Dark Skies
Starring Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, JK Simmons, Dakota Goyo
Directed by Scott Stewart
The Barrett family is your typical all-American family. The mother, Lacy (Keri Russell) works as a realtor; her husband Daniel (Josh Hamilton) is recently unemployed; their thirteen year old son Jesse (Dakota Goyo) is going through the typical hormonal changes, and youngest son Sammy (Kaden Rockett) is just enjoying life. All seems pleasant and comfortable.
Then one night Lacy goes downstairs and sees the refrigerator had been broken into, and all the lettuce was gone (but the bacon was still intact, a first sign that this is no male intruder). Then all her kitchen supplies have been stacked in an odd manor (which could make the intruder a female, because of all the kitchen supplies in the open).
Then things start getting really weird. Sammy spaces out, Daniel walks out into the darkness and suffers nosebleeds, Lacy has time lapses where she bangs her head on a door. Then a whole lot of birds fly into their house, mistaking it for auditions for the new "The Birds" remake.
In your typical horror movie cliche book, we open to the chapter dealing with alien movies.
In this type of movie, you always have a female who is all-too-willing to believe in the existence of aliens, while the husband scoffs at the idea, calling it nonsense (totally ignoring the bird suicides, lettuce disappearance and the like). Check.
We also have a visit of a local loon (JK Simmons, in a surprisingly unfunny role) who knows everything about aliens yet has absolutely no friends and lives in a run down apartment with pictures and news articles for wallpaper. Double check.
Then, of course, we have the parents try to get proof of the aliens, and all technology fails when they arrive. Triple check.
Finally you have the twist ending where the person you think is about to be abducted isn't. Quadruple check.
For the positive, there are some good scare moments, one which features the all-too-typical super loud music that makes you jump just simply for having the music too loud. But then there's another scene where the scare is so subtle it really unnerves you, but that's about all the good I can say about this film. If you're looking for a decent alien horror movie, might I suggest the classic "Alien" series (without "Alien 3," "Alien Resurrection or the awful Alien-Predator mash-ups), or "The Fourth Kind."
Rating: B-
Comments
Post a Comment