Silent Warnings
Crop circles turn out not to be merely signs but warnings.
Rating: 4/10
Running Time: 83 minutes
UK Certificate: 15
On DVD
Stephen Baldwin is Joe Vossimer, an Oregon farmer living alone amongst his cornfields. Strange and paranoid, he has turned his farm into a fortress. After his mysterious and violent death, his cousin Layne (AJ Buckley) inherits the farm, arriving to take possession with his girlfriend Macy (Callie De Fabry) and some of his college friends. They find the farm in ramshackle state, covered with iron objects, and with the crops unharvested and rotting in the fields. They intend to rehhnovate the farm in preparation for putting it up for sale.
The group start to wonder what happened to Joe when they find a crop circle and learn that this was the exact spot where he died. To add to the confusion, it seems that there are more crop circles appearing. When yokels are found driving through the fields, they think the mystery may be solved, but Layne’s old friend Sheriff Bill Willingham (Billy Zane) tells them that the crop circles are unlikely to have been made by the yokels. Soon they start to learn the truth Joe was not crazy and there really are strange and hostile visitors in the cornfields. The only protection against the aliens is iron the same iron that they have so diligently stripped from the farm as part of their renovations. ‘Warnings’ was clearly made to take advantage of the trend set by popular director M Night Shyamalan, and really this is just Shyamalan’s ‘Signs‘ remade on a budget. ‘Warnings’ even suffers the same failings as ‘Signs‘ being a movie of two halves, and going downhill when it stops building tension and turns into an alien horror movie. When the aliens are finally seen, they are a disappointment, being rendered in almost cartoon fashion it might well have been best not to show them at all. The biggest names in the film, Stephen Baldwin and Billy Zane, are onscreen for only short periods, which is very much a waste of their talents. On the plus side, the ending although somewhat confusing is better than that of ‘Signs‘ which was corny and obvious.
Released in the US as ‘Silent Warnings’.
It's Got: Stephen Baldwin and Billy Zane.
It Needs: More originality. Better aliens.
DVD Extras Plenty of background on the aliens in this film. Extras: Cast and crew, Design sketches, Turntable of alien, Alien running cycle, Alien disintegration, Shockwave. DVD Extras Rating: 5/10
Summary
Cheap and cheerful, but has been done better. If given the choice, see 'Signs' instead.