Dark Skies (2013) Review

Dark Skies is the new horror/Sci-Fi movie that tells the story of the Barrett family living in the American suburbs. The Barrett’s are currently facing financial difficulties and parents, Lacy Barrett (KeriRussell) and Daniel Barrett (Josh Hamilton), are stuck in a strained relationship resulting in an already troubled family life. But that’s the least of their problems as the strange goings-on isolated and fixated on the family gradually begin to spiral out of control and the seriousness of these occurrences gradually get worse.

Dark Skies comes from director and writer Scott Stewart (director of Legion, Priest). Stewart has previously worked on some big films (such as Sin City and Jurassic Park, though not from a director or writers position) and is also the director for the new and upcoming post-apocalyptic TV series Defiance that starts on Tuesday.

The peculiar events begin disguised as an animal’s antics that has gained entry to the house and feasted during a mid-night snack in the Barrett’s fridge. The strange events become unexplainable where alarms are going off, photos are disappearing and flocks off birds are crashing into the Barrett home to the point where the perpetrator is reviled as Aliens.

The Barrett’s are a family of four and the two children, Jesse (Dakota Goyo) and Sam (Kadan Rockett), also suffer along with their parents. It isn’t only weird incidents that take place, the Barrett’s also have moments where they can’t account for periods of time during their day as the Aliens take over their bodies for a reason that I’m not going to spoil.

Dark Skies has a few good tension building scenes that generally are scary. The film does have a lot of jumpy moments but the majority are caused by the sharp, ear-piercing sound that is well overused throughout this movie. These moment’s aren’t scary and eradicates the tension that has built up time and time again. But when used well to create those few scary scenes they are very well worked and get a great reaction out of you. There just doesn’t need to be so many of the sharp sounds though.

My other criticism is that this Horror/Sc-Fi, as it has been categorized  has almost as much laughs as it does scares. When you are looking to create a horror you want the audience to be on the edge of their seats and feel the same sense of fear that the characters in the movie are going through. If you insert these funny moments, that even if they wasn’t intended to be funny was still humorous, then it takes away a fair deal of the tension and creates a sense of ease when watching.

The moment that springs to mind is around the mid-point of the movie where Lacy is showing a couple around a home (as her job is an estate agent) and you then hear this high pitched sound and Lacy doesn’t have control over her body anymore. She just stops mid-conversation and walks forward to a glass sliding door and out of the blue just repeatedly head-butts the door. I generally found this scene funny, it’s unexpected and something you don’t expect to gain from a horror.

I thought the acting was generally very good from the lead actors and Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton do create this credible stretched relationship and they do help to create a sense of realism at times. Other characters though seem to play these stereotypical, cheesy characters. The police officer that comes out and gives a reasonable excuse to the problems that they have encountered or the alien expert that the family consult during the film.

Overall the film is okay and does have some scary moments that create good tension. The film is let down in many areas though. The film needs more of those scary tension building moments and scrap the constant loud sound effects that you’re anticipating and worrying more about than the few handful of scares throughout. But the main downfall is the believability, it’s riddled with the classic horror stereotypes throughout. I was disappointed with the ending as well that ultimately cripples the whole story due to the high amount of confusion it produces. You expect that big finale to a horror film that leaves you more on edge than anything but this film is generally summed up by how far away from a great horror it is by the confusion more than anything it embeds within your mind.

Click here to buy Dark Skies now via Amazon. 

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