‘Signs’ on Hulu: Are You Brave Enough to Rewatch That Birthday Party Scene?

There are certain scenes in horror movie history that have gone on to become iconic. Your stabby shower scenes and Drew Barrymore phone calls and pigs blood massacres and what have you. There’s a reason we remember all of those, why just vague phrases like the ones I listed off probably conjured up horrific flashes in your memory. For me, though, there’s one scene that out-scares all of them. I’m talking about that damn birthday party scene in Signs. Now that M. Night Shyamalan’s 2002 sci-fi spookfest is streaming on Hulu, everyone has a chance to rewatch the scene that made my heart race and skin crawl when I first saw it (and also when I just rewatched it).

The scene in question is the turning point of the film, when Joaquin Phoenix’s character (and also everyone watching the film) sees a full alien for the very first time. Say what you will about Shyamalan’s post-Signs work (thankfully his rep as a thrill master has improved over the last few years). Heck, say what you will about Signs‘ own ending. You can’t deny, though, that everything before the “swing away” moment is spine-tingling movie gold. The glimpses we see of mysterious creatures in the corn field and silhouetted against a night sky, they’re genuinely chilling moments, especially if you have an extreme fear of aliens like I do.

Sidenote: nothing in Signs is as upsetting as the abduction sequence in Fire in the Sky.

So anyway–let’s talk about the scene. A drowsy, exhausted Phoenix wakes up in the closet he’s holed up in, roused by the sound of a news report. That news report contains footage shot at a kid’s birthday part in Passo Fundo, Brazil. The footage includes a bunch of kids reacting to a party crasher and then, after a lot of frantic shouting and scrambley camera work, we see an alien.

This scene is so quick but it’s so effective, an example of how direction, acting, editing, and score can all team up to scare the crap out of you. The reason this jump-scare is so chilling, the reason it still works even if the 2002 CG alien is kinda wonky, is because of how it’s executed.

Phoenix’s surroundings add to the atmosphere; he’s barricaded in a secluded space, and he just woke up. Who doesn’t feel super out of it and vulnerable when they first wake up? Then there’s the buildup. The music is tense, a mix of eerie and foreboding. The video itself is the ultimate tension builder; just like Phoenix and the kids in Brazil, you’re craning your neck and squinting, trying to see a thing you know you don’t want to see. Then the kids and camera rush to the front door, ramping up the tension even more (and also making this video seem even more off-the-cuff and therefore “real”). The camera zooms in at the right time, exactly when you know the scare has to be coming. As it zooms in, you recoil just a bit. Then bam, the music stings and the alien lurches quickly into frame, before striding past.

This is a big ol’ “no thank you” moment for me. The surprise of this scene has stuck with me for 16 years and it still does the trick today. Am I brave enough to rewatch all of Signs, a movie where an alien gets locked in a kitchen cabinet, now that it’s on Hulu? Probably not, TBH. I can barely handle this birthday party.

Where to stream Signs