10 Sci-Fi Fan Theories That Make The Films Better

M Night Shyamalan’s 2002 alien invasion thriller is better than you remember, as committed to slow burn psychological dread and tense atmospheric family drama as actual monster attacks. Yes, okay, so the eventual revelation that the farm’s shadowy threat are subdued and killed with water is cartoonish-ly implausible when they’re landing on a planet almost entirely covered in the stuff. But what if it’s not the water that kills them, but the fact that it’s holy water?

Okay hear us out here—Mel Gibson’s troubled patriarch is a lapsed Catholic who lost his faith after the death of his wife, and his little brother Merrill is a once promising baseball player who lost it all by not believing in his ability. In the film’s denouement, it’s the father regaining his faith in God and Merrill believing in himself which empowers them rather than any water—because they’re not besieged by extra-terrestrials, but rather just your average common or garden demons instead.

Given the fact that the characters confront their metaphorical demons at the same time they face down these scaly fiends, this theory feels far more believable than the “aliens are allergic to water” alternative.