M. Night Shyamalan is now renowned as a piss-poor director, one of the biggest let downs in recent Hollywood. Breaking big with The Sixth Sense, his career has taken a continual nose-dive since, each new film somehow worse than the last. Back with Signs he was regarded very differently, with Newsweek hailing him as the new Spielberg building up to its release. What's strange is that the popular opinion of the film varies wildly; it somehow straddles being regarded as both a good and bad film. And there's strong cases for both sides; the 'twist' of the aliens, who let's not forget have landed on a water-based planet, being allergic to water is asinine and the whole religious premonition undercuts the rest of the film, but it still shows a sense of film-making prowess, with some scenes working in building a sense of dread. Is Signs the final moment of Shyamalan being creative, or the moment he went too far? Is the reveal of the alien gate-crashing a birthday party terrifying, or its defeat laughable? Can you believe we once took Mel Gibson seriously? These are questions whose answers still can't be agreed on.
