Opening

71% World War Z Jun 21
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61% The Bling Ring Jun 21
60% Maniac Jun 21
100% A Hijacking Jun 21
66% Unfinished Song Jun 21
100% The Attack Jun 21
—— The Haunting of Helena Jun 21

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55% Man of Steel $116.6M
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38% The Purge $8.3M
34% The Internship $7.1M
62% Epic $6.3M
87% Star Trek Into Darkness $6.3M
11% After Earth $4.1M
78% Iron Man 3 $3.0M

Coming Soon

—— How To Make Money Selling Drugs Jun 26
—— White House Down Jun 28
—— The Heat Jun 28
56% I'm So Excited! Jun 28

Signs (2002)

tomatometer

74

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 226
Fresh: 167 | Rotten: 59

With Signs, Shyamalan proves once again an expert at building suspense and giving audiences the chills.

60

Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 42
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 17

With Signs, Shyamalan proves once again an expert at building suspense and giving audiences the chills.

audience

65

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 846,126

My Rating

Movie Info

Following the smash hit The Sixth Sense (1999) and the under-performing follow-up Unbreakable (2000), directing phenom M. Night Shyamalan returns to the summer box office landscape that served as the backdrop for his cinematic breakthrough. In Signs, another paranormal outing for the writer-director, Shyamalan explores the eerie implications of a 500-foot crop circle that mysteriously appears on the Bucks County, PA farm of reverend Graham Hess (Mel Gibson). As Hess and his family (Joaquin

Jan 7, 2003

$227.9M

Buena Vista Distribution Compa - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (228) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (167) | Rotten (59) | DVD (51)

Individual sequences generate an eerie tension that's always deflated, creating a jarring stop-and-go rhythm, and the atmospheric trickery never strays beyond a lot of smoke and mirrors.

June 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Shyamalan is technically a superb film-maker, for all that he's picked up most of his tricks from Spielberg and Hitchcock.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
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A refreshing summer movie.

August 12, 2002 Full Review Source: Newsweek | Comment (1)
Newsweek
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Shyamalan wants to be the metaphysical poet of movies, but he's dangerously close to becoming its O. Henry.

August 11, 2002 Full Review Source: New York Magazine
New York Magazine
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The same old same old: dull and recycled, with no surprises.

August 8, 2002 Full Review Source: New York Observer
New York Observer
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The movie is almost completely lacking in suspense, surprise and consistent emotional conviction.

August 8, 2002 Full Review Source: New York Observer
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Excellent, but has some extreme tension and peril.

December 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comments (5)
Common Sense Media

Shyamalan is 0 for 3, giving us another incredible movie.

April 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed
Cinema Crazed

An anti-Independence Day, a cousin of Close Encounters, but most of all, a well-modulated, dread-laden, faith-based mystery. [Blu-Ray]

June 1, 2008 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews
Groucho Reviews

Crap circles.

August 5, 2007 Full Review Source: Bangor Daily News (Maine) | Comments (14)
Bangor Daily News (Maine)

Mr. Shayamalan is a gifted writer and filmmaker. He definitely has more great films in his future. However, he may need to take a step away from the paranormal thriller.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | Comment (1)
Big Picture Big Sound

M. Night Shyamalan's Signs is Close Encounters of the Corny Kind.

July 16, 2005 Full Review Source: Boston Herald
Boston Herald

I come away from Signs exhilarated by Shyamalan's skill at keeping his audience guessing.

December 6, 2004
Looking Closer

The one good thing about it is that it's over in one hour and 47 minutes. The bad thing is to think what a terrible waste it was of an hour and 47 minutes.

October 7, 2004 Full Review Source: tonymedley.com

A gripping and well-made thriller that preserves Shyamalan's winning streak and shows us, as all the best films do, a world that we're familiar with and believe in, and yet we've never seen, and by which we're endlessly fascinated.

February 1, 2004 Full Review Source: FilmStew.com

great

January 10, 2004 Full Review Source: sbs.is

Click to read review

January 6, 2004 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com
TheMovieReport.com

Shyamalan fancies himself a philosopher whose stories have deep and important meanings that need to be conveyed to audiences as slowly and heavy-handedly as possible.

January 1, 2004 Full Review

Gibson gives one of the best performances of his career...

August 1, 2003 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews
Reel Film Reviews

One may never get the answer that they seek, but they will be scared out of the wits when searching for one.

May 13, 2003 Full Review Source: BlackFilm.com | Comment (1)
BlackFilm.com

Shyamalan has done it again. He's taken a well-used genre, the alien invasion, and given it a spin that focuses on the human psyche rather than the surrounding events.

April 24, 2003 Full Review Source: Movie Views | Comments (2)

How apt for a film called Signs that Shyamalan should have plusses and minuses the whole way through.

April 16, 2003 Full Review Source: RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland)

Being known for "Big Twist Endings" may label you a one-trick pony, but one trick is better than no tricks.

March 19, 2003 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com
eFilmCritic.com

[Shyamalan's] treatment doesn't always make perfect sense, but what his film lacks in logic is more than made up for in atmosphere.

February 8, 2003 Full Review Source: Film Quips Online
Film Quips Online

Audience Reviews for Signs

An expertly put-together sci-fi thriller which is the last great M. Night Shyamalan movie put out in over a decade. Mel Gibson and Joaquin Pheonix are excellent as two brothers trying to run a family together, but once their crops come under attack and an alien invasion seems imminent, personal history erupts as a war of possibly apocalyptic heights comes to Earth. This is right on par with "The Sixth Sense" in terms of Shyamalan's work, and the ending is one of my favorites of all-time as he masterfully interweaves a powerful soundtrack with a ferociously action-packed conclusion. A massively under-appreciated and misunderstood movie that will hopefully be more respected as the years go on. Gibson gives one of the best performances of his career, as does Phoenix, and the strong acting and astoundingly good story-telling makes this a flawless motion picture.
June 24, 2007
Dan Schultz

Super Reviewer

With Signs director/writer M. Night Shyamalan keeps getting better and better with each new film he makes. After slow and quiet Unbreakable Shyamalan creates his most purely entertaining film so far. Without losing his signature style he has indeed made a damn effective film which is clever, scary and very stylish.
Even if the pace here is a bit faster here than in his two earlier films, The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, Shyamalan still remembers that characters are more important than any setpiece. Signs is much more film about family which have met a great loss recently than a story about aliens from outer space. It has this nice 50's twilight zone vibe in it but it has a more poetic side in it too. You could say that Signs is even a beautiful film. At least Shyamalan's story is definetly touching and in the end very emotional one too.
Sure, some of the dialogue is typically heavy like in his earlier films, but the beauty lies in the way that Shyamalan constructs his film and when Signs reaches it's complex and and ambitious third act it rises into a new heights as a film and nearly becomes something closer to an masterpiece.
There is this certain three act structure in all of Shyamalan's films which keeps repeating and while it is effective way to tell his stories, it is time for Shyamalan to get rid off his twist-ending expectations which is becoming a more and more of an burden.
With dynamite score by James Newton Howard and brilliant camerawork by talented Tak Fujimoto, Signs is Shyamalan's most easiest film to approach and to enjoy. It is closest thing of a pure entertainment in his career and never loses it's grip in building a tension. Flawed it might be, but it also has bucket loads of tension and emotionally strong moments.
January 7, 2012
emilkakko

Super Reviewer

    1. Graham Hess: Caroline, please stop calling me Father.
    2. Officer Caroline Paski: What's the matter?
    3. Morgan Hess: I can't hear my children.
    – Submitted by Heath R (4 months ago)
    1. Bo Hess: There's a monster outside my bedroom. Can I get a glass of water?
    – Submitted by Phillip M (7 months ago)
    1. Graham Hess: It's happening...
    – Submitted by Jed G (11 months ago)
    1. Ray Reddy: I've never fallen asleep while driving before. It had to be at that right moment. That 10-15 seconds when I passed her walking. It's like it was meant to be.
    – Submitted by Jed G (12 months ago)
    1. Morgan Hess: Listen, Bo. This is very important. Everything people have written in science books is about to change. The history of the world's future is on the TV right now. We need to record this so you can show your children this tape and say you were there. For your children, Bo.
    – Submitted by Jed G (12 months ago)
    1. Officer Caroline Paski: How certain are you that this was a male?
    2. Merrill Hess: Oh, I don't know any girls who could run like that.
    3. Officer Caroline Paski: I don't know, Merrill. I've seen some of those women on the Olympics. They can run like the wind.
    4. Merrill Hess: This guy got on our roof in like a second. Our roof is ten feet high.
    5. Officer Caroline Paski: They have women's high-jumping in the Olympics. They've got these Scandinavian women who could jump clean over me.
    – Submitted by Jed G (12 months ago)

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