Signs

Year: 2002
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Screenplay: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, Cherry Jones, M. Night Shyamalan
Genre: Science-fiction, thriller, drama
Running Time: 107 minutes

Summary: Former preacher Graham Hess (Gibson) lost his faith when his wife died in a car accident, and now works as a farmer a few miles outside Pittsburgh with his younger brother, former minor league baseball player Merrill (Phoenix), and Graham's two young children Morgan (Culkin) and Bo (Breslin).
Waking after a night disturbed by strange noises, the Hess family are shocked to find a large crop circle design in their corn field. Initially putting it down to local pranksters, the family soon discover that there have been reports flooding in from around the world of an unusually high number of crop circles appearing in a brief space of time.
Speculation is rife as to what caused the crop circles, some believing it to be an elaborate publicity stunt, some claiming it is a widespread hoax and others claiming that it marks the end of the world.
Morgan becomes fascinated with a book he buys about UFOs and extra terrestrials. The news reports on the television and radio become increasingly disturbing as strange lights are seen in the sky near the circles and video footage of briefly glimpsed strange creatures surface on the news. It soon becomes apparent that a full-scale alien invasion is under way, and the Hess family are among their targets.

Opinions: M. Night Shyamalan has had an interesting, if very uneaven career. From the highly successful and critically adored The Sixth Sense (1999) to the critically panned The Last Airbender (2010). Shyamalan is at his best when he is dealing with regular people pitted against otherworldly events. This film really has him doing what he does best, and provides an imaginative ground zero view of an alien invasion.
Unlike most films of this type there are no flashy spaceship effects or spectacular battles, or even ray-guns zapping everything in sight. The spaceships are seen briefly in TV news footage and then are basically lights in the sky. The aliens are barely glimpsed throughout the whole movie, and are usually depicted as just noises in the house.
The film features an impressively subdued turn from Mel Gibson as a tormented former preacher who is still stricken with grief and bitterness over the untimely death of his wife. Joaquin Phoenix is also good as the younger brother, who seems to be treated more like an employee than a family member. As the two kids, Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin both provide powerful and affecting performances.
The movie does have it's problems, most notably a ludicrous final revelation about the aliens, although that really comes too late in the day to spoil anything. Also the elements of family drama and alien invasion movie, as well as the film's surprising religious overtones, don't always gel. At times it comes across as a fusion of Ingmar Bergman and Steven Spielberg.
However, this is an intriguing and fascinating film and a cut above most alien invasion movies.

"See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Do you believe that there are no conicidences?"
- Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) philosophises in Signs.



Rory Culkin, Joaquin Phoenix, Mel Gibson and Abigail Breslin watch for Signs

Devil

Year: 2010
Director: John Erick Dowdle
Screenplay: Brian Nelson, from a story by M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Chris Messina, Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem Woodbine, Logan Marshall-Green, Jenny O'Hara, Geoffrey Arand
Running Time: 80 minutes
Genre: horror, supernatural

Summary: In present day Philadelphia five complete strangers enter an elevator in a modern high-rise office block. However, the elevator becomes trapped between the floors. As the security and maintenance staff struggle to release the trapped passengers, the occupants experience intermittent power failures and find that, while they can hear their would-be rescuers through the intercom system, they are unable to be heard by anyone on the outside. As the tension between the passengers increases, a series of bizarre and violent events begin to happen in and around the elevator. As the police, who are investigating the suicide of a man who jumped from the same office block earlier that morning, are called in, it soon turns out that everyone in the elevator has their own dark secrets. In fact it begins to appear that one of the occupants of the elevator is none other than the Devil himself.

Opinions: This film forms the first of a projected trilogy called The Night Chronicles that deals with the supernatural in modern, urban society. The movie is a very effective horror thriller. The supernatural elements are downplayed for the most part, with most of the events in the movie seeming at first to have a completely non-supernatural rationale. Most of the horror and tension comes from the very real fear of being trapped in a confined space with potentially hostile strangers. Also the fact that most of the crucial events in the elevator take place in complete darkness works well. The film alternates between the plight of the trapped passengers and the increasingly desperate attempts of the security, maintenance staff and police in trying to free them. The mostly unknown cast all do well in their roles, and there is a real feeling that anyone can die at any time. A few of the climatic revelations can be guessed well in advance but there are still more than enough surprises to keep this a well-above average shock show.



Calm before the storm: Bojana Novakovic, Jenny O'Hara, Bokeem Woodbine, Logan Marshall-Green and Geoffrey Arend in Devil