Review of Dark Skies (2013) by Jason S — 01 Jun 2013

The idea that a white picket-fenced suburban facade can breed hidden conventional scares isn't new; Dark Skies is so familiar to the point where this is basically a shot for shot remake of Poltergeist with aliens substituted for spectres.

Russell and Hamilton do their best with poor characterisations; Russell fares better; and even the kids follow typical horror archetypes. Still, while this all feels like just another horror film that plays too many of the obvious genre tricks too often, at least Dark Skies offers creepiness without succumbing to some of the more gratuitous methods filmmakers take to disturb their audiences these days.