Signspost II - I'm gonna agree with Ben that, despite its flaws, M. Night's film deserves some serious -- if not overwhelming -- praise. I've never seen a movie audience so quiet when filing out of the theater. It felt like I hadn't been able to breathe for the last 20 minutes of the movie. (Perhaps because inability to breathe is a key plot element during the conclusion.) Ebert noted that "I cannot think of a movie where silence is scarier, and inaction is more disturbing." In that sense, parts of Signs reminded me of Blair Witch. (It's been noted that Signs is derivative of a lot of other films, even as it gets new mileage from their concepts.)

While I didn't love the plot, I really enjoyed the craft of this movie. It was actually my first experience with a Shyamalan film, so forgive me if it's old hat now, but I completely agree with Glieberman's observation that

Shyamalan slows the pace to a hypnotic semistandstill, composing each shot with meticulous formality, focusing on a single element -- rows of corn lit by a flashlight, otherworldly scuttling claws -- so that you're as aware of what may be hovering just outside the frame as you are of the shots themselves. That signature style can be chillingly effective at creating a mood of terror, or wonder, or both.

As an erstwhile photographer, the almost antique, still-life quality of Shyamalan's frequently unmoving camera impressed me deeply. His use of unusual shooting angles to heighten tension (as when the camera looks up from the crack between a closed door and the floor) was genius.

It was also nice to see Mel Gibson play a part where his character's always-evident emotional failings didn't ultimately turn into strengths, and he ends up just as human as the rest of us. On the other hand, it did bother me that Shyamalan put himself in the movie. It's not that I couldn't believe a dark-skinned Indian man could be a DVM in rural Bucks County, but knowing it was the director was a real distraction. Methinks Shyamalan thinks rather highly of himself. Maybe he will turn out to be an heir to Hitchcock, but let's have him make a dozen more movies before we decide.