Dark Skies

    Dark Skies
    2013

    Synopsis

    From the producers of Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and Sinister comes Dark Skies: a supernatural thriller that follows a young family living in the suburbs. As husband and wife Daniel and Lacey Barret witness an escalating series of disturbing events involving their family, their safe and peaceful home quickly unravels. When it becomes clear that the Barret family is being targeted by an unimaginably terrifying and deadly force, Daniel and Lacey take matters in their own hands to solve the mystery of what is after their family.

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    Cast

    • Keri RussellLacy Barrett
    • Josh HamiltonDaniel
    • Dakota GoyoJesse
    • J.K. SimmonsEdwin Pollard
    • Trevor St. JohnAlex Holcombe
    • Annie ThurmanShelly
    • Myndy CristKaren
    • Josh WingateGun Salesperson
    • Ron OstrowRichard
    • Alyvia Alyn LindYoung Daughter

    Recommendations

    • 67

      Entertainment Weekly

      While there are some scares along the way, Stewart foolishly gives away the whole kit and caboodle plot-wise with an opening quotation from Arthur C. Clarke.
    • 63

      New York Post

      Mostly, though, it all ends up feeling like a lost, minor episode of “The X-Files:” A little scary, a little silly and catnip for those who want to believe.
    • 58

      The A.V. Club

      Good horror films are imprinted by the fears and anxieties of the day, converting real-life atrocities into abstracted scares; mediocre ones are imprinted, too, but with trends and commercial formulas. If Dark Skies resurfaced on TV or brain implant 20 or 30 years from now, horror fans would be able to carbon-date the film almost to the month.
    • 50

      McClatchy-Tribune News Service

      It’s a passably chilling bit of nonsense that builds on the past, the tropes of the genre, and relies on them for the odd jolt and the occasional ironic laugh.
    • 50

      The Playlist

      Alien abductions are a truly terrifying idea, and building an alien abduction movie on the template of "Poltergeist" is a great idea. But "Poltergeist" had one thing Dark Skies is sorely in need of: follow-through.
    • 40

      Los Angeles Times

      Really the biggest problem with Dark Skies is that Stewart can never quite decide just what story he is telling — a slow-burn horror parable or paranoid invasion flick — or whether to focus on this character or that, instead struggling to string together scares regardless of how they fit together overall.
    • 40

      New York Daily News

      The pacing is so tedious and the action so unexciting that it's a real thrill when J.K. Simmons shows up as a wry alien expert — and a huge disappointment when he disappears a few minutes later.
    • 38

      The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

      The characters are reluctant to believe in the face of overwhelming evidence, mostly because writer-director Scott Stewart doesn’t want to play his hand too early. By the time the movie is over, it’s easy to see why he kept his cards close to his chest. He’s not really holding anything.

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