With a glut of demon and haunted house movies out there, producers are always looking for a way to capitalize on a genre and try and keep it fresh. Blumhouse Productions, who have brought us SINISTER, INSIDIOUS, and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, are keeping the haunted house asthetic, but changing the source of the torment.
DARK SKIES, as you can probably guess from the title, has aliens as the antagonists. I rolled my eyes before watching the trailer, expecting it to be god awful. Instead, it looks like an effectively scary movie. The conceit that the characters are possessed by the aliens gives an extra creep factor to the entire film. I won’t expect this to be a great movie, but it looks better than crap like THE FOURTH KIND.
Plot: 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.
DARK SKIES stars Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton. It was written and directed by Scott Stewart (PRIEST, LEGION). It is set to invade theaters on February 22, 2013.