Movie Review: Dark Skies [2013]

Dark Skies is a mix of sci-fi and horror, two genres I appreciate a lot. But it is not actually any of them. Movie follows a life of Barret’s family who is facing an invasion of aliens. Everything starts as usual – electricity and security system are put out of operation, youngest child (Sam) starts walking at nights, he talks with “them” and paints a lot strange stuff. Lacy & Daniel (parents) decide that Sam is not OK and he needs an assistance of psychologist. However, in a very short period, they themselves are convinced that “someone” is really visiting their house at nights.

Then everybody else thinks that they all went crazy, police does not take seriously their security alarms and accordingly, only means to survive is self-deference. One day, Lacy finds a guy, who claims to know much about those invasion things and they make an arrangement. He tells a story of other invaded families, their faith and how they survived, or did not survive. Barrets decide to do everything in their power to protect family.

Pretty familiar, huh?

Yes, all these happens in almost every horror/sci-fi movie about aliens, literally in each of them. And Dark Skies follows mainstream plot of these genres, which I find boring. This film has a writing problem - almost everything is so predictable with sense that you've seen it all before. It does not bring a feeling of satisfaction, because it's not even scary, which is mostly because of sounds. Generally sound mixing is very important for horror movies, since image itself can not be terrifying, but image with corresponding sound brings adrenalin to higher level.

However, I liked Keri Russell's performance as a mom who herself witnesses alien visits to her youngest child. She seems to be very natural, dramatic and strong. What I liked about her is diversity of emotion, how Keri transforms from happy mother to desperate one and backwards. The rest of cast is average, which is not bad for horrors generally.

Dark Skies is not what I expected or wanted to be. It's a below average horror, which totally is not scary, with poor script and average performances. The most important part a director failed in is binding viewers to the screen, frighten them and make them enjoy with it.