Review of Fire in the Sky (1993) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

This is a sci-fi/mystery film, with themes including abduction, friendship and the supernatural. At first I wasn't particularly keen on it, with the characters seeming to be quite vain, smug people but the plot starts to come together after a while and it became much more interesting. The visual effects weren't great (this is a film that dates from 1993, so its hardly new) but the story was intriguing enough for me not to feel overly bothered about that, mainly as it is, apparently, based on a true story. The cast seemed genuinely quite scared and all but terrified of what they'd seen and the camerawork was sufficiently jerky, so as to disorientate the viewer. It was one of those films that made me wonder quite how I'd react if I was in the position of being one of Travis' work colleagues.

I felt it featured elements of a number of genres, most obviously sci-fi but not exclusively so - it had somewhat of a feel of an old fashioned detective film, with the local sheriff suspecting foul play and being more than keen to get to the bottom of what actually happened. Certain scenes reminded me somewhat of ET, while the sheriff, who has a fairly strong 'Wild West' type American accent, made me briefly picture a Western.

I definitely wouldn't say this was in any way a brilliant example of a film, a greatly memorable one or otherwise but I didn't feel it to be completely ruined by endless cliches or that it was unwatchable at all - there was definitely something about the story that kept me interested, which I can only guess was that it is claimed to be based on a true story. I like to think I have an open mind about some things as if all there was in the world (and beyond) is what we can prove, then that feels a bit basic and bleak somehow but maybe thats just me?. This is the sort of film which could feature very wooden acting and have a distinctly mediocre feel to it but I felt this particular title was slightly better than that.

The way the story plays out, it felt quite believable, in terms of the plot development with those who are left in town trying to figure out what happened to Travis. It does have the feel of a TV movie, which it may have been at the time but for a TV movie, its surprisingly intriguing. It has a run time of 1 hour and 49 minutes and I imagine that if it were re-made today, it'd be probably over two hours long and would be more dark and long drawn out, which would undoubtedly put me off. If your looking for something intriguing and don't mind a sci-fi element to it, then you may well find this a decent watch for under two hours but I guess it depends on what you expect. From what I know of the TV show The X Files, this films plot could perhaps have featured in it. Its much more of a character based, or driven, film than a special effects driven one, unlike ET and others.

Cast wise, Travis Walton is played by D.B. Sweeney, while Robert Patrick plays Mike Rogers, Craig Sheffer plays Allan Dallis and Peter Berg plays David Whitlock. I thought in general that the performances were pretty good, although I wouldn't say any of them were especially memorable as such. I found myself a little unsure which character was which, to be honest, so I'm not quite sure what to say as far as their individual performances are concerned. I did feel that the characters were relatively well portrayed, especially for a budget type film, as this seemed to be. Another key character is the sheriff, Blake Davis, who is played by Noble Willingham. He did very much look the part, although perhaps I'm relying on unfair stereotypes when I say that but I thought he seemed to look the part anyway.

Content wise, the film contains some mild violence and one or two squeamish situations depicted, albeit in a an artificial, otherworldly setting. A few scenes would potentially be quite frightening for younger audience although the frightening, or disturbing, scenes are relatively few and far between. otherwise, there's little in terms of strong language or other offensive or graphic content. The film carries a 15 rating in the UK.

Overall, yes, I think I'd recommend this film, if but only just. It is a decent example of its type, although its not exactly very impressive or greatly memorable, its an interesting watch and I liked that it didn't rely too heavily on special effects. The story was intriguing and I enjoyed watching it overall, hence yes, I would recommend it.