DARK SKIES (2013) Dir: Scott Stewart

What has been missing from the 'sci-fi! of late is the alien abduction flick, not counting that piece of crap, The Fourth Kind, so it's quite cool that we get this flick from the producers of Insidious and Sinister which adhere's more to the supernatural that sci-fi i guess. Dark Skies is the name of the film, not to be confused with the short lived 90s sci-fi show of the same name, and Richard Long has the skinny of this flick. Check out Richard's review after the jump...

Written By Richard Long

Dark Skies is the recent horror movie from a long line of recent horror movies which declares it’s from the

creators of Insidious, Paranormal Activity and Sinister. In this case it is. Producer Jason Blum who worked on all three of the above has produced this movie and it does have a similar feel to the above mentioned.

Dark Skies doesn’t shy away from the fact it’s an alien abduction movie, even if you weren’t aware when buying it then the opening quote at the start of the film will clear that up right away.

We centre on a family living in a regular suburban American town, like most of these films do. The family has its problems like most do. Daniel Barrett and his wife Lucy are struggling with bills and mortgages as Daniel is frantic to find employment. Their children are struggling too as Jessie has reached the age when he’s noticing girls and at the time his best friend is leading him astray with his juvenile, petty narcissistic ways. The youngest

child, Sammy, we learn has an interest in the sandman, the fairytale character that his brother tells stories of to scare him.

The Barrett’s home life soon turns to escalating turmoil when Daniel does get his job, and poor Sammy has bad night terrors as strange occurrences start developing in the home from fridges being ransacked in the night, to photo’s being taken from frames. These bizarre events all add to a cold scare factor which might have worked better if the alien theme had been down played slightly at the start. Still it leaves one suggestion that perhaps Sammy is causing the troubles.

Things get worse from a wonderful and disturbing scene of birds landing on the Barrett’s house to the family discovering they are being watched by something other worldly. The build up to this is wonderfully handled and naturalistically done by downplaying talk of UFO’s or notions about little green men, instead and firstly exploring Sammy’s fear that it’s the Sandman doing all the mischief within the house until eventually Lucy Barrett sees for herself just what the problem is in a scene so close to Insidious you might be fooled for thinking it’s the same film.

Its here we have J.K.Simmons turning up as Edwind Pollard an expert in paranormal activity and alien abductions. Like Lin Shayne’s character from Insidious or Zelda Rubinstein from Poltergeist we have that moment were we are told what is going on. But that isn’t a bad thing. It slows the film down and J.K.Simmons is incredible as the lethargic smoker who seems depressed and tired from seeing how regularly he’s witnessed and been powerless in his field of expertise. It explores the myth surrounding alien abductions and feels naturalistic and very interesting whilst keeping a touch of mystery making you want to know more. Also worth mentioning is the dig or homage to David Icke and his theories on the alien race consisting of reptilian humanoids, even something the film claims to have a hard time understanding.

The film of course is about alien abduction and it tries very hard to shift away from X-Files and go for Insidious type scares. Sometimes this works well with shadow effects on walls and the strange phenomena that are discovered within the Barrett’s home.

I liked the opening to the movie, it shows the town and the family in a normal everyday environment but with a slowed down feel that makes everything have oddness to it.

Now it might just be me, but grey aliens with dome shaped heads and skinny bodies aren’t scary. There have been too many films and tv shows parodying these types of aliens for comic effect. So the film, although going for this type of manifestation, tries not to show the aliens too much for fear of losing any scares. But, you can’t argue that it doesn’t stay true to the source material of what aliens, or at least what people claim aliens, are supposed to look like.

Dark Skies wants to be frightening and there are more jumps to be had than in Sinister. It has a great pace and chill factor and is directed by Scott Stewart really well, shifting and moving gradually without rushing to a big climax.

What I like about Dark Skies is it takes the alien abduction idea somewhere new. It doesn’t use the x-files template, and reinvents the genre using a horror movies modus operandi. And it works. It does what it sets out to do and does it very well. There are twists and there are a lot more answers than in x-files. This is a perfect movie to watch late at night, with the lights off. Just don’t watch it alone.