All I really have to tell you is that Take Shelter stars Michael Shannon, and I know you’ll be all over this.

Being a Shannon feature, you know it’s going to be dark, unsettling, and strange.  Yet this may be the kindest and warmest character he’s ever played.   He’s a family man in this one, just an hardworking, ordinary fellow who just might be dreaming of the End Times. Either that, or he’s suffering from the onset of schizophrenia … and the trailer doesn’t show it’s hand either way. (I suspect there’s some Sundance reviews that might give away the ending, but let’s steer clear of that.)

Take Shelter could end up being the film I thought Signs would be.  Remember how that first teaser was cut to imply Mel Gibson might be imagining the aliens?  I remember debating “the twist” with my friends and family, with my personal theory being that he’d kill everyone to “protect” them. (Why I thought M. Night was capable of that kind of darkness is as inexplicable as The Happening.) I don’t think that happens in this one either — but that shot of Shannon and the swinging lantern doesn’t make me feel very good.