Signs Critic Reviews

The work of a born filmmaker, able to summon apprehension out of thin air.Read the full review

For filmgoers whose idea of a good time is getting the stuffing scared out of them (who are you guys, anyway?), Signs should prove to be time well spent.Read the full review

Follow Shyamalan's Signs. It will take a piece out of you.Read the full review

Its quirks are exactly what make Signs interesting, entertaining, and good.Read the full review

By limiting the number of special effects shots and treating the film more like a horror movie than a science fiction spectacle, Shyamalan creates a claustrophobic atmosphere and keeps the tension level high. There were times during this film when I was strongly reminded of "Panic Room."Read the full review

For a big-budget Hollywood feature, the film places an unusually high amount of stock in the audience's imagination; not since "The Others" or "The Blair Witch Project" have so many shocks been indirect or kept teasingly out of view.Read the full review

It's a high-octane doomsday vision built almost entirely around our sense of anticipation, and that's both its strength and its weakness.Read the full review

The movie keeps you watching and, at times, even gripped for more than an hour. But, at the end, it leaves us feeling detached and underwhelmed.Read the full review

Shyamalan's great gift is the creation of atmosphere, the conjuring of spooky, unseen menace. When he gets around to doing this in Signs, all is well, but it's a tossup as to whether the film offers enough of a payoff considering how long it takes to get where it's going.Read the full review