DARK SKIES

2013 (a Scott Stewart film)

Sometimes the key to being terrified is who is watching a movie with you.  With me as I watched this film, Dark Skies,  about a family under the stress of unknown and unbelievable unnatural forces, was a woman who had experienced as a child 'missing time' and a possible encounter with aliens.  Certain scenes in the film highlighted her unconscious reactions and that added a bit to the movie night.

Watching my friend, her hands subconsciously pressing into each other in a nervous, anxious manner, as the young boy in the movie rides his bike and senses 'something' high above him in the sky, past the towering trees that seem to lean down towards him.

The way she moved, as if unable to  get comfortable, as family members were discovered outside of the locked and alarm secure house.  Their haunted gaze as they stared beyond the dark skies above them were mirrored on her face. It was clear the film was a little too accurate in conveying certain atmospheric elements. 

The film was gripping and reflected a layered approach of a family in turmoil from within and from without. Kerri Russell is superb and Jake Brennan is a good foil as the leaders of a family on the verge of economic collapse being threatened by something worse than a bank recall.  

The unseen threat from powerful forces is a metaphor for all contemporary life but also is the classic storyline of the alien abduction myths.  The film was well acted, skillfully directed and had a good dose of restraint. This kept it from being a caricature movie about "UFOs" and moved it into the realm of the horror genre. The building stress, the spiral from the normal world, and growing sense of your own lack of power are at times tangible.