By: Ted Pfeifer
Title: Signs
Director:
M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, Cherry Jones
Rated: PG-13
Opened: August 2, 2002
Official Site:signs.com

"Signs" delivers thrills and chills in a big way.

M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs" follows up his wildly successful "The Sixth Sense" and the very underrated "Unbreakable" and hits another home run.

Mel Gibson stars as a Reverend who has lost his faith due to losing his wife in an accident. He now lives with his two kids played wonderfully by Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin, and his ex-minor league baseball player brother, played by Joaquin Phoenix. They live out on a farm and wake up one morning to find crop circles in their corn field.

With that the story is set in motion and you won't touch your popcorn again until the end of the movie. Shyamalan starts with a haunting score provided by James Newton Howard that is reminiscent of the old Hitchcock films and then uses silence to build tension.

He plays with angles and sounds and colors to make you think you are seeing things you're not and disguises things you should.

The trick with this movie is that you think it is about one thing but in the end you learn that you have been told a different story.

Gibson and the rest of the cast give us believable performances as characters put in an unbelievable circumstance.

"Signs" made me jump numerous times and sent chills down my spine as well. It was able to push buttons that most movies only wish they could.

The scares are solid and there are a ton of laughs in the film. Shyamalan takes time to get your heart pumping so hard with tension that he then adds humor to get it back into your chest. By doing this he makes the tension even stronger.

There are things that I will not give away about this movie. Just make sure you go see it.

From me to you, all "Signs" point to YES.