Today’s quick review: Dark Skies. Lacy Barrett (Keri Russell), a struggling real estate agent, and her husband Daniel (Josh Hamilton), an unemployed architect, live in the suburbs with their sons Jesse (Dakota Goyo) and Sam (Kadan Rockett). After a series of bizarre intrusions at their home line up with Sam’s nightmares, Lacy and Daniel reluctantly seek answers from Edwin Pollard (J.K. Simmons), an expert on alien encounters.
Dark Skies is a sci-fi horror movie about one family’s brush with the unknown. Inexplicable incidents around the house escalate into blackouts and psychological symptoms that push the Barretts to their limits. Dark Skies features skillful character work, steady tension, and a suitably haunting mystery. Although Dark Skies is subdued for a horror movie, its sound judgment and craftsmanship make it a worthwhile watch.
Dark Skies has an eye for detail. Instead of drawing its story in broad strokes and leaving the rest for the audience to fill in, Dark Skies focuses on the countless details that bring its story to life. Every scene in the movie reveals more about the Barretts, ratchets up the tension, or both. The seeds that the movie plants early on bear fruit later, and the gradual escalation makes the events of the movie feel disturbingly plausible.
Dark Skies also hits a sweet spot with the mechanics of its plot. The early incidents are just ambiguous enough to keep the family and the audience on the hook without confirming anything specific. As the danger grows more acute, the Barretts find themselves running out of options, trapped in a situation they have no control over. The result is a well-scoped story with deliberate pacing and steady payoff.
For all its strengths, Dark Skies may have a hard time finding the right audience. The tone skews dark for a science fiction movie, with heavy doses of suspense and a few scares thrown in for good measure. However, some horror fans may find it too mundane. Instead of flashy special effects and major scares, Dark Skies opts for a slow boil with as much realism as it can manage.
Give Dark Skies a shot when you are in the mood for a dark and carefully crafted mystery. Dark Skies takes the right mix of fortitude and patience to get through, but the right viewer will appreciate what it does. Steer clear if you are looking for either flashier horror or a friendlier alien encounter.
For a sci-fi thriller about a boy menaced by mysterious entities, try Knowing. For a more tonally balanced sci-fi thriller about a family fighting aliens, try Signs. For a circumpsect and mysterious tale of alien contact, try Close Encounters of the Third Kind. For a much lighter encounter between a suburban family and an alien, try E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. For a more defiant clash with aliens, try Attack the Block.
[6.3 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2387433/). I give it a 6.5 to 7.0 for solid characters and a chilling story.