M. Night Shyamalan has officially settled one of cinema's longest-running fan debates by confirming that the extraterrestrials in his 1998 film Signs are indeed aliens, not demons or spiritual entities as widely theorised. The director made this clarification during an interview at Beyond Fest, putting to rest the popular theory that the creatures' vulnerability to water represented a supernatural rather than scientific weakness. This confirmation is significant because it closes the book on one of the most persistent mysteries in Shyamalan's filmography, a director renowned for his plot twists and ambiguous storytelling.

However, Shyamalan fully acknowledged why audiences arrived at the alternative interpretation. The film deliberately interweaves science-fiction elements with spiritual and religious themes, centring on the protagonist's crisis of faith following his wife's death and his family's confrontation with the extraterrestrial threat. He noted that this approach—layering spirituality onto sci-fi premises—is characteristic of much of his work, citing examples such as Unbreakable and Knock at the Cabin. Shyamalan attributed this stylistic choice to his early admiration for Steven Spielberg's films, which instil a sense of wonder and belief that, he argues, can mirror the power of religious faith when executed effectively.