What truly were the aliens from Signs?

This is a question that most people don’t question when watching the movie but many revisited with that “Demon hypothesis” that popped out some years ago.

Long story short that hypothesis postulates the aliens fear water because they are actually demons and the water is blessed because the lead character is a priest.

Yep.

But i found the explanation quite lacking, why would some demons pop out in small quantities around the world?

What if you are from another religion?

Are they also hurt by water blessed by other religions?

Can you bless a regular object and give it +10 against demons?

Frankly, the explanation is too unnecessary when the behavior of the aliens can be explained by alien reasons.

My explanation is simple: they are a slave species on the run.

Googling "Alien slave" brings back several erotic novels...

Let us revisit the strange alien behaviors:

1- They cannot open doors.

Let’s say you are an evil space overlord and want to make a servant race, you, being the evil bastard you are will not make the servants too skilled or too smart beyond their intended use and would instead give them plenty of ability to perform their task. This is called Crippling Overspecialization,” a countermeasure made to prevent the slaves from revolting as they cannot operate outside their intended function.

This way you can restrain your servants by simply using a doorknob because they were made unable to open them by design.

Speaking of de sign...

2- The signs.

The movie-in explanation is that the signs are used to navigate, but why would a group of space faring vehicles use landmarks instead of their navigation instruments?

Because they cannot operate them.

Let’s say our group of slave aliens escaped their masters and sailed for another world.

Going back to the crippling overspecialization it stands to reason that a group of slave aliens would not be able to fully operate the functions of a stolen spaceship, they would have to resort to go down and mark the terrain in order to navigate while they fulfill their obscure alien objectives.

3- They are vulnerable to water.

Is not because they are aliens, but because they are green
#GreenLivesMatter

This is one of the most strange weakness ever, why would a group of aliens land on a world filled with the stuff that can melt their bodies?

Because they had no choice.

If a group of slaves escape their masters on a stolen spaceship and cannot fully operate it then it’s not so far-fetched to think they had to go to a previous destination loaded on the ship.

My assumption is they were forced to deploy and look for any supplies they required in order to continue their voyage, maybe the ships were damaged, maybe they required extra devices to unlock the navigation system...

Maybe their masters caught them and took them back.

In any case they landed on Earth without protective suits because they didn’t have them, a group of alien invaders would certainly be prepared but a bunch of escapees would not.

4- Their behavior during the movie.

So yeah, a bunch of aliens shop up all sneaky around the isolated neighborhoods and decide to spook the humans before attempting to attack them?

Totally makes sense, i mean, it DOES makes sense from a narrative standpoint but we are looking for an explanation that operates outside movie logic.

Let’s say they had no choice but to land and they scouted the populated areas looking for the stuff they required.

Let’s say you are stuck on an alien planet and are trying to obtain certain materials.

Would you simply show up and say hi?

Of course not, not gonna risk the aliens capturing you and locking you up in Area 15. The first step is to scout the area, and zones with low population are the obvious choice as they work as a sample of the planet’s resources but there is more space to hide and run if things go awry.

So, land in a rural place and observe the locals until you can determine if they have the materials you need, the go for whatever you need.

This is my angle, the aliens wanted something and were scouting. What was their objective?

Who knows, maybe as a slave race they had mental blockages preventing them from moving before realizing some strange ritual.

Let’s say their servant function is to gather stuff for their masters, therefore they are compelled to catch stuff before they can move on.

Or we could settle for the idea of the need for technology/materials.

Whatever the reason they do not resemble an invader force or a kidnapping team, they are clearly a group of scouts trying to find something and maybe they found it and went their way. This makes it more likely the movie only showed the events related to that family because they were interesting, but maybe the aliens found their objective in some other area, seized it and went their merry way back to space.

Anyway, it certainly makes more sense that demons walking the earth and then returning to hell just because.