With a neat quote on how we are not alone to begin with, Dark Skies is the story of the Barretts; a family struggling to cope with financial issues. Just as things begin to go their way, a majority of supernatural mishaps is forced upon their suburban house; while sequences of moving objects, ringing noises and an empty fridge might be something to deal with, a flock of birds from three different directions is not, leaving the family to question what is turning into a series of unexplainable events.
As we know, there is always a peculiar member of the family. In this case Sam (Kadan Rockett); their youngest and certainly the cutest. Sam spends his days talking to the sandman, who as we see time and time again in these suspenseful stories, the chances of the so-called sandman existing are very high. While the mother Lacy (Keri Russell) is passing it up as childlike immaturity, Lacy begins to realise that the events in the house could be related to Sam.
Struggling to convince her husband Daniel (Josh Hamilton) of the potential danger the family is involved in, Daniel typically shrugs it off as a dose of paranoia (the man never believes the wife, why?)
It is following the visit it to an Alien connoisseur (J.K. Simmons) that all is revealed; the house has been targeted by aliens. And as blunt as it may sound, there is no apparent solution to this, however Daniel is adamant to protect his family.
There is a majority of boring sequences involving nothing, with the second half of the movie trying to justify an alien invasion under bizarre circumstances, with the typical involvement of someone who has spent their entire life searching for answers.
I was really looking forward to this, knowing that the producer of both Sinister and Insidious are involved, I was hoping to be satisfied in terms of a good story and a good scare. The story had potential, with an introduction that gets you quickly involved but the second half of the movie just lost its way. I was willing to ignore the majority of boring sequences of unrelated dialogue and drug using teenagers (although Jesse, played by Dakota Goyo, is quite a rebel) in order to be really frightened because let's face it, I don't remember seeing modern day Alien style horror like this? They don't come around very frequent so I wanted this to work.
Sure, some scenes were cool, the birds, the hungry Aliens etc, but there was too much stupidity brought on by Daniel that I failed to get involved with any of the leading characters. They are caught up in unfortunate circumstances, but you fail to lend them any pity. You root for the Aliens (when they appear).
With one or two scares involving the appearance of Aliens, I wanted more. Dark Skies failed to stay consistent.
Although the trailer survives on promoting Sinister and Insidious, it his for that reason Dark Skies falls flat, using a similar concept of horror through-out (or script if you like); the drawings, the strange kid, abduction, if you have seen Sinister or Insidious you will know what I mean when I say it is all way too similar.
Overall: It is no Fire in the Sky, Signs and certainly no Close Encounters. However the uncontainable use of drama could be ignored to understand a mundane story. I give it credit for its screeching scares every now in again, but the characters and the plot are way too similar with a second half that looses its touch.
5/10
Look out for: The potentially worthy remake of Evil Dead & The Conjuring - July (Trailer below)
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