Signs

Graham Hess, a former minister whose faith was upended by a family tragedy, is raising his two children on a remote farm with his brother Merrill. Their routine life goes out of balance when unexplained crop circles appear overnight in the fields, attracting neighbors and curious outsiders. Strange sounds and small disturbances follow, and what at first seems like a puzzling prank slowly feels more menacing. As local authorities and friends react, the siblings argue over how to interpret these events, while the children grow increasingly anxious. The film watches the household tighten and fray at once, as suspicion, rumor, superstition, and practical concerns combine and the family prepares itself without knowing exactly what is coming. Fear edges every day.

Signs was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan and released in 2002. The original screenplay stars Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin, with Cherry Jones in a supporting role, and further helped cement Shyamalan's genre reputation.

Signs performed strongly at the box office, bringing mainstream audiences to a subtle science fiction thriller. It's earned a substantial worldwide return, becoming one of the commercial successes that raised Shyamalan's profile and sustained studio interest in his next projects.

The film lodged crop circles and rural isolation in the public imagination, and its quiet, suspenseful tone prompted imitators and jokes in pop culture. Memorable sequences involving ordinary domestic spaces facing a cosmic danger became shorthand, and the movie still gets referenced when mainstream directors try a restrained supernatural thriller.

Critical reaction mixed to positive, reviewers praised mood, performances, and economical scares while some criticized slow pacing. Thematically the film turns on faith, chance, loss, and the way ordinary routines can feel fragile when unexplained forces interrupt them. Family dynamics and small domestic details drive most of the tension effectively.