The "Birthday Party Video" got such a great reaction from the crowd at the theater back in the day. Glad to see it still has the same power all these years later.
@@grc3rbI was 10 when this movie came out. And I can absolutely say it terrified me beyond belief lol. The corn field scene and the birthday party video in particular haunted my ass for the next year. I couldn't even sleep the night I came back from the theaters, my poor dad got yelled at by my mom for taking me to a scary movie lol but I'm glad he did. Was such a great movie and part of my childhood
7th grade I watched this at a sleepover at a friend's when this first came out on DVD. The birthday video freaked me the Fuck out!!! Jumped out of my skin, heart racing.. I had never been so freaked out by a movie until then.
I love that at the time it was used as a "real" alien video by people on the internet, and since there weren't as many people debunking things at the time it went wild.
Yeah, I remember being disappointed initially at the portrayal of the aliens in terms of design and how much we saw of them. On recent rewatch, I honestly don't care and I think showing more of the aliens would have detracted from the point of the film itself. Shyamalan's best films are about the struggle between what you belief and what is true, even in his most recent film. So yeah, the aliens themselves are the very least of the film even as that plot gives the film its momentum
Honest to god, I feel this was Mel Gibson's best acting in any role he's ever done. He absolutely perfectly portrays this broken, scared man who is at war with himself and his faith. Mel just nails every single line, especially the dry comedic lines and looks. And his acting at the end during the dinner scene makes me tear up every time, such a damn good movie! If only M. Night could bring this level of creativity and cohesiveness back to his films
I agree with you, but I think at the very least it's his most nuanced role. He has to play a lot of layered emotion in this film that you don't often see him play. It's displayed beautifully when he's talking to Ray before he leaves.
11:20 is the most impressive jump scare I’ve ever witnessed. Most of the time a film makes its audience jump by having something enter the frame, but M Night makes something *leaving* the frame jump-worthy and it’s so much more chilling for the fact that you now have no idea where it’s gone
It’s also nice how it’s almost a soft jump scare. A modern movie would have blasted a music sting like in insidious or the conjuring the soft music sting really works well here
I watched this when I was way too young, and I was traumatized by the damn foot in the corn scene. That's it, a fucking FOOT leaving the scene into the corn traumatized me😂
I also think the scares had more impact in the theaters when it came out. something about the analogue-ness of film made the CGI of the creatures less glaring, and the darks seemed darker. it's weird how movies like jurassic park actually look worse in some ways when they're remastered in digital. the early cgi tended to blend better on film and the dynamic range of the lighting always looks less rich. (maybe it's just that most tvs now have way higher brightness or something)
I mean, if they need another reason to watch that film, how's about Steve Carrell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Greg Kinnear, and the late, oh so great, Alan Arkin. That is one incredibly stacked cast!
The thing you may have forgotten is the fact that the uncle can hit HARD. In the scene at the sheriff's office it was pointed out that he had set 5 minor league records, including farthest home run.
Jeez I remember that scene when the alien pops out in the kids birthday, that was one of the most terrifying scenes I've ever seen and it still gives me the chills when I see it. Great reaction 👍
George hit the nail on the head when he said the movie isn't really about aliens. It was marketed as an "alien invasion" thriller, of course, but the aliens are more like a convenient plot device than anything. In fact you could replace the aliens with just about any other big existential threat (a natural disaster, a zombie apocalypse, an asteroid hurtling towards the earth) and alter the details to suit, and it wouldn't change the core of what the story's about at all.
@@Avocado11 That's a running theory with the film. The little girl is described as angelic when she was born and has blessed all the water in the house. There was a claim back in the day that there were allusions to a number of old folktales about demons and devils being unable to open certain types of doors and apparently these were in a book that shyamalan had read when he was a kid, so he put that stuff into this movie. Crop circles were seen as demonic back in the day because it was either a meeting place to practice witchcraft. There were also 'fairy-circles' which is an actual natural phenomenon where this certain type of fungus will spread from a point and create a ring of little mushrooms. So there are a lot of people who think this is actually a movie about demons and not aliens. I think it's fine, either way. The water thing is kinda dumb if it's aliens, but the aliens in most movies don't make much sense if you think about it, so it's fine.
Scene of the family dinner, Mel Gibson talking to his wife for the last time and when Gibson tells god he hates him while holding his son- makes this grown man get sweaty eyes every single time.
The family dinner is one of the most moving in all of the films I've ever seen. Nothing quite as emotional as seeing a father break down as his child cries in the background. The stress of the entire situation congeals in that moment.
This movie has almost nothing to do with aliens💁 It really is about accepting fate, consequences, and being there with and for people you care for. Shamylan in his prime💜
@@barbarusbloodshed6347 If the creatures weren't supposed to be demons, then the aliens are extremely unwise to come to a planet mostly covered with a substance toxic to them. It's like if humans deliberately tried to colonize a planet mostly covered by oceans of hydrofluoric acid.
My favorite Shyamalan movie. That dinner table scene is just outstanding, and no one can play devastation like Mel Gibson. He's a man absolutely terrified for his family, overwhelmed and he can barely hold it together, but he has to be the strong one for all their sakes. That scene gets me every time. (Fun fact: in that scene, they shot Abigail Breslin's coverage first, and they were all amazed at her performance and the actual tears that they all knew they were, for one, off to a fantatstic start, and also that they all had to really bring it next for each their turns in front of the camera.)
This came out my Junior year in highschool, and it was one of the best theatre experiences I’ve ever had. When we got home, my girlfriend at the time called me freaking out because her dog, who never barked, wouldn’t stop barking. It turns out, there were just deer running around her backyard. But still, this movie made her jumpy.
Mel Gibson's character is a priest in the Episcopalian Church, which is basically the American version of the Church of England. Episcopalian priests can marry. Catholic priests cannot.
This was filmed in my hometown of Bucks County, PA! I drove past the field where the house was built (for the film) so many times growing up (I’m 32 now so this was a while ago lol). M. Night loves filming in the Philly area and suburbs where he was raised, so it’s great to see where I’m from represented on the big screen so regularly 😊
2:03 The music here is a direct reference to the works of Bernard Herrmann, who was a frequent collaborator with Hitchcock (a hero of Shyamalan's) and also a composer for Twilight Zone.
I agree, Simone, M. Night peppered this film with enough comedic moments to make the terrifying ones feel extreme. Fantastic score on this one, too. The supper scene is one of the most moving I've ever seen. Mel Gibson's acting is phenomenal. And, really... aren't all of M. Night's movies about family and personal relationships?
3:48 To add to what others have explained: yes, knowing the distance from a city does help. Additionally, it helps give framing for the characters, attitudes, and experiences, as well. For instance, a farmer on the edge of a big city will often have different experiences from a one in "farm country". If it's done well, natural stereotyping helps to build a "wider frame" without limiting the characters or story. In this story, it is important because a priest and priest's family in a small community is typically very well known across the immediately neighboring towns. So, as a viewer, you can assume that almost everyone that Gibson meets in the film will have an established personal relationship with him. Towns like where Gibson is typically have 1-2 churches, and possibly another in the neighboring town (depending on their population and sprawl). Finally, in smaller rural towns, prior to about the 2000s, most priests were lifers (I don't know if that holds today). So, for Gibson to leave the church when he's got a family immediately tells American viewers that something bad must have happened to cause his separation. So the geography and his profession are a hint before they ever show you that his wife is gone. It can actually prime the audience to know what type of missing piece to look for almost immediately (missing spouse or kid).
3:38 - yes, it actually helps a lot to place it. Think of it this way: The fastest speed limit you'll see on the interstate highway when you get to more rural areas (at least on the east coast) is 65 miles per hour. If you round that down to 60 miles per hour, that's 1 mile per minute. So you can think of it as a 45 minute drive on the highway from Philadelphia.
And we understand the general region of Midwest to near old New England, so that is a fairly different culture and natural ecosystem than if they were outside Portland or Albuquerque or Des Moines or Atlanta, and that distance from a city being more rural than suburban or urban.
Also, the description of where you are can change depending on the audience. If I'm talking to someone outside of the United States, I might say that I was born in a city about an hour south of San Francisco, which is a very famous city they're likely to recognize. They'll have that as a general frame of reference - west coast of the U.S., in California. But, if I'm talking to someone who lives in California, it's like zooming in on a map and now I might be able to mention other cities they'd recognize, not just San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, or San Diego. I can talk about Fresno, San Jose, Santa Barbara, Napa, Bakersfield, Santa Monica, Anaheim, Santa Cruz, etc. Parts of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home were filmed in the SF Bay Area and locals will recognize the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but people who don't live there might have no idea where that is, so "2 hours outside of San Francisco" helps establish an area.
Shyamalan is from Pennsylvania and still lives there. He has centered a bunch of his movies in Pennsylvania. Signs, The Village, Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense, The Happening, Lady in the Water. All in Penn.
My favorite Shyamalan movie. Roger Ebert had the greatest quote I've heard about this movie. He said something along the lines of "when you realize the title has nothing to do with aliens, you realize the brilliance of it."
My favourite Shyamalan movie will forever be The Village (2004). It offer some genuine eerie moments, has several hauntingly beautiful scenes, gorgeous cinematography by the master himself Roger Deakins, and an truly amazing score by James Newton Howard. The cast is great, especially Bryce Dallas Howard in her breakout lead performance. Too bad the movie was marketed as a horror movie when, in reality, it's a beautiful love story. Easily Shyamalan's most underrated movie.
Exactly, I loved the Village as a love story and the fact that it still gets crap for not being a good horror movie is a shame. In fact I loved Lady in the Water because it's a love of myth and ancient stories.
I agree that there were parts of The Village that moved me more than any other of his movies.. but I just get so frustrated with his 3rd acts a lot. seems like he's always trying to recapture the magic of the 6th sense ending but never pulling it off
@@swish007 This is true, forever going for that plot twist that isn't always needed. But regarding The Village, it doesn't make it a bad movie (nor is it perfect). People who claim so need to watch more movies.
@@swish007 That is true. He does tend to have trouble in the third act of his movies and the pay off just ends up being some kind of twist that really wasn't necessary.
What's interesting about The Village is that people talk about the twist but it was telegraphed way early in the movie when a character is telling a story and mentions a dumpster. If you were paying attention the twist wasn't a twist.
You can really tell that this is Shyamalan's first post September 11th film. That sense of unfolding panic and confusion is something a lot of people lived 'live on TV'.
Not sure how true it is, but apparently the first day of planned filming to start was when 9/11 occured which if true definitely can be seen in the film as a whole
3:35 Yes, it helps since it gives us an idea roughly where in the country this is taking place, as well as what kind of area it's going to be in (rural countryside, suburbia, inner city, etc). The only way I can think of to make this movie sensible as a sci-fi movie, where aliens "allergic" to water show up to a planet where over 70% of the surface is dangerous to them, is that it's a nod to War of the Worlds and how the aliens were defeated in that story (purposely keeping it vague, in case George/Simone hasn't seen the Tom Cruise movie and they decide to watch it for the channel one day). Of course, it's Shyamalan, and therefore a massively unlikely stretch that he did something like that intentionally, but it's the only way I can make it make sense in my head.
The tough one for me is when Texas is portrayed in film. Texas is so large and vast and has large areas of grass, but it's always looks like desert, cowboys, hats, and large belts. The number of times I had a tourist ask me if I have a horse and, if so, how many? Is astounding. 🤠🐎
The water thing really bothered me the first time I saw it too. I found myself coming up with ways that this seemingly unlikely scenario could be plausible... and while I could, it was still a bit of a stretch. Like these might not be the "real" aliens, just the stupid scout/shock troops. Maybe they were there for the mineral resources, and just wanted to analyze the lifeforms on the planet before the "real" invasion. Again, though, even that has a lot of holes.
As our understanding of the universe grows, it's becoming more and more apparent that water is not a rare resource and in fact is found just about everywhere with a temperature low enough. Life, or more specifically complex life, may well be *far* more rare, and indeed to the best of our current knowledge has only ever occurred on this planet. In that light it would make sense for the aliens to target a planet with life despite it having so much water, if you can invent a reason for them to be abducting complex life forms and _then_ make the even bigger leap to figure out how a species with such a severe allergy to water ever existed in the first place. Like George & Simone said, Signs fails miserably as a science fiction movie, but it wasn't meant to be a science fiction movie anyway. (Best somewhat plausible explanation I can think of for the alien angle: the alien species had "found" us via radio transmissions and subtle changes to the Earth's atmosphere indicative of life, and sent these forces on a purely scouting mission to collect samples of us for further analysis and to determine if we were (or were likely to become) a threat to them. Although this still requires a massive suspension of disbelief over why they didn't just collect humans from the many arid regions we live in, and why they could protect themselves from the dangers of space while traveling here but hadn't quite puzzled out a raincoat & rubber boots.)
I love that moment too. Once I read someone criticize the screenplay, saying that Merrill should have yelled "Vamos", as they were in Brazil and speaking Portuguese. I call it good characterization--no way in heck a jock, gas station cashier like Merrill would think to distinguish between Spanish and Portuguese in a moment like that.
I grew up in a rural farm town in New Mexico where i had 7 corn fields within 1 mile (1.5k?) of my home including one across the street. Needless to say this movie terrified me in my childhood
"She's so cute!" Abigail Breslin has always been adorable, and has grown into quite the talented actress. Little Miss Sunshine for another early role (with dear departed Alan Arkin), and the hilarious horror comedy TV show Scream Queens.
Here's my theory about the aliens' vulnerability to water and rain: the crop circles they left were as much about weather patterns (and avoiding bodies of water) as they were about picking human targets. They were studying inclement weather from their ships and used the crop circles to mark places where it wouldn't rain or snow on Invasion Day. And since it was more of a quick raid than a full-scale invasion, they could time it so that they get done and leave before the rain starts in those areas.
good point, but water burns them on contact to the equllivent of a powerfull acid. Faster than concentrated hydrochloric acid. So in their advanced wisdom, they pillage a planet that is 71% water, and abduct people that are basically 50-70% water.
I also think it was an actual pollutant in the water that hurt the aliens, rather than the water itself. Mainly because Bo kept drawing attention to the water tasting bad & being contaminated.
@@VerneditheSnail Yeah that’s always how I read it too. Especially with the whole tin foil hat conspiracy jokes, it made me think of how people have conspiracies about why fluoride is being added to water.
If you like that little girl, then you have to watch Little Miss Sunshine. She stars in it, the cast and story are great and it's both touching and hilarious.
People would give this movie crap for its “bad” twist. But I honestly think this the M night’s best film. The sense of dread felt by just this family is very compelling.
@@ApesAmongUs "I know we're deathly allergic to water but let's go hand-to-hand-gas some apes that consist of 60 % water on a planet with a surface that's 70% water where it precipitates all the time, and let's do it in the nude! but first let's walk around a bit and send freaky radio signals to scare some kids for no strategic reason, also let's let the apes know we're here by making circles in their food"
@@Eidlones I think that infuriates me more than the water thing. I am very conflicted about this movie. I can only describe it at the best movie in the world with a dumb plot.
Also, I believe the town scenes were filmed in Newtown Pennsylvania, and the farm was actually a set built on Delaware Valley community college. It’s a farming school.
It wasn't just water that bothered these things. Keep in mind that the water that the little girl didn't drink, she said was contaminated. So all that water hanging around in glasses was water that she tasted something in.
He was an Anglican priest. They can get married. It is very similar to Catholicism. Married Anglican priest with kids have converted to Catholicism and transitioned to being catholic priests.
Them beating the alien with the bat and water reminds me of The Simpsons halloween episode where Moe chases the aliens away with a board with a nail in it. Then Kang and Kodos warn the audience that humanity will eventually make a board with a nail so big it will destroy them all.
@ 19:20 that's a test pattern. Before you guys were born TV stopped broadcasting at midnight and the test pattern showed all night. It may have just been an American thing, I dunno.
This is such a well-crafted movie. Visually, there are so many interesting choices, like the impressive restraint shown in the use of the alien. Even the final reveal is obscured, the alien backlit and cast in shadow. Not only do the limited appearances serve to make it scarier (as the unknown always is), but it works as a device as well, pushing the alien into the background and driving home the point that the family drama is the real story. The acting feels natural and real, I believe it completely. The dinner table scene where Mel Gibson is breaking down into tears while still trying to go through the motions of eating just floored me. The somewhat silly premise of the water unfortunately kept a lot of people from seeing how otherwise impressive this movie is.
I remember going to see this movie when it first came out. I had walked to the movie theater ( a 30 minute walk) for a 9:00 pm showing, knowing nothing about the movie. The movie was great but the walk home was terrifying. Every little sound had me so freaked out.
I can't watch the end of this movie without this thought jumping into my head. The alien gets knocked over, the water pours on its shoulder and burns it, and it pans around the room to the other glasses. And all I can do at that moment is look at the alien and think "It was at this moment he knew... He fucked up."
The opening credits are an omage to Alfred Hitchcock! One of the greatest directors ever. Yall really should watch some of his films, Rear window, the Birds or Rope!
Delaware Valley College (now Delaware Valley University) is an agricultural school located in New Britain/Doylestown (Bucks County), Pennsylvania. The farmhouse was built, and the corn planted, by the film's production company on property owned by the University. It is located about 25 minutes from my house. We are about 30 or 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia, so the "45 minutes" outside of Philadelphia is roughly accurate. The town the characters visit is actually Newtown, Pennsylvania (State Street, I think). Also in Bucks County, Newtown is roughly 30-40 minutes from the property where the farmhouse was built. So in reality, "going into town" in the movie was a bit of a trip. The lake mentioned by Ray is likely Lake Galena in Peace Valley Park, part of the Bucks County Recreation system--just a few minutes from the school.
location outside of large cities helps alot, The US has very distinct geographic topography. when a movie shows corn fields it is quick to assume Nebraska or Iowa as those states are major agriculture states. Pennsylvania is an agricultural state but not one you immediately think of.
They're in a rural area but they're a fairly short drive away from three of the biggest, most important cities in the United States and one of the most densely populated areas in the country. The President of the United States is being briefed on the alien threat less than 200 miles away. New Yorkers are panicking and looting in NYC about 90 miles away. With rural roads, it might take you about 2-3 hours to get to some of these places obeying the speed limit, but if the aliens start glassing cities and sending tripods down to exterminate everyone they find with their deathrays, they'll be at your farmhouse pretty soon. Even if they're very thorough and burning humans out in a grid pattern, they might still arrive in a day or two. If you were in Nebraska or Iowa, you'd feel a lot more safe even if there might be some flying saucers over major cities like Denver or Chicago. There's a whole lot of nothing between you and there, and you'd have a lot more time to try and evacuate to somewhere else the aliens aren't going to immediately go.
They had the technology to travel across the galaxy but didn't bring weapons or armor. Or even tools necessary to break down a wooden door. And they didn't plan on the planet being cover 70% with water where it often falls from the sky when that's their fatal weakness.
George was correct near the end of the movie: these aren't aliens, they're demons. There is a lot of historical lore around demons, evil spirits, and (later) vampires which are shown in this movie. Demons cannot enter a structure unless they are invited or it weakens them, which is why they couldn't open any doors such as the pantry or the front door of the house. Demons are harmed by moving water which is considered to be a very Earthly substance and this is true for Dungeons and Dragons vampires as well, which can be seen in the Fifth Edition Monster Manual. The lights in the sky are the signs of the apocalypse and also act as a red herring as though they are alien ships. When referring to the end of time, Jesus mentions "signs in the sky" and "nations in perplexity" in Luke 21:25-26, which is shown here that no one really recognizes that these are demons. However, Shyamalan indeed made this a movie about classic aliens, body snatchers who just want to poison us. Aliens of this kind were ridiculous in their conception because they come down to Earth completely naked, they don't understand how a simple door handle works, and one of the most abundant substances on the planet harms them. When you view the aliens as demons the story makes a lot more sense.
@@TheCrazyCloonPerhaps a tad. But the other option is to believe that these aliens could master interstellar flight but still decided to do a ground invasion wearing no armor on a planet that is covered in a substance that kills them all so they could just get up into melee range of humans to poison them. And that seems slightly ridiculous.
@@johnwolfe7596If an inferior being saw us operating a GPS, they’d probably be equally surprised to see so many of us follow it out into the desert, break down and die. I’ve always assumed these aliens were desperate and vastly under resourced. Maybe even refugees. Just stole a bunch of ships and got the hell out of dodge. Some of these questions have pretty plausible answers. And most are very human centric in their presumptions. For instance, we know nothing about their biology. Maybe water is literally the only thing their biology is vulnerable to and until this moment, they’ve never had to combat it. If the whole “invasion” journey is last minute, with Earth maybe not even being the ultimate destination, at what point would they choose to *invent* armor just to do this one thing? The plan may have always been to go in, get what they need, and get out before anyone realizes how easy it is to kill them here. But the assumption that they would need armor is a human centric one. It’s based solely on *our* experience of needing some form of it on a daily basis. But we’re a completely different species. There’s no reason that a species with a different biology than us would necessarily evolve the concept of clothing and armor. Humans are used to stuff getting in our skin and it hurting, but another species could evolve a biological solution to that problem long before intelligence evolved, leading to a situation where the beings in question simply don’t need to think about it almost at all. Hell, for all we know, what we’re looking at *is* the only armor that’s available to them and it’s the material itself that has this weakness, with the creature inside it not being anthropomorphic, and being much more vulnerable to Earth’s elements than whatever suit they had on hand. Maybe it’s an avatar and not one single alien died in the invasion while they got exactly what they came for. There’s many ways to crack this egg because everything we’re assuming is not based on actual knowledge of radically different species, but based on other movies we’ve seen before. So we’re basically just coming up with our own fictions and then deciding what we invented doesn’t make sense. But that’s not Signs’ problem because the movie doesn’t tell you anything with certitude about the aliens. It doesn’t give you rules and then go on to violate them. It doesn’t give you the rules period.
@@johnwolfe7596 People came up with this theory because the movie as presented is really dumb, and people wanted to come up with reasons to justify why they liked it anyway (on the strength of the performances and emotional tones). Apparently the director denies the theory is accurate. The fact that this was really meant to be just an alien invasion story makes it even worse, when fans came up with a much better one.
A lot of people hated the end of this movie because of how the aliens can be killed so easily. In my mind its very reminiscent of the war of the worlds, especially the book and jeff waynes musical version.
@@Eidlones Really? I think the ending of "War of the Worlds" (any version) makes the most scientific sense of any alien invasion story. At the very least, it's entirely plausible.
@@Johnny_Socko I don't see how a species capable of interstellar travel wouldn't know about germs. It worked back then, cause it was a relatively new discovery.
@@Eidlones They were, ironically, TOO advanced. They erradicated all pathogens in their planet millennia ago, so they forget about them. Or at least is the most sensible theory i heard about that issue.
The weakness to water makes sense if you compare it to humans. Humans go to locations that could easily potentially kill them if they have reason such as trying to acquire something valuable. If that something is more valuable than the potential risk of danger or death in the long run than they simply go there. Risk assessment, basically, which is really not that different then explorers going somewhere for something tnn at has disease, the elements, animals, other uncontacted humans that could all kill them
Yes, Americans can place where things are located with the references of distances from major cities. Philadelphia is a pretty easy one. It's the sixth largest city in the US today, and the largest city in Pennsylvania, the country's 5th most populous state. Philadelphia was even our nation's capital long ago and had a great deal of historical significance before that in colonial times. It's part of the Boston-Washington corridor where a lot of major cities are fairly close together (by American reckoning) along the Atlantic coast: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. Keep going south from there and you'll hit Richmond but there isn't as much population density between Washington and Richmond like the rest of the chain.
Another vote to put Little Miss Sunshine on your list if you haven't seen it already! So good! Like this one, all the main actors are great & so is the story. Excellent family drama in my opinion! ❤
This is probably my favorite movie with a bad plot. The water plot device is simply intellectually inexcusable. Brilliantly advanced cloaking on their giant, hovering, potentially interstellar spaceships, yet didn't think to bring parkas to a water planet. Innovation simply doesn't evolve that far without basic scientific knowledge. It's just silly. The reclaiming faith thing isn't my cup of tea, but it's a good hook for emotional engagement. None of it makes a whole lot of sense, but it still ends up being a suitable enough vehicle for some great acting and well constructed tension.
I feel the same as George in that I don’t feel this movie is about Aliens. I feel it is a journey about a man who through tragedy lost his faith and his way. The aliens are a means of propelling this man’s journey to rediscover his faith and happiness in life. I think this movie gets trashed far too much. I really enjoy this and it’s one of my go to movies.
I love this movie because alien invasion movies are always about scientists or the military trying to defeat them. This movie instead focuses on this one rural family and how they cope with massive, frightening events. The acting is top notch. A couple of things are dumb (alien susceptibility to water) but the rest of it is so good that I don't care.
People often dog on the whole water thing and yeah it’s kind of silly when you think about it but they really miss out on just how effective the movie is at telling it’s story: a man regaining his hope and faith
"What machine can bend a corn stalk over without breaking it?" Follow up question; why would aliens give a fuck if they broke a corn stalk? Why would they leave them in crops fields that can be totally cut down within hours?
Simone and George, in regards to your question about 45 miles outside of Philadelphia: If a movie told you it was 50 miles outside of Saskatchewan, that would tell you something about the part of the country you are in right?
Something I always appreciated: the newscaster used in this and I believe three other Shyamalan movies is Ukee Washington, a long-time Philadelphia tv news personality.
Signs is a very underrated movie, and it’s considered one of my favorites from M. Night Shyamalan’s filmography! I would like to see your reactions to Unbreakable, The Village, Split and Glass :)
It's really more about them being Demons, like George said. The little girl is routinely attributed to being "like an Angel" and Angelic, so her drinking and leaving the water could be construed as her blessing that water and *that* is why it hurt the "aliens" / demons. It also fits in with the greater theme of faith, fate, etc.
The Twilight zone had some great minds with a lot of ideas. In the writing room for that show. Those ideas went on to ispire no shortage of other writers
That wasn't a Fallout symbol on the TV. In the olden days, TV stations went off the Air in the wee hours. They stopped transmitting programing. Instead, they transmitted a test pattern for adjusting TV monitors and cameras. Alternatively, they transmitted color bars, also for adjusting video equipment. What you mistook as a fallout symbol was just a test pattern and tone.
M Night Shamalan does the same thing Rod Sterling used to do with "The Twilight Zone": he dresses his stories in other genres. "The Sixth Sense" was not a ghost story, "Signs" is not an alien invasion story (they don't even stay very long), "Unbreakable" was not a superhero movie, and "The Village" is not a gothic costume drama. Shyamalan makes films about spirituality and human connection. The films are just costumed in other genres. I love how George 'gets' that this is about family and faith, not horror. The mom was psychic; she was connected to her kids and family. She dreamed what her son looked like. The daughter has her mother's psychic sense; she dreams about the aliens, about her brother's possible deaths. But mainly it's the mother's attempts to give her family, through her minister husband, the information that will allow her family to survive the brief visit by aliens. Even 'Ray', who intuited that the aliens didn't like water, had some psychic sensibility, maybe because it helps in his veterinary work treating animals. 'Fun' Facts: -Shyamalan lives in the state of Pennsylvania and shoots all his films within the state (an exception might be his most recent film, "Old". -The first day of shooting for this film was the day of the Twin Towers attack, 9/11. It definitely set a tone for a film that included a planetary menace. -The day before Shyamalan shot the sequence of his car packed up to leave for the lake, Shyamal had attended observations for the death of his beloved grandfather.
It amazes me how many people miss the ending. Everything was for a reason. Her bizarre thing with water. The fact he had asthma. The fact that Ray fell asleep at the wheel randomly for no reason so that she could get those messages to Graham. Baseball bat. The fact that Merrill wouldn’t stop swinging at everything. Everything that that entire family encountered throughout their entire lives, was so they could survive the alien invasion.
If you insist on seeking for meaning in random events, the risk is that you will eventually make one up. This is not a movie about finding faith. It is a movie that comments on "God's ridiculous plans". The manuscript of this movie is as ridiculous as most religious text in this world. "Swing away." Why does someone need to suffer, so that someone else will prosper? Why kill a beloved wife to send a message? Why would water, always present in the atmosphere, be a poison to "them"? No, this is not a religiously inspiring movie, quite the opposite.
@@bodan1196Yeah, and that’s totally why he became a reverend again at the end of the movie, it’s DEFINITELY because the message of the film is that faith is a tragic thing. I’m not even very religious, but even I can see that the movie is religiously inspiring; the point isn’t that she had to die, it’s that her death wasn’t for nothing. The only other alternative was that there is no god and there are such things as coincidence, and in that case that’s by far the more depressing outcome, because then she really did die for no reason. Either way she’s still gonna die even if there isn’t some greater plan to it, so you’re point is invalid. Bottom line, just watch the movie and leave your personal philosophies out of it. Even if you’re an atheist or something, you just gotta except that in the world of this movie God is real, and in their world he is a positive force.
I think its been all but confirmed. he absolutely would have blessed his own well, and it was a common practice to have men of faith bless new wells in small town. the radio says the solution was discovered in the middle east (ie the holy land). plus the overall theme that its all real (ie their religion)
The "Birthday Party Video" got such a great reaction from the crowd at the theater back in the day. Glad to see it still has the same power all these years later.
It legit freaked me out when I watched it at home as a kid. I thought it was only me over reacting
@@grc3rbI was 10 when this movie came out. And I can absolutely say it terrified me beyond belief lol. The corn field scene and the birthday party video in particular haunted my ass for the next year. I couldn't even sleep the night I came back from the theaters, my poor dad got yelled at by my mom for taking me to a scary movie lol but I'm glad he did. Was such a great movie and part of my childhood
7th grade I watched this at a sleepover at a friend's when this first came out on DVD. The birthday video freaked me the Fuck out!!! Jumped out of my skin, heart racing.. I had never been so freaked out by a movie until then.
I love that at the time it was used as a "real" alien video by people on the internet, and since there weren't as many people debunking things at the time it went wild.
Yes, I had the same experience. It was so freaky.
George nailed it at minute 20. The aliens were just a vehicle to draw out the real story of grief, faith and the loss of faith and getting it back
Yes, y'all are very good at analyzing to the heart of the movie, and it was good that you nailed this one so quickly. 👏🏾
Ikr people go into this movie expecting a alien creature feature when it's much more than that.
Yeah, I remember being disappointed initially at the portrayal of the aliens in terms of design and how much we saw of them.
On recent rewatch, I honestly don't care and I think showing more of the aliens would have detracted from the point of the film itself.
Shyamalan's best films are about the struggle between what you belief and what is true, even in his most recent film.
So yeah, the aliens themselves are the very least of the film even as that plot gives the film its momentum
I'd say they were probably Camrys.
Exactly, I'm not even religious but I enjoy this type of storytelling.
Honest to god, I feel this was Mel Gibson's best acting in any role he's ever done. He absolutely perfectly portrays this broken, scared man who is at war with himself and his faith.
Mel just nails every single line, especially the dry comedic lines and looks. And his acting at the end during the dinner scene makes me tear up every time, such a damn good movie!
If only M. Night could bring this level of creativity and cohesiveness back to his films
I don’t know man, his acting in the Patriot was amazing. Especially when it was one of the scenes where he had to be grieving from losing a son.
Braveheart was his masterpiece.
You fool.
It was clearly his role as Rocky the Rhode Island Red in Chicken Run.
Sad but true that often some of the the most talented artist are often deeply flawed people.
I agree with you, but I think at the very least it's his most nuanced role. He has to play a lot of layered emotion in this film that you don't often see him play. It's displayed beautifully when he's talking to Ray before he leaves.
11:20 is the most impressive jump scare I’ve ever witnessed. Most of the time a film makes its audience jump by having something enter the frame, but M Night makes something *leaving* the frame jump-worthy and it’s so much more chilling for the fact that you now have no idea where it’s gone
Wholeheartedly agree. It is the ONLY time as an adult I got goosebumps from a movie.
It’s also nice how it’s almost a soft jump scare. A modern movie would have blasted a music sting like in insidious or the conjuring the soft music sting really works well here
I watched this when I was way too young, and I was traumatized by the damn foot in the corn scene. That's it, a fucking FOOT leaving the scene into the corn traumatized me😂
I also think the scares had more impact in the theaters when it came out. something about the analogue-ness of film made the CGI of the creatures less glaring, and the darks seemed darker. it's weird how movies like jurassic park actually look worse in some ways when they're remastered in digital. the early cgi tended to blend better on film and the dynamic range of the lighting always looks less rich. (maybe it's just that most tvs now have way higher brightness or something)
ala; War Of The Worlds when the martian is seen outside the window.
Simone basically hyperventilating on the jump scare is the cherry on top of the entire reaction!
Little Miss Sunshine is a must see if you wish to see more Abigail Breslin in her breakout role
Seconded
Thirded
I mean, if they need another reason to watch that film, how's about Steve Carrell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Greg Kinnear, and the late, oh so great, Alan Arkin. That is one incredibly stacked cast!
Honestly, Little Miss Sunshine is so in your wheelhouse. Please consider watching it.
4th'd
The thing you may have forgotten is the fact that the uncle can hit HARD. In the scene at the sheriff's office it was pointed out that he had set 5 minor league records, including farthest home run.
Yeah, a normal human would not be shrugging off those blows.
Simone, now imagine being 10-11 years old and watching Signs for the first time and you watch that birthday party scene. 😂 I was terrified for weeks.
What really didn't help for me was we had corn growing around my house when this movie came out. I was 9 at the time
I saw it when I was 6...Still scared of ut
Try being 6
Jeez I remember that scene when the alien pops out in the kids birthday, that was one of the most terrifying scenes I've ever seen and it still gives me the chills when I see it. Great reaction 👍
George hit the nail on the head when he said the movie isn't really about aliens. It was marketed as an "alien invasion" thriller, of course, but the aliens are more like a convenient plot device than anything. In fact you could replace the aliens with just about any other big existential threat (a natural disaster, a zombie apocalypse, an asteroid hurtling towards the earth) and alter the details to suit, and it wouldn't change the core of what the story's about at all.
Could've replaced the aliens with demons to tie in with religion and hellfire getting doused with "holy" water.
@@Avocado11 That's a running theory with the film. The little girl is described as angelic when she was born and has blessed all the water in the house. There was a claim back in the day that there were allusions to a number of old folktales about demons and devils being unable to open certain types of doors and apparently these were in a book that shyamalan had read when he was a kid, so he put that stuff into this movie. Crop circles were seen as demonic back in the day because it was either a meeting place to practice witchcraft. There were also 'fairy-circles' which is an actual natural phenomenon where this certain type of fungus will spread from a point and create a ring of little mushrooms.
So there are a lot of people who think this is actually a movie about demons and not aliens.
I think it's fine, either way. The water thing is kinda dumb if it's aliens, but the aliens in most movies don't make much sense if you think about it, so it's fine.
Scene of the family dinner, Mel Gibson talking to his wife for the last time and when Gibson tells god he hates him while holding his son- makes this grown man get sweaty eyes every single time.
The family dinner is one of the most moving in all of the films I've ever seen. Nothing quite as emotional as seeing a father break down as his child cries in the background. The stress of the entire situation congeals in that moment.
The girl at the pharmacy is a young Merritt Weaver!! A fantastic character actress!
The sheriff is the amazing Cherry Jones. Such a great cast!
This movie has almost nothing to do with aliens💁 It really is about accepting fate, consequences, and being there with and for people you care for. Shamylan in his prime💜
Exactly and the aliens are supposed to be demons who get exorcised by the holy blessed water, ala miracle.
@@harish123az oh wow that’s interesting
@@DeeSee25 no, it's not... it's just dumb. ^^
@@barbarusbloodshed6347 If the creatures weren't supposed to be demons, then the aliens are extremely unwise to come to a planet mostly covered with a substance toxic to them. It's like if humans deliberately tried to colonize a planet mostly covered by oceans of hydrofluoric acid.
*Shyamalan
My favorite Shyamalan movie. That dinner table scene is just outstanding, and no one can play devastation like Mel Gibson. He's a man absolutely terrified for his family, overwhelmed and he can barely hold it together, but he has to be the strong one for all their sakes. That scene gets me every time.
(Fun fact: in that scene, they shot Abigail Breslin's coverage first, and they were all amazed at her performance and the actual tears that they all knew they were, for one, off to a fantatstic start, and also that they all had to really bring it next for each their turns in front of the camera.)
Great description.
This came out my Junior year in highschool, and it was one of the best theatre experiences I’ve ever had. When we got home, my girlfriend at the time called me freaking out because her dog, who never barked, wouldn’t stop barking. It turns out, there were just deer running around her backyard. But still, this movie made her jumpy.
One of the things that helps the movie in its scare factor is the fact that we're seeing the alien arrival through an isolated family's perspective
Mel Gibson's character is a priest in the Episcopalian Church, which is basically the American version of the Church of England. Episcopalian priests can marry. Catholic priests cannot.
This was filmed in my hometown of Bucks County, PA! I drove past the field where the house was built (for the film) so many times growing up (I’m 32 now so this was a while ago lol). M. Night loves filming in the Philly area and suburbs where he was raised, so it’s great to see where I’m from represented on the big screen so regularly 😊
2:03 The music here is a direct reference to the works of Bernard Herrmann, who was a frequent collaborator with Hitchcock (a hero of Shyamalan's) and also a composer for Twilight Zone.
I agree, Simone, M. Night peppered this film with enough comedic moments to make the terrifying ones feel extreme. Fantastic score on this one, too. The supper scene is one of the most moving I've ever seen. Mel Gibson's acting is phenomenal. And, really... aren't all of M. Night's movies about family and personal relationships?
"There's nothing wrong with your television set" is from The Outer Limits.
3:48 To add to what others have explained: yes, knowing the distance from a city does help. Additionally, it helps give framing for the characters, attitudes, and experiences, as well. For instance, a farmer on the edge of a big city will often have different experiences from a one in "farm country". If it's done well, natural stereotyping helps to build a "wider frame" without limiting the characters or story. In this story, it is important because a priest and priest's family in a small community is typically very well known across the immediately neighboring towns. So, as a viewer, you can assume that almost everyone that Gibson meets in the film will have an established personal relationship with him. Towns like where Gibson is typically have 1-2 churches, and possibly another in the neighboring town (depending on their population and sprawl). Finally, in smaller rural towns, prior to about the 2000s, most priests were lifers (I don't know if that holds today). So, for Gibson to leave the church when he's got a family immediately tells American viewers that something bad must have happened to cause his separation. So the geography and his profession are a hint before they ever show you that his wife is gone. It can actually prime the audience to know what type of missing piece to look for almost immediately (missing spouse or kid).
George, you got it right, Its about Mel Gibson's struggle with faith, and the aliens are just a catalyst. M Night said that in an interview
3:38 - yes, it actually helps a lot to place it. Think of it this way: The fastest speed limit you'll see on the interstate highway when you get to more rural areas (at least on the east coast) is 65 miles per hour. If you round that down to 60 miles per hour, that's 1 mile per minute. So you can think of it as a 45 minute drive on the highway from Philadelphia.
And we understand the general region of Midwest to near old New England, so that is a fairly different culture and natural ecosystem than if they were outside Portland or Albuquerque or Des Moines or Atlanta, and that distance from a city being more rural than suburban or urban.
Also, the description of where you are can change depending on the audience. If I'm talking to someone outside of the United States, I might say that I was born in a city about an hour south of San Francisco, which is a very famous city they're likely to recognize. They'll have that as a general frame of reference - west coast of the U.S., in California. But, if I'm talking to someone who lives in California, it's like zooming in on a map and now I might be able to mention other cities they'd recognize, not just San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, or San Diego. I can talk about Fresno, San Jose, Santa Barbara, Napa, Bakersfield, Santa Monica, Anaheim, Santa Cruz, etc. Parts of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home were filmed in the SF Bay Area and locals will recognize the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but people who don't live there might have no idea where that is, so "2 hours outside of San Francisco" helps establish an area.
Shyamalan is from Pennsylvania and still lives there. He has centered a bunch of his movies in Pennsylvania. Signs, The Village, Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense, The Happening, Lady in the Water. All in Penn.
Some rural areas of Texas have speed limits of 85!
That birthday party video where the Alien walks by was the scariest thing in theaters 😂
My favorite Shyamalan movie. Roger Ebert had the greatest quote I've heard about this movie. He said something along the lines of "when you realize the title has nothing to do with aliens, you realize the brilliance of it."
This movie scarred me as a child, my dad would impersonate the clicking noises the aliens did haha
My favourite Shyamalan movie will forever be The Village (2004). It offer some genuine eerie moments, has several hauntingly beautiful scenes, gorgeous cinematography by the master himself Roger Deakins, and an truly amazing score by James Newton Howard. The cast is great, especially Bryce Dallas Howard in her breakout lead performance. Too bad the movie was marketed as a horror movie when, in reality, it's a beautiful love story. Easily Shyamalan's most underrated movie.
Exactly, I loved the Village as a love story and the fact that it still gets crap for not being a good horror movie is a shame. In fact I loved Lady in the Water because it's a love of myth and ancient stories.
I agree that there were parts of The Village that moved me more than any other of his movies.. but I just get so frustrated with his 3rd acts a lot. seems like he's always trying to recapture the magic of the 6th sense ending but never pulling it off
@@swish007 This is true, forever going for that plot twist that isn't always needed. But regarding The Village, it doesn't make it a bad movie (nor is it perfect). People who claim so need to watch more movies.
@@swish007 That is true. He does tend to have trouble in the third act of his movies and the pay off just ends up being some kind of twist that really wasn't necessary.
What's interesting about The Village is that people talk about the twist but it was telegraphed way early in the movie when a character is telling a story and mentions a dumpster. If you were paying attention the twist wasn't a twist.
You can really tell that this is Shyamalan's first post September 11th film. That sense of unfolding panic and confusion is something a lot of people lived 'live on TV'.
Not sure how true it is, but apparently the first day of planned filming to start was when 9/11 occured which if true definitely can be seen in the film as a whole
9:29 "it was a car accident, and he was involved, and she died."
called it simone. 👍🏼
Hello Mr Lebowski! Nice to see you here. Love your compilations!
@@logankean7336 thank you!
3:35 Yes, it helps since it gives us an idea roughly where in the country this is taking place, as well as what kind of area it's going to be in (rural countryside, suburbia, inner city, etc).
The only way I can think of to make this movie sensible as a sci-fi movie, where aliens "allergic" to water show up to a planet where over 70% of the surface is dangerous to them, is that it's a nod to War of the Worlds and how the aliens were defeated in that story (purposely keeping it vague, in case George/Simone hasn't seen the Tom Cruise movie and they decide to watch it for the channel one day). Of course, it's Shyamalan, and therefore a massively unlikely stretch that he did something like that intentionally, but it's the only way I can make it make sense in my head.
Just throwing out there that there's also the George Pal version of War of the Worlds from 1953 that shouldn't be overlooked.
The tough one for me is when Texas is portrayed in film. Texas is so large and vast and has large areas of grass, but it's always looks like desert, cowboys, hats, and large belts. The number of times I had a tourist ask me if I have a horse and, if so, how many?
Is astounding. 🤠🐎
The water thing really bothered me the first time I saw it too. I found myself coming up with ways that this seemingly unlikely scenario could be plausible... and while I could, it was still a bit of a stretch. Like these might not be the "real" aliens, just the stupid scout/shock troops. Maybe they were there for the mineral resources, and just wanted to analyze the lifeforms on the planet before the "real" invasion.
Again, though, even that has a lot of holes.
As our understanding of the universe grows, it's becoming more and more apparent that water is not a rare resource and in fact is found just about everywhere with a temperature low enough. Life, or more specifically complex life, may well be *far* more rare, and indeed to the best of our current knowledge has only ever occurred on this planet. In that light it would make sense for the aliens to target a planet with life despite it having so much water, if you can invent a reason for them to be abducting complex life forms and _then_ make the even bigger leap to figure out how a species with such a severe allergy to water ever existed in the first place.
Like George & Simone said, Signs fails miserably as a science fiction movie, but it wasn't meant to be a science fiction movie anyway.
(Best somewhat plausible explanation I can think of for the alien angle: the alien species had "found" us via radio transmissions and subtle changes to the Earth's atmosphere indicative of life, and sent these forces on a purely scouting mission to collect samples of us for further analysis and to determine if we were (or were likely to become) a threat to them. Although this still requires a massive suspension of disbelief over why they didn't just collect humans from the many arid regions we live in, and why they could protect themselves from the dangers of space while traveling here but hadn't quite puzzled out a raincoat & rubber boots.)
@Trashcan-Man yeah if water can kill you? Why invade a planet that is made up of 70 percent water?
Maybe someone has already commented on this, but fun fact: the tiny little girl is Abigail Breslin, who would later star in the movie Zombieland.
I loved Merrill talking to the kids on TV - "Vamonos!" 😂😂😂😂
I love that moment too. Once I read someone criticize the screenplay, saying that Merrill should have yelled "Vamos", as they were in Brazil and speaking Portuguese. I call it good characterization--no way in heck a jock, gas station cashier like Merrill would think to distinguish between Spanish and Portuguese in a moment like that.
I grew up in a rural farm town in New Mexico where i had 7 corn fields within 1 mile (1.5k?) of my home including one across the street. Needless to say this movie terrified me in my childhood
"She's so cute!"
Abigail Breslin has always been adorable, and has grown into quite the talented actress. Little Miss Sunshine for another early role (with dear departed Alan Arkin), and the hilarious horror comedy TV show Scream Queens.
Abigail Breslin was also very good in the horror movie "Haunter" that came out in 2013.
Here's my theory about the aliens' vulnerability to water and rain: the crop circles they left were as much about weather patterns (and avoiding bodies of water) as they were about picking human targets. They were studying inclement weather from their ships and used the crop circles to mark places where it wouldn't rain or snow on Invasion Day. And since it was more of a quick raid than a full-scale invasion, they could time it so that they get done and leave before the rain starts in those areas.
good point, but water burns them on contact to the equllivent of a powerfull acid. Faster than concentrated hydrochloric acid. So in their advanced wisdom, they pillage a planet that is 71% water, and abduct people that are basically 50-70% water.
I also think it was an actual pollutant in the water that hurt the aliens, rather than the water itself. Mainly because Bo kept drawing attention to the water tasting bad & being contaminated.
@@VerneditheSnail Yeah that’s always how I read it too. Especially with the whole tin foil hat conspiracy jokes, it made me think of how people have conspiracies about why fluoride is being added to water.
Maybe they're allergic to fluoride
@@VerneditheSnail Nah that was just a huge coincidence. Or rather a sign from God which helped him in his struggle with his faith.
If you like that little girl, then you have to watch Little Miss Sunshine. She stars in it, the cast and story are great and it's both touching and hilarious.
People would give this movie crap for its “bad” twist. But I honestly think this the M night’s best film. The sense of dread felt by just this family is very compelling.
The twist part is fine. The problem is that it relies on the whole weakness to water thing. That's just so dumb.
@ApesAmongUs Also the whole "god killed my wife to tell my brother to hit the alien with a bat" thing
@@ApesAmongUs "I know we're deathly allergic to water but let's go hand-to-hand-gas some apes that consist of 60 % water on a planet with a surface that's 70% water where it precipitates all the time, and let's do it in the nude! but first let's walk around a bit and send freaky radio signals to scare some kids for no strategic reason, also let's let the apes know we're here by making circles in their food"
Agreed, the twist never bothered me, and this movie as a whole is so brilliantly made.
@@Eidlones I think that infuriates me more than the water thing.
I am very conflicted about this movie. I can only describe it at the best movie in the world with a dumb plot.
2:10 That's The Outer Limits, George.
Both original series are well worth your time.
The little girl is an "angel" she was blessing the water. It was "holy water" not just any water. But the demons would avoid all water just in case.
Also, I believe the town scenes were filmed in Newtown Pennsylvania, and the farm was actually a set built on Delaware Valley community college. It’s a farming school.
It wasn't just water that bothered these things. Keep in mind that the water that the little girl didn't drink, she said was contaminated. So all that water hanging around in glasses was water that she tasted something in.
DAMN!!! poor Simone... almost hyperventilated when the alien walked across the screen 15:50
He was an Anglican priest. They can get married. It is very similar to Catholicism. Married Anglican priest with kids have converted to Catholicism and transitioned to being catholic priests.
I'm a grown ass man and this movie still creeps me out as it did when i saw it as a child. After Unbreakable this is Night's best movie IMO
Personally, I've gotta go with Sixth Sense...
@@docmetal8194 I totally get it and I understand why everybody loves it, but I just personally never watched Six Sense as much as I did Signs
Love this movie. Always been one of my top 10. Mel's acting was so good
“It’s not like walking, it’s like skittering.”
No, pretty sure that it is indeed Joaquin.
By the way, you guys have already seen the little girl Abigail Breslin (mostly) grown up, in 'Zombieland'.
Them beating the alien with the bat and water reminds me of The Simpsons halloween episode where Moe chases the aliens away with a board with a nail in it. Then Kang and Kodos warn the audience that humanity will eventually make a board with a nail so big it will destroy them all.
@ 19:20 that's a test pattern. Before you guys were born TV stopped broadcasting at midnight and the test pattern showed all night. It may have just been an American thing, I dunno.
This is such a well-crafted movie. Visually, there are so many interesting choices, like the impressive restraint shown in the use of the alien. Even the final reveal is obscured, the alien backlit and cast in shadow. Not only do the limited appearances serve to make it scarier (as the unknown always is), but it works as a device as well, pushing the alien into the background and driving home the point that the family drama is the real story. The acting feels natural and real, I believe it completely. The dinner table scene where Mel Gibson is breaking down into tears while still trying to go through the motions of eating just floored me. The somewhat silly premise of the water unfortunately kept a lot of people from seeing how otherwise impressive this movie is.
That Scene When The Alien Walked By Haunted Me For Years When I was a kid.
I remember going to see this movie when it first came out. I had walked to the movie theater ( a 30 minute walk) for a 9:00 pm showing, knowing nothing about the movie. The movie was great but the walk home was terrifying. Every little sound had me so freaked out.
I’m dying when you said “45 miles to show they are far away”. That’s a drive to work every day😅
yes, My thought was to show how close it was to a major city, not far from a dense population
1:34 M. Night Shyamalan is *_not_* creative enough to make a movie that'd subvert expectations like that.
14:23 "...eat some fruit or something."
if you ever get a chance to use this line I highly recommend it.
I can't watch the end of this movie without this thought jumping into my head. The alien gets knocked over, the water pours on its shoulder and burns it, and it pans around the room to the other glasses. And all I can do at that moment is look at the alien and think "It was at this moment he knew... He fucked up."
Should've worn a spacesuit.
Morgan: I wish you were my Dad.
You should have shown Uncle Merrill’s response to that.
Why is that alien scene at the birthday party so effective 😂 I still get chills coming across it.
Human in a bad alien costume, it looks so silly.
The opening credits are an omage to Alfred Hitchcock! One of the greatest directors ever. Yall really should watch some of his films, Rear window, the Birds or Rope!
Appert from the alien story, i like the idea of it being demons & holy water
Bucks County, PA and most towns that have more rural settings in Pennsylvania are really quaint settings. You'd both love them.
2:55 do not watch The Happening (2008)
Protecting them. Thank you.
Delaware Valley College (now Delaware Valley University) is an agricultural school located in New Britain/Doylestown (Bucks County), Pennsylvania. The farmhouse was built, and the corn planted, by the film's production company on property owned by the University. It is located about 25 minutes from my house. We are about 30 or 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia, so the "45 minutes" outside of Philadelphia is roughly accurate. The town the characters visit is actually Newtown, Pennsylvania (State Street, I think). Also in Bucks County, Newtown is roughly 30-40 minutes from the property where the farmhouse was built. So in reality, "going into town" in the movie was a bit of a trip. The lake mentioned by Ray is likely Lake Galena in Peace Valley Park, part of the Bucks County Recreation system--just a few minutes from the school.
location outside of large cities helps alot, The US has very distinct geographic topography. when a movie shows corn fields it is quick to assume Nebraska or Iowa as those states are major agriculture states. Pennsylvania is an agricultural state but not one you immediately think of.
They're in a rural area but they're a fairly short drive away from three of the biggest, most important cities in the United States and one of the most densely populated areas in the country. The President of the United States is being briefed on the alien threat less than 200 miles away. New Yorkers are panicking and looting in NYC about 90 miles away. With rural roads, it might take you about 2-3 hours to get to some of these places obeying the speed limit, but if the aliens start glassing cities and sending tripods down to exterminate everyone they find with their deathrays, they'll be at your farmhouse pretty soon. Even if they're very thorough and burning humans out in a grid pattern, they might still arrive in a day or two. If you were in Nebraska or Iowa, you'd feel a lot more safe even if there might be some flying saucers over major cities like Denver or Chicago. There's a whole lot of nothing between you and there, and you'd have a lot more time to try and evacuate to somewhere else the aliens aren't going to immediately go.
They had the technology to travel across the galaxy but didn't bring weapons or armor. Or even tools necessary to break down a wooden door. And they didn't plan on the planet being cover 70% with water where it often falls from the sky when that's their fatal weakness.
Don't forget about the fact that the entire atmosphere is saturated with water. This movie is repulsively overrated...
George was correct near the end of the movie: these aren't aliens, they're demons. There is a lot of historical lore around demons, evil spirits, and (later) vampires which are shown in this movie. Demons cannot enter a structure unless they are invited or it weakens them, which is why they couldn't open any doors such as the pantry or the front door of the house. Demons are harmed by moving water which is considered to be a very Earthly substance and this is true for Dungeons and Dragons vampires as well, which can be seen in the Fifth Edition Monster Manual.
The lights in the sky are the signs of the apocalypse and also act as a red herring as though they are alien ships. When referring to the end of time, Jesus mentions "signs in the sky" and "nations in perplexity" in Luke 21:25-26, which is shown here that no one really recognizes that these are demons. However, Shyamalan indeed made this a movie about classic aliens, body snatchers who just want to poison us. Aliens of this kind were ridiculous in their conception because they come down to Earth completely naked, they don't understand how a simple door handle works, and one of the most abundant substances on the planet harms them.
When you view the aliens as demons the story makes a lot more sense.
Eh, this feels like forcing your own narrative
@@TheCrazyCloonPerhaps a tad. But the other option is to believe that these aliens could master interstellar flight but still decided to do a ground invasion wearing no armor on a planet that is covered in a substance that kills them all so they could just get up into melee range of humans to poison them.
And that seems slightly ridiculous.
@@johnwolfe7596If an inferior being saw us operating a GPS, they’d probably be equally surprised to see so many of us follow it out into the desert, break down and die.
I’ve always assumed these aliens were desperate and vastly under resourced. Maybe even refugees. Just stole a bunch of ships and got the hell out of dodge. Some of these questions have pretty plausible answers. And most are very human centric in their presumptions.
For instance, we know nothing about their biology. Maybe water is literally the only thing their biology is vulnerable to and until this moment, they’ve never had to combat it. If the whole “invasion” journey is last minute, with Earth maybe not even being the ultimate destination, at what point would they choose to *invent* armor just to do this one thing? The plan may have always been to go in, get what they need, and get out before anyone realizes how easy it is to kill them here.
But the assumption that they would need armor is a human centric one. It’s based solely on *our* experience of needing some form of it on a daily basis. But we’re a completely different species. There’s no reason that a species with a different biology than us would necessarily evolve the concept of clothing and armor. Humans are used to stuff getting in our skin and it hurting, but another species could evolve a biological solution to that problem long before intelligence evolved, leading to a situation where the beings in question simply don’t need to think about it almost at all.
Hell, for all we know, what we’re looking at *is* the only armor that’s available to them and it’s the material itself that has this weakness, with the creature inside it not being anthropomorphic, and being much more vulnerable to Earth’s elements than whatever suit they had on hand. Maybe it’s an avatar and not one single alien died in the invasion while they got exactly what they came for.
There’s many ways to crack this egg because everything we’re assuming is not based on actual knowledge of radically different species, but based on other movies we’ve seen before. So we’re basically just coming up with our own fictions and then deciding what we invented doesn’t make sense. But that’s not Signs’ problem because the movie doesn’t tell you anything with certitude about the aliens. It doesn’t give you rules and then go on to violate them. It doesn’t give you the rules period.
@@johnwolfe7596 People came up with this theory because the movie as presented is really dumb, and people wanted to come up with reasons to justify why they liked it anyway (on the strength of the performances and emotional tones). Apparently the director denies the theory is accurate. The fact that this was really meant to be just an alien invasion story makes it even worse, when fans came up with a much better one.
he confirmed it in an interview he did in 2006 with somethingaweful. that was a battle between heaven and hell and the water was in fact holy water.
A lot of people hated the end of this movie because of how the aliens can be killed so easily. In my mind its very reminiscent of the war of the worlds, especially the book and jeff waynes musical version.
Which doesn't hold up in today's modern age.
@@Eidlones Really? I think the ending of "War of the Worlds" (any version) makes the most scientific sense of any alien invasion story. At the very least, it's entirely plausible.
@@Johnny_Socko I don't see how a species capable of interstellar travel wouldn't know about germs. It worked back then, cause it was a relatively new discovery.
@@Eidlones They were, ironically, TOO advanced. They erradicated all pathogens in their planet millennia ago, so they forget about them. Or at least is the most sensible theory i heard about that issue.
The weakness to water makes sense if you compare it to humans. Humans go to locations that could easily potentially kill them if they have reason such as trying to acquire something valuable. If that something is more valuable than the potential risk of danger or death in the long run than they simply go there. Risk assessment, basically, which is really not that different then explorers going somewhere for something tnn at has disease, the elements, animals, other uncontacted humans that could all kill them
This one, Unbreakable and The Village are perfect movies in my opinion.
Yes, Americans can place where things are located with the references of distances from major cities. Philadelphia is a pretty easy one. It's the sixth largest city in the US today, and the largest city in Pennsylvania, the country's 5th most populous state. Philadelphia was even our nation's capital long ago and had a great deal of historical significance before that in colonial times. It's part of the Boston-Washington corridor where a lot of major cities are fairly close together (by American reckoning) along the Atlantic coast: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. Keep going south from there and you'll hit Richmond but there isn't as much population density between Washington and Richmond like the rest of the chain.
Another vote to put Little Miss Sunshine on your list if you haven't seen it already! So good! Like this one, all the main actors are great & so is the story. Excellent family drama in my opinion! ❤
You cant cut out the girls full line! "There's a monster outside my room can I have a glass of water"
15:43 The amount of pure fear I felt as a little kid when I first watched this truly scarred me for life
20+ years later and I still have to mentally brace myself for this scene 😑
This is probably my favorite movie with a bad plot. The water plot device is simply intellectually inexcusable. Brilliantly advanced cloaking on their giant, hovering, potentially interstellar spaceships, yet didn't think to bring parkas to a water planet. Innovation simply doesn't evolve that far without basic scientific knowledge. It's just silly. The reclaiming faith thing isn't my cup of tea, but it's a good hook for emotional engagement. None of it makes a whole lot of sense, but it still ends up being a suitable enough vehicle for some great acting and well constructed tension.
Another great one from M. Night Shyamalan is The Village. Joaquin Phoenix is in that one too.
Our atmosphere itself would melt their skin. They also have the tech to travel the universe but they never thought to invent water proof space suits.
I feel the same as George in that I don’t feel this movie is about Aliens. I feel it is a journey about a man who through tragedy lost his faith and his way. The aliens are a means of propelling this man’s journey to rediscover his faith and happiness in life. I think this movie gets trashed far too much. I really enjoy this and it’s one of my go to movies.
Lol, I live in that town. Newtown Pa. During filming, they had to hide Gibson from fans, in the fire dept.
I love this movie because alien invasion movies are always about scientists or the military trying to defeat them. This movie instead focuses on this one rural family and how they cope with massive, frightening events. The acting is top notch. A couple of things are dumb (alien susceptibility to water) but the rest of it is so good that I don't care.
Little Abigail Breslin. You might have seen her in Little Miss Sunshine or Zombieland or the TV Show Scream Queens.
People often dog on the whole water thing and yeah it’s kind of silly when you think about it but they really miss out on just how effective the movie is at telling it’s story: a man regaining his hope and faith
"What machine can bend a corn stalk over without breaking it?" Follow up question; why would aliens give a fuck if they broke a corn stalk? Why would they leave them in crops fields that can be totally cut down within hours?
Simone and George, in regards to your question about 45 miles outside of Philadelphia: If a movie told you it was 50 miles outside of Saskatchewan, that would tell you something about the part of the country you are in right?
They use kilometers up there in Canada.
45 miles = 72.42 km
I can’t see this movies beginning without thinking about the beginning of Scary Movie 3 beginning. One of the best spoof scenes.
I share George's love of the series Rome would really enjoy a Simone reaction with George as her guide. Here's to hoping.
It's a shame HBO couldn't afford to keep Rome going with Game of Thrones.
Something I always appreciated: the newscaster used in this and I believe three other Shyamalan movies is Ukee Washington, a long-time Philadelphia tv news personality.
The most unrealistic part of this movie is that a farmer doesn't own a shotgun lmao
A double barrel and a box of shells would have been a game changer
Signs is a very underrated movie, and it’s considered one of my favorites from M. Night Shyamalan’s filmography! I would like to see your reactions to Unbreakable, The Village, Split and Glass :)
'It's got boost packs!' Someone has been Starfielding.
It's really more about them being Demons, like George said. The little girl is routinely attributed to being "like an Angel" and Angelic, so her drinking and leaving the water could be construed as her blessing that water and *that* is why it hurt the "aliens" / demons. It also fits in with the greater theme of faith, fate, etc.
its actually simpler. a priest would have blessed his own well. and it was common practice for them to bless new wells also.
@@Ozai75 nope. Aliens make crop circles and show up in UFO’s. This theory has been debunked and was only made up from fans.
The Twilight zone had some great minds with a lot of ideas. In the writing room for that show. Those ideas went on to ispire no shortage of other writers
That wasn't a Fallout symbol on the TV. In the olden days, TV stations went off the Air in the wee hours. They stopped transmitting programing. Instead, they transmitted a test pattern for adjusting TV monitors and cameras. Alternatively, they transmitted color bars, also for adjusting video equipment. What you mistook as a fallout symbol was just a test pattern and tone.
M Night Shamalan does the same thing Rod Sterling used to do with "The Twilight Zone": he dresses his stories in other genres. "The Sixth Sense" was not a ghost story, "Signs" is not an alien invasion story (they don't even stay very long), "Unbreakable" was not a superhero movie, and "The Village" is not a gothic costume drama. Shyamalan makes films about spirituality and human connection. The films are just costumed in other genres.
I love how George 'gets' that this is about family and faith, not horror.
The mom was psychic; she was connected to her kids and family. She dreamed what her son looked like. The daughter has her mother's psychic sense; she dreams about the aliens, about her brother's possible deaths. But mainly it's the mother's attempts to give her family, through her minister husband, the information that will allow her family to survive the brief visit by aliens. Even 'Ray', who intuited that the aliens didn't like water, had some psychic sensibility, maybe because it helps in his veterinary work treating animals.
'Fun' Facts:
-Shyamalan lives in the state of Pennsylvania and shoots all his films within the state (an exception might be his most recent film, "Old".
-The first day of shooting for this film was the day of the Twin Towers attack, 9/11. It definitely set a tone for a film that included a planetary menace.
-The day before Shyamalan shot the sequence of his car packed up to leave for the lake, Shyamal had attended observations for the death of his beloved grandfather.
Dude, y’all gotta watch scary movie 3 this Halloween, it mostly spoofs this movie. Love y’all’s reactions. 👏👏🥰
yall gotta watch The Village now!
It amazes me how many people miss the ending. Everything was for a reason. Her bizarre thing with water. The fact he had asthma. The fact that Ray fell asleep at the wheel randomly for no reason so that she could get those messages to Graham. Baseball bat. The fact that Merrill wouldn’t stop swinging at everything. Everything that that entire family encountered throughout their entire lives, was so they could survive the alien invasion.
If you insist on seeking for meaning in random events, the risk is that you will eventually make one up.
This is not a movie about finding faith. It is a movie that comments on "God's ridiculous plans".
The manuscript of this movie is as ridiculous as most religious text in this world. "Swing away."
Why does someone need to suffer, so that someone else will prosper? Why kill a beloved wife to
send a message? Why would water, always present in the atmosphere, be a poison to "them"?
No, this is not a religiously inspiring movie, quite the opposite.
@@bodan1196Yeah, and that’s totally why he became a reverend again at the end of the movie, it’s DEFINITELY because the message of the film is that faith is a tragic thing. I’m not even very religious, but even I can see that the movie is religiously inspiring; the point isn’t that she had to die, it’s that her death wasn’t for nothing. The only other alternative was that there is no god and there are such things as coincidence, and in that case that’s by far the more depressing outcome, because then she really did die for no reason. Either way she’s still gonna die even if there isn’t some greater plan to it, so you’re point is invalid. Bottom line, just watch the movie and leave your personal philosophies out of it. Even if you’re an atheist or something, you just gotta except that in the world of this movie God is real, and in their world he is a positive force.
@@bodan1196 Or maybe it’s subjective and if you want to not believe the director that I’m right then you can believe whatever you want.
@@williamhardee8863 Thank all that is good, that that God only exist in that movie.
@@scotter23 Touché.
Mel Gibson is one of the greatest actors ever. No one can cry like him.
He's a nut, but a very talented one and back in his youth, a drop dead gorgeous one.
@@benjalucian1515 Him and 99.9% of actors.
@@1920sBuffaloGuy Doesn't seem to be healthy to be very good at not being yourself.
My favorite theory about this movie is that those are in fact demons, and the reason the water works is because the water is being blessed.
I think its been all but confirmed. he absolutely would have blessed his own well, and it was a common practice to have men of faith bless new wells in small town. the radio says the solution was discovered in the middle east (ie the holy land). plus the overall theme that its all real (ie their religion)
I take that back. he actually DID confirm it in a 2006 interview with SomethingAweful.
"Tom, I'll need a ride home.."
🤣
I cant watch this anymore without hearing that line!! if you know, you know!!
Not only does Mel Gibson nail his performance, he also nails every board on the windows.