Dark Skies

I’m an idiot! I’ve known him for thirty years! I’ve known him for thirty years and again I fall for it. Sváťa Pulec said it for me. I know Scott Charles Stewart, I’ve seen both his films – I even went to the cinema for Priest! And once again I looked forward to his new one, went to the cinema, and left disappointed. That will be my cross to bear. Dark Skies got me with its premise of alien abductions, one that hasn’t been properly developed in the horror genre, so I really wanted it to be good. But it starts and ends with the premise. It never goes anywhere, it’s a by-the-numbers film with toe-curling dialogues and no tension. I don’t demand originality in horror – sometimes a well used cliché is more effective than a filmmaker trying to come out with something original –, but in this case, it simply doesn’t work out. It’s just nothing. The best film by Stewart? Yes, but that’s still far from enough. 5/10 (18/04/2013)

Dark Skies has a somewhat slower start, during which I developed quite a dislike for the father figure (which persisted throughout the rest of the film). But from the first appearance of the unwelcome visitor the plot picks up a nice pace and does not stop even by the wilder (and perhaps too overcomplicated) ending. There are a couple of scares that work thanks to the good sound design and edition, but it's still a rather more restrained sci-fi horror film that also feels low-budget ($3,500,000) considering. It was nice to see J.K. Simmons in a smaller role, but could have easily been given more space. (27/02/2023)

In the middle of the movie, they think of turning on night-vision cameras in all rooms to find out what happened at night ... Watching it at some time between the heyday of The X-Files and the first Paranormal Activity would’ve been fine. Today, this crossover of various horror concepts has nothing new to offer and only recycles what we’ve seen a hundred times. The goosebump-inducing scenes work, but is it really a win when something works in the film simply because of the work of the sound engineers? A thankless second-tier role for J.K. Simmons. (24/04/2013)