Dark Skies - Review

Dark Skies (2013 - February 22) Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller 1 hr. 35 min. Rated: PG-13 Violence, Language, Drug Content, All Involving Teens, Sexual Material and Terror Throughout Grade: C Director: Scott Stewart  Writer: Scott Stewart Stars: Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo, Kadan Rockett, J.K. Simmons | See full cast and crew  From the producers of Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and Sinister comes Dark Skies: a supernatural thriller that follows a young family living in the suburbs. As husband and wife Daniel and Lacey Barret witness an escalating series of disturbing events involving their family, their safe and peaceful home quickly unravels. When it becomes clear that the Barret family is being targeted by an unimaginably terrifying and deadly force, Daniel and Lacey take matters in their own hands to solve the mystery of what is after their family. Dark Skies starts out with promise and anticipation, unfortunately it falls into the rut that most of this genera seems prone to succumb to. An interesting concept that looses focus and the wheels fall off about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way into the film. There doesn't seem to be a reasonable conclusion so the film becomes so fantastical that you are left thinking what a weak, or stupid, or silly ending. This film is sort of like an unremarkable episode of the The X-Files or The Twilight Zone (for those of us a little older), a little bit spooky, a little bit silly but pablum for the true 'believers'. The major problem with the film is that the director/writer can't seem to decide what story he wants to tell us, is it about paranormal activity, a drama about a family under stress, alien encounters or just what? Is the story about the mom, the dad, the oldest son or the little brother or the intruders? It gets sidetracked slumming into the prurient mindset and braggadocios conversations of pubescent teen boys, but otherwise the dialogue is pretty tame. It isn't laced with profanity so I do give it props for that. It's just too bad that it starts out well gets you interested and then lets you down. Behind the scenes The making of Dark Skies  B Roll Cast      Josh Hamilton            Keri Russell      Daniel Barrett                     Lacy Barrett       Dakota Goyo          Kadan Rockett  Jesse Barrett                        Sam Barrett  J.K. Simmons  Edwin Pollard