Signs (2002)

I'm going to be honest with you: Signs is one of the most genuinely scary films I've ever watched, and that is not something I say lightly. I watch a lot of horror. I seek it out. I enjoy being frightened. But M. Night Shyamalan did something with this film that burrowed under my skin and has never fully left.

The film works by keeping almost everything off-screen. It understands, better than most horror directors working today, that what your brain fills in for itself is almost always more terrifying than anything a special effects team can put together. The tension is slow-building and suffocating, the kind that makes your shoulders creep up towards your ears without you realising. And then, just when you think you've got your bearings, it hits you with something that makes your stomach drop.

The birthday party scene. I won't go into heavy detail because if you haven't seen it, you deserve to experience it cold. But it lasts for a split second. Barely anything. And yet it has genuinely haunted me. Not in a vague, metaphorical way. I mean it has lived rent-free in my head for years. That single image flashing across the screen lodged itself somewhere deep in my psyche and refuses to leave. It's the kind of scare that reminds you why the medium can be so powerful when someone truly knows how to use it.

And then there's the garden hedge. I cannot, to this day, walk past an open gap in a garden hedge at night without my brain conjuring an alien stepping through it. It's irrational. It's ridiculous. But there it is. Signs did that to me, and I'm not sure I'll ever fully shake it.

Now here's where I have to be upfront about why the rating sits at three and a half stars rather than higher, because this is genuinely a mixed feelings situation. The film scares me so effectively that I find it difficult to fully enjoy. I know that sounds like the highest possible compliment, and in some ways it is, but it also means I can't sit comfortably with it the way I can with films I'd rank above it. A horror film that properly frightens me to the point of mild trauma is doing its job brilliantly, but it also makes me want to put the remote down and watch something else. It's a strange thing to penalise a film for being too good at what it does, and I'll admit that's exactly what I'm doing here.

The same thing happened with The Sixth Sense (1999). Shyamalan clearly has a gift for getting inside your head in a way that feels deeply personal, and both films hit me in a similar fashion. Neither of them I can return to casually. They demand something from you, and they take it whether you're ready or not.

I want to be clear that I don't think this makes me a wimp, exactly. Well. Maybe a little bit. But I'd rather be honest about it than pretend I sat through Signs with a cool head and a relaxed grip on the sofa cushion. I didn't. And if you're someone who finds it easy viewing, genuinely good for you, I'm slightly in awe.

What Shyamalan builds here is a film about dread, about faith, about family under extraordinary pressure, and he wraps all of that in something that is mechanically, technically brilliant at producing fear. The restraint throughout is remarkable. Every choice feels considered. The performances are grounded in a way that keeps everything feeling uncomfortably real rather than genre-movie distant.

Three and a half stars.

It should probably be four. The fact that it isn't is entirely my problem, not the film's.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 2002  | Watched: 2025-04-08

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
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Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Peacock Premium · YouTube TV · Peacock Premium Plus
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Related on Movies With Macca

More from M. Night Shyamalan: The Sixth Sense (1999)
More with Mel Gibson: Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) · Lethal Weapon (1987) · Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) · Mad Max 2 (1981)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Angst (1983) · The Long Walk (2025) · Punishment Park (1971)
More science fiction: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Fantastic Planet (1973) · Nightmare City (1980) · The Long Walk (2025)