Warnings - Les signes de la peur

I was recently at the local video store and saw Silent Warnings on the shelf. I figured how bad can it really be? I rented it, took it home and the second everyone saw what I had rented they were scrutinizing it. I ignored thinking that a movie about aliens and crop circles really can't be completely disappointing. I popped it in the DVD player and proceeded to watch the film.

At first glance, it looks just like Signs. A farm, crop circles and the appearance of aliens in only slight amounts at first, but more prominent nearer the end.

Basically, a young man inherits his crazy cousin's farm after his death and goes there with some friends to fix the place up and sell it. After only being there for a few days they start noticing crop circles, someone disappears and they realize that, for some reason, aliens are attacking them on the farm. They do whatever they can to stay alive and figure out how to get rid of the aliens.

Silent Warnings feels like a made-for-TV budgeted film, but somehow worse. None of the main characters had any acting ability, unless you count Billy Zane as a main character, but he doesn't really have many lines so I wouldn't label him as one.

Now I guess I should be fair in respect to the acting and small budget effects. These are always expected with the typical straight-to-video, "never-heard-of-it" movies. But...Silent Warnings left one small thing out of the plot. An ending. I've never been so disappointed by the end of a movie in my life. Signs was bad, Jeepers Creepers was bad...This was awful.

All in all, I knew it wouldn't be good, but I had no idea.

Overall Rating: 2 / 10

Is Billy Zane so hard-up for work that he has to spend his time shooting aliens in this stupid mess of a film? Likewise Stephen Baldwin. . .at least his entire role consists of him alone, and was likely shot in one day. Yet another teens-in-trouble movie with the requisite quasi-sex. Why did sci-fi waste my time with this f'ing waste of film stock?

I feel that the other comments made about this movie do not exactly do it justice. I just rented and watched a copy of it last night, and I feel a little more generous than some of the other posters. Firstly, one has to address the fact that this movie is highly derivative of "Signs". Basicaly, the premise is the same. Crop circles mysteriously appear in a farmer's field and trouble ensues.

The acting is about what you would expect. Baldwin is far too over the top to really appreciate, but Billy Zane does a great job, as do most of the actors that portray the college kids trying to fix up the old farm house.

The CGI aliens are not done very well and look really fake. The build up of tension throughout the movie, however, is well done. There are some scenes where I couldn't help but jump and, in general, I think that this movie actually did a better job of interpreting the possible uses of crop circles better than signs. In this movie, the circles are used as a type of portal system for the aliens to get from place to place. In terms of a further comparison with signs, the ending is a lot more bleak.

I felt that signs included a cheesy supernatural element that, thankfully, was mostly absent from this film. Don't rent it expecting to see something on the same scale of Signs, but if you liked it and the ideas it presented, you should get some enjoyment out of this as well.

WARNINGS......l got this film in the bargain bucket at my local video shop, and have not bothered about it for over a week, last night l decided to just look and see....l kept watching, and watching, and got really into it, it`s a great underated film, far superior to Mel Gibson's SIGNS...AJ Buckley...(not heard of him before) did a great job as the main lead character, Stephen Baldwin and Billy Zane have only minor roles but add to the film well...down side...what did the silly girl go outside for a smoke for when she knew there were "things that go bump in the night".....but l would recommend this film to all..and give it



8 out of 10

I wasn't sure what to expect from Silent Warnings. After seeing it, I found it not a great movie but it was an okay one. It actually looks good, the photography is not choppy and the scenery has a certain eeriness. The first fifty minutes or so were decent, not great due to how derivative it was, but there are admirable attempts at evoking suspense and tension and there are some creepy moments and it didn't make the mistake of boring me. The acting is also better than average, though Stephen Baldwin in a rather "bit" role is rather over-the-top. Billy Zane is also in a small role but does a good job with it. AJ Buckley is the one who carries Silent Warnings and he does very well with it being charismatic and likable. However, it is the ending really where everything just fizzles out, the explanations are just nonsensical and it all feels melodramatic. The script is uneven, thankfully it is not that cheesy and stilted like I was expecting and builds up the characters(who thankfully didn't infuriate me) nicely. Sadly it does change tone and that shift feels like a completely different and inferior work and it just didn't work. But the worst asset of Silent Warnings was by far the special effects, which are terribly fake. All in all, has terrible effects and an uneven script but until it fizzles out at the end Silent Warnings was reasonably good. 5/10 Bethany Cox