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Rating: 8/10 (27 January 2019)

Seeing various discussions take place online over Glass (2019),I realised that despite seeing the superb Unbreakable (2000),I've not seen anything else by auteur M. Night Shyamalan! Sighting an ICM Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge the same time Glass came out,I decided to follow the signs.
View on the film:
Cementing themes which still remain active across his credits, co-star/writer/directing auteur M. Night Shyamalan reunites with Sixth Sense cinematographer Tak Fujimoto for an invasion on psychological Thriller. Confining the Hess family to the farmhouse for the majority of the title, Shyamalan & Fujimoto mark the alien invasion with an excellent use of sounds from hissing radios and a baby monitor,to creaks of floorboards and bangs against locked doors. Backed by regular composer James Newton Howard's slithering score, Shyamalan seeps a atmosphere of intense paranoia dripping from ultra-stylised extended long shots spanning the dark corners of the house,and icy reflections in objects of the invaders.
Beginning the filming stage of production just after 9/11, the screenplay by Shyamalan expands the crisis of faith/hope from his past work into a reflection of the era, via the loss that the troubled family (a recurring theme in his credits)are pinned by leading to a fight for them to each re-find their faith, whilst fighting aliens. Although the use of water (which was a motif in Unbreakable, and would continue in Lady in the Water (2006)) in a possible nod to The Day of the Triffids hurts the intelligence the aliens were given the appearance of possessing,Shyamalan makes this flaw easy to sign off on,thanks to the corkscrew tension of the Hess's finding themselves having to fight back, in complete isolation. Reuniting for The Village (2004), Joaquin Phoenix gives a terrific turn as the worn-down Merrill in an outstanding ensemble cast, which includes Rory Culkin and (in her debut) Abigail Breslin as sharp-eyed kids who spot the warnings, and a simmering with sorrow Mel Gibson as Rev. Graham Hess, who must fight to find the faith to protect his family, by following the signs.