Film Summary: The Barrett family is going through a tough time. The father has been laid off and can't find a job, the eldest son is experimenting with drugs, and the mother struggles with maintaining some sort of financial stability. And, to top it all off, aliens have began to torment them and make their lives a living Hell.
It was nice to see Blumhouse Productions, the company behind such works as the Paranormal Activity series and both Insidious films, take a break from something that is solely meant to make the audience jump out of their seats into something more suspenseful and thrilling. True, there are some scares hidden within Dark Skies, but its focus doesn't revolve on the horror/gore aspect that they are so used to making. And for the most part, the filmmakers succeeded in making a fairly decent thriller with a nice twist ending that gives a fresh take on the idea of . It might not be the best thriller out there now, but the way the movie is formulated makes me wonder what went wrong with the company's next thriller, The Purge.
The difficult task many horror/thriller films face is the challenge of successfully developing characters that the audience will care about and feel sympathy towards when something horrific happens to them. Dark Skies had a whole family to achieve this level of apathy for. While it did take a bit of time, by the end of the movie, I truly cared about what was happening to the Barrett family. The same can be said for the pacing of the film; it was slow to start, but picked up quickly and made the audience invested in the actions on screen.
I don't really have anything bad to say about Dark Skies (other than I don't know why characters never thought to turn on a light whenever they walked through their house at night). It was a decent flick, and fun to watch with a group of friends for a good thrill. If your looking to be scared out of your pants, however....try to find something else.
RENT OR SKIP: Rent
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