Silent Warnings

Silent Warnings (2003) It’s a good thing Mel Gibson hit the mother lode with his ‘The Passion of the Christ’ flick otherwise he might be seething mad about this rip-off of his ‘Signs’ movie. Yep it’s basically the same plot set in possibly the same corn field if ‘Signs’ was filmed in Buglaria, Yugo-somthin-or-other, or one of them other ex-commie countries. The big difference is this one has no budget, no big name actors (well if you don’t count Billy Zane and one of the minor Baldwin brothers) and no fancy crop circles. These are just round so you know the director had squat for special effects. He just couldn’t match old Mel on fancy crop circles by professional tractor drivers. Apparently, Buglarian farmers only drive in circles.
Once you get past comparing this to Signs and just accept the movie for what it is, you may get a few thrills and chills. Very little actually happens until the end, but it didn’t seem that way while watching the flick and the characters are a bit more sympathetic than in most movies of this type. There are the usual ‘gotchas’ to make you jump and in general they are done in an above average style.
The movie has the same illogical plot as Signs such as why on Earth (or Mars for that matter) would aliens broadcast where they are going to land when they come to invade us by making hay in the fields if you will.
The young cast is serviceable and screams very well. There are the required naughty bits and sufficient slaughter to keep most fans amused. The ending is a bit forced and doesn’t really come to an end, but seems to work. The movie is rated R for: brief ingénudity, multiple human deaths, multiple alien deaths, excessive shotgun pelletry, plot illogic, creepy indoor scarecrows, and for the lack of fancy crop circles in a movie about crop circles.