10 Horror Movies That Ended Too Soon

The twist ending of Signs, the sci-fi/horror film directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and the fatal weakness of its invaders has been mocked relentlessly online since its release, but the whole affair is worth revisiting just to illustrate how badly a rushed final act can totally derail a movie.

For most of the film, the slow building of tension is actually handled very well, as former priest Graham Hess and his family learn of a possible worldwide alien incursion from their isolated Pennsylvanian farm. The audience are right there in the dark with the family on the true nature of the extra-terrestrial menace for most of the run time, and there is a real sense of existential dread hanging over the proceedings.

The problem is that the second the aliens are fully revealed and launch their invasion, the plot becomes a mad dash to the finish line. They call off their attack the very next day and the movie is clearly so desperate to wrap everything up that it reveals their weakness to be water, of all things.

The formerly terrifying and unknowable creatures are then defeated with little more than this knowledge and a baseball bat. A longer run time could have helped the fight back against the aliens actually feel like somewhat of a challenge, instead of a bad joke.