Director: Christian McIntire (Lost Voyage & Landspeed)

Flattery Of: Signs (2002)

Cover Art Comparison:

Neutral Synopsis: After the sudden accidental death of his cousin (Stephen Baldwin), a recent college graduate (Ribisi-on-a-Budget, A.J. Buckley) goes back to the family farm with a few friends. Once there they encounter crop circles, sexual tension, and a wacky cop (Billy Zane). Eventually our heroes must fend off an invasion of good old-fashioned BEM’s.

Shared Plot Points:

• Aliens Invasion via Crop Circle
• Lead Character has Endearing Wacky Failure of a Relative
• One Minority Cast Member
• Aliens Dislike an Abundant Earth Material
• Car Accident Back Story
• Crackpot Theories Prove To Be Right
• Information From Amateur Home Videos
• Dead Loved Ones Gave Us the Information We Need

Other Influences:

• The Blair Witch Project
• Children of the Corn
• Psycho
• War of the Worlds
• Any Privileged-and-Pretty-Young-Cityfolk-go-to-the-Country Slasher

Plausible Deniability:

• The aliens don’t use the crop circles for navigation.
• The invaders lack ships and camouflage abilities.
• No interminable flashbacks and tussles with faith.

Glimmer of Originality: The crop circles aren’t made from the air, but rather evidence of extraterrestrial teleportation.

Best Line Exchange: "Joe put iron filings in some of the shells. Problem is I don’t know which ones."
                                    "Use all of ‘em."

Close, but no cigar: While it's not exactly Shakespeare “Swing away.” is a bit more poetic than “I think you need a little iron in your diet.”

Rip-off to Invention Ratio: 9:2