high school play

Rating: 3/10 (15 March 2005)

I'd expect higher production values of a summer blockbuster styled movie. Everything from the costuming to the sets to the dreadful monster costumes could easily have come from - and fit the budget of - a typical high school production. Literally, there is nothing in this movie that could not be easily replicated on a stage, especially if you had a trapdoor.
As for the actual plot, it's like a slumber party scare. Although I didn't know the ending before I saw the movie, I figured it out the instant I saw a secretive tribe of elders meeting.
This movie is really meant to be a morality play. It's meant to pose a question about utopias and whether we should retreat from the modern world, and furthermore how do we keep out the influence of the modern world after that retreat. Some people criticized Signs as a religious themed morality play instead of a sci-fi movie; I'm wondering if this movie is arguing for atheism instead of religion. It shows how religion and superstition keep people in line and keep people from wandering off the path, like the expression that religion is the opiate of the masses.
At any rate, whether you're actually looking for a morality play or whether you're seduced by the false belief that this is a thrill a minute horror movie, it is to be assiduously avoided.