Circular Thinking

2 AUGUST 2002 In 1996, Independence Day made a global spectacle of alien invasion, unleashing widescreen violence on the world's famous landmarks. Six years later, M Night Shyamalan's Signs offered an altogether more focused take.

- WORDS: NICK SETCHFIELD

“This movie is all on a farm, all one family, in one place,” said Hollywood’s newly crowned king of rug pulls as he jumped genres from the postmodern ghost story of The Sixth Sense and the comic book fable of Unbreakable to this nervy, UFO-themed chiller. “And so when you leave it you’ll know what it felt like to be on this farm, and be with this family, during this very horrific time.”