Okay...right off the bat, I don't like M. Night Shyamalan. After this film he started to fall off the map into the sinking vapor filled hell of the creative nutjob. This is more or less another film on this list that is a bad movie. I really like this movie for multiple reasons, but it isn't a good film. To sum up the story, it is about a family who live on a secluded farm that is in the middle of an alien invasion. They are stuck in their home while the world is decimated by the extra terrestrial force. What works in this movie is the sense of claustrophobia and isolation that comes from following one family. It works very well for some key scenes and adds some really interesting horrifying tension. However, the film falls apart due to its too perfect climax.
One of the strong moments in this film comes in around the halfway point where we are still uncertain as to what is happening. the family has just come back from a day in town. The boy has been carrying a baby monitor with him, commenting that odd noises are coming from it. When they reach the house the baby monitor starts to emit some very distinct weird sounds. The boy believes it is from the aliens. the father disregards this, but very soon wonder and curiosity leads the family to crawl onto the hood of the car to get a better signal. It quickly becomes obvious that what you are listening to are the communications between two extra terrestrial beings. Then, the signal is lost.
This scene is compelling for one reason; the horrifying reality that this is the first alien language heard by humans. This is where the film really shines. It is about horror coming from what you hear rather than what you see. You imagination paints a terrifying picture of these unknown beings as they talk to one another miles above the earth. It is extremely effective and still creeps me out today. However, when you start to really study the scene it starts to fall apart. the idea that a baby monitor would be able to pick up an alien transmission is preposterous, but it still remains an effective scene in a film that snowballed in to chaos very quickly. On a side note, James Newton Howard's score for this film is among the best work he has ever done. The track that plays during the Baby Monitor Scene is among my favorites and really add to the near perfect atmosphere of this film.
I'm going to start including the trailer to all the films I talk about:
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