M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs is finally finding its audience, and the timing couldn’t be better. The alien invasion movie is currently trending on Peacock.
Directed at the height of his early career, Shyamalan had just come off The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. The film follows Graham Hess, a former Episcopalian priest turned widower, played by Mel Gibson, as he raises his two young children, Morgan and Bo, in the wake of their mother’s accidental death. His brother, Merrill, played by Joaquin Phoenix, joins him as the strange events pile up in their Pennsylvanian farm.
The Cornfield and the Lights
As crop circles appear in the fields and odd movement starts in the night, strange heavenly lights move across the world. Graham’s crisis of faith spirals deeper as he comes to terms with the otherworldly events around him. There is no safety left, and the invaders close in fast.
The family must learn to read the signs around them to survive. That title, the reviewer argues, is the whole point of the film.
Why It Works Better Than Most Aliens
Signs is intimate where the genre is often loud. It deals with grief, regret, moral failure and faith alongside the invasion itself. Those elements may not be what audiences expect from a movie about aliens taking over the world. But the reviewer argues that it’s precisely those human threads that make the horror feel real.
The chemistry between Gibson and Phoenix carries the film. Their brothers balance each other’s flaws perfectly, and the kid actors add the goofy, lived-in details that make the world feel authentic.
What Makes It Shyamalan’s Best
The reviewer calls Signs perhaps Shyamalan’s best work, though it admits that’s a bold claim. The film’s current popularity on Peacock is a chance to settle the argument with a rewatch.
The review points to the small touches that give the film real character. James Newton Howard’s score runs through the moments of dread and the looming threat of global annihilation. The piano keys are as anxiety-inducing as the alien fingers under the door or the shadowy figure on the opposite roof.
A Fall-Themed Binge
For those looking for monsters outside the usual suspects, Signs offers a pivot. Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster and Wolf Man are all on the shelf, but the film’s aliens are something else entirely. The review warns against expecting monster makeup that looks remotely good.
The film works as a fall-themed binge, per the reviewer. It’s a spooky alien movie that feels grounded, tense and profoundly human.
Key Facts
- Director: M. Night Shyamalan
- Lead: Mel Gibson as Graham Hess
- Supporting cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin
- Platform: Trending on Peacock
Signs is available to stream on Peacock. The film’s current popularity on the platform is a chance to see why it keeps getting singled out as Shyamalan’s best work — and to judge for yourself whether it deserves that title.
See the video the story is built around at Collider.
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