Review of Dark Skies (2013) by Brett B — 23 Aug 2013

A modestly effective - if derivative - alien abduction story. It's competently constructed, and individual moments actually work quite well, but we've basically seen it all before; the film clearly owes a debt to things like COMMUNION, SIGNS, and FIRE IN THE SKY (with a healthy dose of POLTERGEIST thrown in for good measure).

There's a "been there, done that" veneer of familiarity over the whole thing that, while not offensive or overpowering, does leave things feeling just slightly bland. That said, there's a nice amount of creepy imagery, and the screenplay does attempt to give us a central family that's going through some issues; it even seems like the script wants to take things into far darker, more psychologically interesting areas, but it doesn't fully commit, so those ideas end up being window dressing in a standard "paranormal events in suburbia" plotline.

The acting's solid (even J.K. Simmons as Mr. Exposition, a character who pops up for one scene to explain what's happening), which is something you can't ever take for granted in this genre, and overall I think you could do a lot worse for a late night viewing option.