I’m turning into an old cynic – two reviews on the trot where I haven’t raved about a film. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
I found Signs to be quite a disappointment. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I was sort of waiting for the shocks, the chills, and the gasp at the twist at the end – none of which came, and the film was over almost as soon as it began. M. Night Shyamalan did an amazing job on Sixth Sense, a fair job on Unbreakable, but Signs – pretty average, I’d say.
Not that there was anything that much wrong with it – the acting was fine, special effects (such as they were) were fine – but somehow it didn’t hit the spot for me. I don’t think I jumped or got freaked out once, and the scenes that were either pitch black or just focussed on a flashlight seemed entirely for effect and just dragged on. Maybe it’s because I was sitting in front of the fire (Summer? yeah right!) with daylight outside (long days at least), munching pizza, but the bits that you could tell were meant to be scary and suspenseful plain weren’t.
As I say, not a bad film – quite watchable, believeable characters, but nothing special either.