DARK SKIES (2013)

With architect dad (Josh Hamilton) having recently been made redundant, and estate agent mum (Keri Russell) seemingly unable to seal any house sales, financial pressures are starting to take their toll on the suburban Barrett household. Relations with their 13 year old son are becoming increasingly strained and their younger son Sam is beginning to worry that dad may be about to move out after hearing his parents arguing at night...

And so far we’re just in an ordinary domestic drama played out against a manicured lawn street in average middle-America. Then things start to turn spooky. The contents of the fridge are strewn across the kitchen floor. Domestic items appear stacked in an intricate formation. All the family photographs on the mantel-piece are suddenly missing from their picture frames. The recently reactivated security alarm system goes off in the middle of the night and it appears the sensors were tripped at all 8 potential entry points into the house. Oh yes, and 3 separate flocks of starlings crash into the house simultaneously.  

Director and writer Scott Stewart (PRIEST, LEGION) measured approach yields some genuine suspense and several effective jolts during the first half of the film. Against a backdrop of increasing family tensions, little Sam’s dreams of “The Sandman” begin to take on a greater and more sinister significance.

Whilst we’ve been here many times before, elements of POLTERGIEST and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (dad installs CCTV cameras in all the rooms) are all played straight and the cast maintain the tension through earnest and credible performances.

But then Stewart eventually has to declare his hand and instead of calling in the GHOSTBUSTERS, the Barrett family realise they’d be better off consulting Fox Mulder. Instead of David Duchovny however we get a straight-faced J.K. Simmons (Jonah Jameson from Sam Raimi’s SPIDERMAN trilogy) with a wall full of newspaper cuttings of missing children and drawings of little green men. Cue a final act that is disappointingly clichéd and pedestrian and somewhat undoes a lot of the good work that has gone before it. A subplot involving child protection concerns is dropped altogether which is a shame as I was looking forward to mum and dad trying to explain away the intricately patterned bruising and branded symbols evident on their sons.

The coda inevitably leaves a door open for a sequel – although it could be read as merely a hint of a happy ending for the family.

In truth there really isn’t anything groundbreaking here for fans of the genre. However, DARK SKIES is, for the most part at least, a solid competent piece of spooky sci-fi, and if you’ve fully exhausted your XFILES box-sets then it might just be worth your consideration.

***(out of 5*)

Paul Worts