Signs (2002) - There is no one watching out for us. We are all on our own.

Okay. I am very biased about this movie. This might be one of my favorite movies I've ever seen. Nothing has ever scared me as much as this movie has. My dad rented it and we watched it as a family when it came out. So 2002, I would have been 10, my sister was 12. We were WAY too young for this movie. For the time, this was some of the scariest imagery around and it was so incredibly realistic. My sister and I had to share a bed for at least 4 nights after we watched this movie cause we had such bad nightmares. Whenever anyone asks me about this movie, I tell them it's the scariest movie I've ever seen because honestly I've never felt that afraid as I did after seeing this. This is a complete spoiler entry because as one of my favorite movies I feel an obligation to speak on every piece of it. Now, M. Night Shaymalan was known mostly for The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable at the time. After seeing Signs I was a fan. I saw The Village after - which is another movie that wasn't incredibly popular among audiences, but I also loved. I know there are a lot of things about Signs that are cheesy and predictable, but just remember 2002 was a different time. And for a 10 year old - this was monumental. So as a whole, and as expected from Mel Gibson, this movie has a very religious theme to it. None the less it still deals with extraterrestrial and impossibilities. The movie begins with the understanding that Mel Gibson's character, Graham, has lost his faith in God after his wife was killed by a vehicle. He has resigned as a priest because he thinks if God was truly there for him, his wife wouldn't have died in such a tragic accident. So Graham has his two children, Morgan ( Rory Culkin) and Bo (Abigial Breslin). His brother Merril (Joaquin Pheonix) had moved in with them to help with the kids and the farm after Graham's wife died. The movie begins with the kids finding weird crop patterns in their corn fields. The crops aren't ran over and broken with a vehicle, they're just perfectly bent and with oversight they are arranged in patterns. Their animals start acting strange. They talk to the police, who sort of just assume it's a hoax by some neighborhood kids. Which they kind of let go until they start seeing more similar situations in other countries on the news. For plot purposes (that critics LOVE to pick apart later) Bo keeps taking glasses of water and saying they\re contaminated, or have dust in them. So she leaves these cups all around the house and no one cleans them up. Which - i mean feeds the plot, but - a depressed single father in distress probably wouldn't be cleaning up dishes either. In the middle of the night, Bo wakes her dad up and asks for a glass of water (which she has plenty of because they're all over the house). That's not what alarms her father though, but instead - that there was someone outside her window. Graham and Merril believe her because the dog is barking and the motion lights turn on. They run around screaming to try to scared what they believe is some delinquent teenager, but once they both finally cast their eyes on the figure they know it's not a teenager on the roof. Police obviously think nothing of it. They go from taking it seriously in the middle of the night, to kind of writing it off completely.

When the family takes a trip to town to relax everyone, we learn that Merril used to be a baseball player. He hit a record homerun and he was recognized for it, has the bat on the wall. But he also had the record for the most strike outs in the league - so he was made a mockery of. "Felt wrong not to swing," he says. On the way home, Morgan pulls out Bo's old baby monitor that he had stolen to track radio signals because he is terrified that all of these things mean more than what his peers are leading on. They collect a signal and hear what sounds like two creatures communicating. "This is exactly what the nerds want," Merril says. Which almost exactly mirrors what Graham says when more crop circles are appearing on the TV. "See this is why we don't watch TV, people get obsessed." The family is determined to cross out the possibility that something beyond their understanding might be happening. Which ultimately grows the suspense and fear. The more they resist, the more that the things happening begin to frighten them. Graham hears something in the fields in the middle of the night an goes out to investigate. No matter how much he is trying to deny that he doesn't believe in what's happening, he is still scared.

"WE AREN'T GOING TO CALL THE AUTHORITIES. YOU'RE NOT GOING TO GET FAMOUS," he says shaking. Then he hears walking around the crops. He runs. Drops the flashlight. Kicks it back on. And what does he see but a slimey green leg crawl into the crops. I cannot tell you how fucking fast I would run, if I didn't just immediately pass out from fear. This is when Graham finally decides that this is a result of something they don't understand. At that's what creates the fear in the movie. Is the unknown. We know it's an alien movie, but we are encouraged to believe it's all nonsense for the majority of the movie. While watching more footage of UFO lights and crop circles, there is an absolutely perfect exchange between Mel and Joaquin. It's more interesting to me especially because we know Mel Gibson as an extremely religious person - so to even be cast as a man who would think outside of God's plan, is just brilliant. Merril asks Graham what's going to happen, because he confides in him and he is seeking comfort. A comfort that Graham cannot provide because he lost his faith. I feel it necessary to include because even if you can't stand the movie, you cannot deny how impacting this quote is. "People break down into two groups: 1. They experience something lucky. It's more than luck, more than co-incidence. They see it as a sign. Evidence. That there is someone out there watching out for them. Or 2. They see it as pure luck. A happy turn of chance. These people are looking at these 14 lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation is 50/50. It could be bad, it could be good. But deep down they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear. There are a lot of people in group one. They see those 14 lights and they're looking at a miracle. Deep down they feel that whatever is going to happen, that there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope." He asks his brother, "What kind of person are you? Are you someone that sees signs? Sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Is it possible that there are no co-incidences." It's absolutely beautiful. I think it can apply to anyone. And i think about that quote often. I was raised as an Irish Catholic gal. I was an altar girl for 7 years. I was baptised, communionised, reconciled, and confirmed. I left the church on my own - and against my parent's better judgement. I just had too many questions and there was too much about the church that I couldn't agree with. I will always believe in a higher power though. It's interesting also because even as a horror fan - to believe in ghosts, means you believe in the after life. To believe in Satan or the devil. It means you believe in God to some extent. To what God - is not important. I just didn't want to be confined to one God - especially Catholic.

The next day, Graham receives a phone call that didn't really say much - but he somehow assumed it was Ray Reddy (played by M. Night Shaymalan of course) the town veterinarian. Ray was also responsible for killing Graham's wife. He had worked long hours and fell asleep at the wheel and had ran into her while she was out walking and pinned her against a parked truck. Obviously the two don't have an incredible relationship, but the town is small. I also believe as a reverend, Graham still believes in forgiveness. Even though he had killed his wife, it was an accident, and he doesn't really place Ray responsible. Ray is packed up prepared to leave because he had encountered an alien in his house and locked him in the pantry. He had heard a rumor that the aliens don't like water - so he was headed to a lake. He drives off and advises Graham not to go in his pantry. Which, you know, of course he does. After encountering an alien himself again, Graham returns home to give his family an ultimatum. They can either go to a lake, as Ray suggested, or stay home and wait it out. Graham is out voted, so they begin to start to board up the doors and windows in their house. Some of these scenes are comical because they are boarding up doors that open up the opposite way, so really, what was the point? Graham says, "they seem to have trouble with pantry doors," which ultimately doesn't end up being true. They believe they have enough time to have one last meal and they cook each of their favorite meals. However, when dinner is ready everyone is terrified and doesn't begin to eat. Bo suggests saying a prayer, and Graham responds with rage. "I am not wasting one more second of my life on prayer." It says so much in one sentence. It makes everyone cry including himself. He is so angry at God still for losing his wife, and now for putting his family in complete and unavoidable danger. See, Graham obviously used to be someone that believed in signs and miracles but since his wife was murdered - he gave up on his faith and is left enraged and resentful. However the night has to carry on, as the baby monitor picks up signals of the aliens. Their shadows cross the boarded up windows. And finally they hear them on the roof, which they forgot to board up. So they resort to the basement. Now obviously it's not safe to assume the aliens are stupid. It's not safe to assume they are just harvesting the planet for resources. The aliens are hostile and they are after the human race. It's not really clear why these aliens chose this family, this house, or even those crops to lay signs on. But it's what happened. It's unclear whether the rest of the world is dealing with the same invasion. The radio signals are all lost. They wedge an axe underneath the handle so it's not able to be opened (turns out aliens can open door handles). While hiding, Morgan ends up next to a coal chute in the basement. Where one of the aliens has camouflaged and tries to strangle him. Rescued by his uncle and father they cover the chute with bags of dog food. However, Morgan suffers from severe asthma and this triggers a bad attack. Graham tries his best to calm his anxiety and get him to breathe normally while yelling at God for doing this to him. They finally all calm down and fall asleep. Nothing more happens in the night, but Graham and Merril know they have to go upstairs to get Morgans epi-pen and medication or else he may stop breathing. They turn on the baby monitor, and no signals are picked up. They go up, the coast seems clear. They lay Morgan on the couch and pull the TV into the living room so the kids can relax and watch something to take their minds off the awful night they just experienced. And in a perfectly filmed scene, Graham pulls the TV into the living room - and in the reflection stands an alien dangling Morgan in his arm. The alien is obviously threatened. And interestingly enough it's the alien from Ray's pantry. The news revealed that the aliens had left but they possibly left behind the dead or wounded. Which is the alien that Graham chopped the fingers off. He found them. There is one of him and at the very least Graham and Merill seem larger. But the alien still stands his ground. Morgan is passed out from complete anxiety and fear. The alien points his wrist towards Morgan's face and points a claw that shoots out poison into Morgan's face. Graham remembers the baseball bat on the wall and demands that Merril starts swinging at the alien. When his wife was pinned against the truck she had said, "Tell Graham to see, tell Merril to swing away." Graham had originally passed this exchange off as his wifes nerve endings firing off in her brain - causing her to spew some nonsense. But it wasn't. So Merril grabs the bat and swings and the alien drops Morgan. Graham quickly retrieves him off the ground. The alien runs into the fireplace and knocks a bunch of glasses of water off that Bo had left laying around. Turns out aliens are harmed by water. Co-incidence? Maybe. It was an obvious set up, but I still think it's clever because kids do that shit all the time. I did it all the time when I was her age. Maybe that's why it felt more realistic to me. Merril continues to smash the alien into the glasses of water until it's completely defeated. Graham brings Morgan outside with his epi-pen and shoots him up. He closes his eyes and says, "His lungs were closed. His lungs were closed. No poison got in. No poison got in." Waiting for any response from Morgan. Eventually he wakes up because his lungs WERE closed. Co-incidence? Co-incidence that the bat was on the wall for Merril? Co-incidence for the glasses of water? When Morgan wakes up it brings the viewer to a conclusion. Obviously all of these "co-incidences" were plot points designed for the movie to work out the way that it did. It seems cheesy. But are there not things like that constantly that happen? Things seem too good to be true. Something like being in the wrong place 2 minutes after something awful happened. Something like missing your alarm or calling in sick when something terrible happens at work? It seems cheesy but there is an element of realism to all of this. They set this up yeah, but I still believe it's clever. This movie is perfectly cast and acted as well. All the characters blend together and their relationships are entirely believable. The movie has less to do with aliens and alien invasion. I mean, it's an obvious metaphor for what type of person are you. Do you believe in co-incidence or do you believe things happen for a reason. It's a reasonable premise, and I thought it was executed very well. This will always be one of my favorite movies because it makes you question who you are as a person. If you skipped to the bottom and have not seen this movie, You must. I didn't give it justice.