"SIGNS": Reclamation of Faith in a Time of Crisis
There’s no real definitive exposition before the inciting incident. As soon as the film starts we’re thrown into the heart of it all: crop circles, bad water, rogue pets, and a new world that awaits the family Hess. It starts off like the famed alien invasion film framed through the eyes of a simple farm family but the aliens don’t operate like in this traditional narrative. Every single thing we learn about the Hess’s is seen through the lenses of post-traumatic anxiety. We never get to see them in a true state of normalcy but rather squeezed between the margins of tragedy that grow tighter as the film goes on. The drama and conflict never really steps outside the family. Even as the world ends around them, Hess’s deepest sorrows still lie with his departed wife and disillusioned children. His failure to protect their mother creeps back from the recesses of mind to manifest itself again and again as he realizes he might not be able to protect his children either. Bookended betwe...
