Signs (2002)

M Night Shyamalan reunites with Bruce Willis in Unbreakable for another story of everyday folk baffled by the supernatural (or at least unknown-to-science). This time around, Willis has paranormal, possibly superhuman abilities, and a superbly un-typecast Samuel L Jackson is the investigator who digs into someone else's strange life to prompt startling revelations about his own. Throughout, the film refers to comic-book imagery, while the lectures on artwork and symbolism feed back into the plot. The last act offers a terrific suspense-thriller scene, which (like the similar family-saving at the end of The Sixth Sense) is a self-contained sub-plot that slingshots a twist ending that may have been obvious all along. Some viewers may find the stately solemnity with which Shyamalan approaches a subject usually treated with colourful silliness off-putting, but Unbreakable wins points for not playing safe and proves that both Willis and Jackson, too often cast in lazy blockbusters, have the acting chops to enter the heart of darkness. --Kim Newman

After tackling ghosts and superheroes, M Night Shyamalan brings his distinctive, oblique approach to aliens in Signs. With Mel Gibson replacing Bruce Willis as the traditional Shyamalan hero--a family man traumatised by loss--and leaving urban Philadelphia for the Pennsylvania sticks, the film starts with crop circles showing up on the property Gibson shares with his ex-ballplayer brother (Joaquin Phoenix) and his two troubled pre-teen kids. Though the world outside is undergoing a crisis of Independence Day-sized proportions, Shyamalan limits the focus to this family, who retreat into their cellar when "intruders" arrive from lights in the sky and set out to "harvest" them. The tone is less certain than the earlier films--some of the laughs seem unintentional and Gibson's performance isn't quite on a level with Willis's commitment--but Shyamalan still directs the suspense and shock dramas better than anyone else. --Kim Newman