Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 1:47
Tabitha's Rating: ****.5/5
Synopsis: The story of alien invasion told from one family's point of view

   How does a director top a hit as big as The Sixth Sense? Well, not with Signs, but pretty damn close.

   Mysterious things like crop circles and weird signals coming through baby monitors begin to happen in a small Pennsylvania town. The story is told from an ex-minister, his brother, and his two children's point of view. The thing with this movie is, you cannot think too much about the idea of the alien invasion. The purpose of the film has nothing to do with the aliens. They are just there to scare the hell out of the audience. So what if it makes no sense that they can travel lightyears to reach earth, but can't manage to open a cabinet door. Who cares if something simple defeats them. Normally, I am overly critical and analytical of things like this. And I did drop it half a star because of it. But somehow, those things just do not matter. In Independence Day, they would have mattered. But this is not a movie about aliens invading earth. It has two purposes. One, to frighten the audience so much they can barely stand it. And two, to tell the story of a man regaining his faith. Being an athiest, I did not much like this part of the film. It seems to me that once aliens invade earth, they idea of God would be wiped out. It would hurt his faith, not help it. Plus, I liked Mel Gibson's character a lot better when he was thinking with his head, not his misguided heart.

   But even that element of the story just barely lowers my opinion of it. The movie so greatly fulfilled its purpose, I do not care about much else. I was so scared, I almost wanted to leave the theater. As if I was afraid some creepy looking hand was going to grab me any second. Whereas movies like Scream scare you by showing everything...blood, gore, guts, M. Night Shymalan uses a much more sophisticated and a much more frightening technique...don't show much at all, then give them a little taste. I foot blended into the wheat, a hand reaching out from under the cabinet door. I have to say, I literally SCREAMED out loud when I saw those things. He is a genius at building up suspense. I saw a magazine cover saying he could be the next Steven Spielberg. Not even. Steven Spielberg may make the worlds top grossing films, but they are completely different types of movies as Shymalan's. A better comparison would be to say, this generations Alfred Hitchcock. I own the Sixth Sense...and it still scares me everytime. When I watch Scream, I shrug and yawn. It's terror only lasts through the first viewing.

   Bottomline: See it with someone you want an excuse to grab at the scary parts...theres a lot of them.