Dark Skies is about the fragility of family, a muted meditation on how precious it is...it does affirm that genre filmmakers who work with their eyes, their hearts and their brains still walk among us.
Mostly, though, it all ends up feeling like a lost, minor episode of “The X-Files:” A little scary, a little silly and catnip for those who want to believe.
You'll stumble upon this movie, on a cable movie channel. You'll think, "this looks silly," but you'll keep watching, and soon you can't stop watching because even though (you tell yourself) the plot is silly the acting is so earnest. The movie suddenly ends, and you think, ok, that was mildly disturbing, but still, a silly premise. Yawn, time for bed. But this movie embeds itself into your subconscious. And in six months you realize, it is one of the most terrifying movies you've ever seen. This movie taps into something we can't describe but we know has something to do with why we are afraid of the dark and the abyss. It is literally chilling.
This film isn't a 10 but rating it higher because it doesn't deserve a user score of 6.5. This movie kept me entertained. Keri Russell is one of my new favorite actresses.
In the end, a pretty good buildup to OK payoff without any real surprises en route makes Dark Skies feel just enough above average to make one wish it had one memorable spark of conceptual inspiration up its sleeve.
Approaching the first half of the film fairly conventionally, Stewart then misses the opportunity to capitalize on shifting to more full-on genre mode.
It’s a passably chilling bit of nonsense that builds on the past, the tropes of the genre, and relies on them for the odd jolt and the occasional ironic laugh.
In extending itself to reach a conventional feature length, however, it becomes a below-average programmer in which brief moments of interest are interrupted by long stretches of boredom.
The characters are reluctant to believe in the face of overwhelming evidence, mostly because writer-director Scott Stewart doesn’t want to play his hand too early. By the time the movie is over, it’s easy to see why he kept his cards close to his chest. He’s not really holding anything.
Dark Skies was an extremely surprising and very scary movie. It's like a haunted house movie turned upside-down. It has a couple of jump scares, a good amount of suspense, and a heavy atmosphere that all come together to create a memorable and terrifying film. Even if the pacing is a little off, Dark Skies is going to scare you. It's best not to know anything about this movie before you head in, and definitely watch it in the dark.
As the Barrett family's peaceful suburban life is rocked by an escalating series of disturbing events, they come to learn that a terrifying and deadly force is after them, one which may have arrived from beyond the stars. (6)
Dark Skies is quite unsettling and disturbing that plays more like a psychological thriller than a horror film. It burrows alot from films like Signs, Paranormal Activity and Poltergeist but it doesn't quite hit it out of the park as well. The performances are all very good and there's jump scares and shock moments but its an okay film. It would have been alot better if it were an episode of the X-Files or Supernatural but for what it was, it was mostly okay.
This is the worst alien invasion movie ever. Weird, unexplained things start happening to a family. Turns out they're being tormented by beings from another planet, while we're tortured by the filmmakers. There's no logic behind what's happening, so instead of a payoff we get an ending that just… But not before we endure 97 minutes of dull family drama with endless ominous music, which is necessary to compensate for the total lack of suspense in the direction or editing. There's lots of portentous atmosphere with no payoff. Watch the trailer and you'll get the highlights.