Signs, M. Night Shyamalan’s follow-up to Unbreakable, receives a nice 4K upgrade courtesy of Walt Disney Home Entertainment.
The Production: 4/5
After the back-to-back successes of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, writer-director M. Night Shyamalan goes three for three with Signs, an alien invasion thriller starring Mel Gibson as a retired priest who questions his faith after the death of his wife and Joaquin Phoenix as his brother, a failed minor league baseball player who has moved in to help out with the family and at the farm. Shyamalan takes a cue from directors before him, such as Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock, instilling fear in the audience by not showing us much of the aliens until the grand finale, scaring us by what we are not seeing. My one complaint about the film is the discovery of the alien’s weakness, not so much in how it is revealed (there are clues aplenty from beginning to end), but what that weakness is. Not to spoil anything, but you would think that an alien species would do some research first on the planet before beginning an invasion.
Video: 4.5/5
3D Rating: NA
Signs was photographed on 35mm film stock using Panavision Panaflex cameras and was likely completed on 35mm film with an intended theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 (the film did have some digital theatrical showings using a low-resolution 1K DCP). Disney’s new 2160p HEVC encode includes HDR10 high dynamic range. This is a nice improvement over the previous 1080p Blu-ray release from 2008 (included in this set), particularly in better contrast and deeper blacks, allowing for better shadow detail. Overall, this transfer appears to have a warmer tone to it, with a stronger lean towards browns and yellows. Detail does get a nice boost as well, with a nice uptick in fine details such as fabric textures and facial features.
Audio: 4.5/5
Disney has replaced the Blu-ray’s uncompressed 5.1 PCM track with a lossless DTS-HD MA track on the 4K disc which sounds nearly identical. Of the two Shyamalan films released together, Signs would have benefitted slightly with a new Dolby Atmos track, at least in the scenes where the aliens are walking on the roof of the house. As Matt Hough noted in his 2008 Blu-ray review, the track makes “excellent use of the LFE channel and plenty of ambient sounds to keep the surround channels active and interesting. A few of those effects seem unnecessarily processed, though, and not well matched to some others before and after, but this only happens a couple of times and is a very minor problem.” Dialogue is clear and understandable throughout.
Special Features: 3/5
No surprise, but the 4K disc is a movie-only affair, with the old 2008 Blu-ray included to provide access to the same recycled special features from the DVD release.
Deleted Scenes (480i; 7:32): Five scenes are included.
Making “Signs” (480i; 58:31): A nearly hour-long documentary broken down into six parts, produced by Laurent Bouzereau.
Storyboards: Multi Angle Feature (480i): Offers two sequences which the viewer can flip back and forth between storyboards and the finished scene. The viewer can also watch the scenes/storyboards with the entire 5.1 sound mix, with just the music track, or with just the effects track. The two sequences are Graham investigating the veterinarian’s pantry with a knife and Graham and Merrill chasing trespassers around their home.
Night’s First Alien Movie (480i; 2:17): A little throwaway home movie from Shyamalan’s youth called “Pictures.”
Digital Copy: A Movies Anywhere code is included to redeem a 4K digital copy of the film.
Overall: 4/5
Signs is another early entertaining thriller from M. Night Shyamalan that now looks better than ever.
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