The Hess family struggle with the alien invasion. Signs.

Signs – Widower and former Reverend, Graham Hess, lives a quiet life on a farm with his two children and brother. His struggle to maintain his faith due to the loss of his wife soon becomes only part of his troubles when strange things start to happen around his home – elusive intruders and mysterious crop circles – signs that aliens have arrived on Earth. Hess must try to protect his family from the oncoming invasion, but when he starts to see coincidences wherever he goes, Graham must decide whether he can once again trust the faith that was once so dear to him.

Signs (2002) – Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Is Signs appropriate for kids

Rating: 12

Running Length: 106 mins

Starring: Mel Gibson, Jaoquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin

Genre: Sci Fi, Drama

REVIEW: ‘SIGNS’

Shyamalan’s first dabble into science fiction, ‘Signs’ was met with both positive and negative opinions due to its focus on human emotion and central plot being about fate and destiny rather than the sci-fi action that many may have been expecting. However, the unusual decision to go for drama rather than all-out action works well and each member of the small cast takes a very good part. There is some fantastic humour which helps stop the story from dragging but also doesn’t take over the fear and distress that the characters feel throughout the movie.

The story behind the action is bound to be a hit with anyone who enjoys the drama of family life, with or without an alien invasion to increase the pressure of the already tense relationships.

CONTENT: IS ‘SIGNS’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

The Hess family have two pet dogs, neither of which are nasty. However, when strange things start to happen around the farm, one of the dogs suddenly becomes aggressive with the children and snaps at Bo, Graham’s daughter. A short while later Graham finds his older son, Morgan, sitting by the dead body of the dog, and he is visibly upset. There is a blade in the dog’s neck and Morgan explains that he had to kill it to protect Bo. This is clearly something that Morgan was forced to do against his wishes and this act of animal killing is not glorified in any way.

There are a few instances of intruders hanging around the farm. These scenes are quite intense and could be a little frightening for kids. One of these scenes shows a silhouette of a ‘person’ standing very still on the top of a roof and another, where Graham ventures into the crops in the middle of the night, is also quite scary.

An alien gets trapped in someone’s pantry and Graham goes to investigate. After a few failed attempts to pluck up the courage to look under the door, he puts his head to the floor and a split second later, the aliens’ hand slides out from under the door, the long talons narrowly missing Graham’s face. In his fear, Graham chops several of the fingers off and the alien screeches in pain. Although there is a brief moment where you see the fingers come off, this isn’t gory and shouldn’t be upsetting for kids.

The final part of the movie is by far the scariest with aliens surrounding the house, banging on doors and eventually entering through the attic. The family are terrified and just manage to get to the basement in time but struggle to find anything to wedge the door shut. In the panic and hurry to protect themselves, a lightbulb is knocked out, leaving them in complete darkness. The children scream in terror but soon a torch is found to light up the room.

When in the basement, a character leans against a grate and while another character watches them, an alien hand reaches through and grabs his face. This is unexpected and very scary and, as this character suffers afterwards due to fear and panic, the intensity is prolonged for several minutes.

A character who is only seen in flashbacks is mortally wounded in a car accident. A paramedic explains that ‘the truck has severed (their) bottom half’. They are alive and conscious although feeling no pain so they are able to speak but a loved one struggles to cope with this news while trying to comfort them at the same time.

One of the aliens is injured when liquid pours on to their skin. This leaves a graphic burn that sizzles and causes them to gasp and shriek in pain. As this alien has hurt one of the main sympathetic characters, this should not be too upsetting, the wound is not overly gory and is seen from a distance of several feet.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?
VERDICT: IS ‘SIGNS’ FOR KIDS?

‘Signs’ is not the sci-fi epic that may have been expected but what it is is a well rounded character-led drama with plenty of suspense and good natured humour to keep everything moving. Due to the relative slow pace of the movie, it is likely to be somewhat boring to younger children and therefore we feel that ‘Signs’ should be most appropriate for kids aged 10 and over.

  • Violence: 2/5
  • Emotional Distress: 2/5 (the majority of the movie focuses on Graham’s grief over the loss of his wife in a car accident. This culminates in his son, Morgan, getting angry and blaming him for his mother’s death, however this outburst is short-lived and the family soon forgive each other. One character begs God not to let a loved one die. Whilst doing this the character angrily says ‘I hate you’ – a comment also directed at God)
  • Fear Factor: 3/5 (many suspenseful scenes and some where the characters are oblivious to being in very dangerous situations)
  • Sexual Content: 1/5 (Morgan tells Merle that he is going to record the news over one of his tapes which has the words ‘Swimsuit Special’ written on it but nothing is said about this between the family. One character talks about ‘getting your toes licked by beautiful women’)            
  • Bad Language: 2/5 (some mild to moderate cursing and blasphemy but nothing too extreme or over-used)
  • Dialogue: 2/5 (it is explained that poisoned gas is used to combat the aliens and someone says ‘a lot of people died’)  
  • Other notes: Deals with themes of family relationships, grief, religion – faith and doubt, putting aside fear to protect others and the individual stories going on during an international crisis.

Words by Laura Record

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