Cinematic Releases: Dark Skies

Needless to say, I'm a little behind on getting a review posted about Dark Skies. I wanted to catch it a couple weeks ago, but was unfortunately unable to get to a screening and couldn't make it any other night. So, tonight I finally decided to cash in a free Fandango ticket to see this latest movie about alien abductions and a family being torn apart by dark intruders.

Over the years I've seen tons of movies about alien abductions, some good and many extremely bad. The best probably being the 1993 film, Fire In The Sky. That film still sends chills down my spine every time I see it and is probably one of the most horrific alien abduction movies to date. Communion follows closely behind with Whitley Streiber's realistic account of the strange things that happened at his forest retreat. Dark Skies, while not even close to those films in terms of quality or delivery, is actually a damn good horror movie.


Dark Skies features some terrifying moments and some well crafted tension that sent me back thirty years. Much like Poltergeist, Dark Skies is a movie about a family being emotionally and physically tormented by outside forces. In that regard, it absolutely delivers. The film might be cheesy and predictable at times, but it still delivers something we don't normally get with modern sci-fi/horror films. It's actually scary. Any parent will be horrified by the twists and turns of this story. Yet, the science of the movie doesn't quite add up at times.

If you're a horror or science fiction fan, you will probably enjoy Dark Skies. It's not going to win any awards for best or smartest of the year, but it is a decent entry in a genre that doesn't get it's fair share of releases. I would suggest checking it out when it gets released for home viewing in a couple months.

3 out of 5 -CG

Fans of alien abduction movies should also check out:
Fire In The Sky
Communion
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Anything starring Lindsay Lohan in the past five years