silly. And the players are just another nail in the filmography of Night. Mel Gibson gives a lot sense of sutile performance, just because he moves no muscle of his face. Joaquin Phoenix is a solid brave little bro for Mel, like the protector of the family in the physical sense. And the kids are both enormous, so good that the adults are dwarfs compared to them, specially the little girl, Abigail, who's character became important in the last five minutes of the movie. They said there is no surprise at the end. I say there is, and a big one, one of those surprises that make you want to see this movie again as it's finishing. And it defends one of the basics pillars of Night's movies, the family. Until he did The Village and he killed everybody. Ha ha ha!