Creates a palpable, foreboding sense of mystery but feels fragmented and fairly weak.

Rating: 6/10 (21 February 2018)

What 'Signs (2002)' does really well is create a palpably foreboding sense of mystery, especially in its opening moments and in a handful of suspenseful sequences wherein members of the focal family almost come face to face with the extraterrestrial threat, but it often fails to connect the dots in particularly meaningful ways leading to a piece that feels fragmented and ultimately fairly weak on the story side of things. The locked-in perspective is refreshing, with events feeling all the more real since they're experienced as we'd experience them if they were to occur, and at times the screenplay is nuanced enough that the audience is allowed to fill in the blanks, though bizarrely there are often jarringly poor lines and even worse line-readings often representing clunky and wholly unnecessary exposition. The religious themes end up coming across as heavy-handed, however, even though it is interesting to tackle the subject of faith using a science-fiction language, and the final act's revelation is simply an excuse for the many coincidences of the finale. 6/10