Anna Daniels
On the topic of Rory Culkin’s work in the blockbuster realm, there’s little question that one of the actor’s earliest roles also came in one of his biggest films. It found Culkin working with one of cinema’s most intriguing, and just as often infuriating, cinematic voices, too. The filmmaker in question is the one and only M. Night Shyamalan, and the film was 2002’s sci-fi spectacular, Signs.
Released after the twist-filled one-two punch that was Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, Signs again found the director exploring grandiose questions of faith, family, and grief, and doing so within the relatively contained confines of a single family unit. It also found him expanding his cinematic sensibilities by placing that family squarely within a horrific tale of a hostile alien invasion. As such, Signs genuinely felt like Shyamalan’s most massive film up to that point, and came with a blockbuster-sized budget, to boot. While it has become one of the more divisive efforts on Shyamalan’s mostly marvelous résumé, it also remains one of his more successful endeavors, pulling in north of $400 million in worldwide box office.
In spite of the film’s failings, Signs partly works so well due to Shyamalan’s crackerjack casting of the fragile family at its center, and while Mel Gibson’s paterfamilias if clearly the star of the show, he’s frequently overshadowed by the brilliant work of the supporting players: Joaquin Phoenix, Abigail Breslin, and yes, young Rory Culkin, who more than holds his own as the sickly, precocious pre-teen Morgan Hess.
Signs premiered almost 20 years ago, and Rory Culkin has been working steadily, since, but if Waco is any indication, he still has plenty left in the tank, meaning we can expect to see more of this talented actor in the future.
Written by: Looper
