For the longest time, we’ve always found it hard to believe that aliens exist. Until we watched “Dark Skies”. Unlike the friendly extraterrestrial “E.T”, the film focuses on beings that visit the Earth for one purpose and one purpose only – invasion. Action films usually depict Alien invasions to be catastrophic events that include cities coming under siege, explosions, and the destroying of monuments.
But not “Dark Skies”, no siree.
The film opens with your average struggling suburban family of four, the Barretts – father, mother, and two sons (Jesse, played by Dakota Goyo, and Sam, played by Kadan Rockett). When we say struggling, we mean financially. As with most preconceptions about financially struggling families, this one too is unraveling at seams.
Oh, you know the works. Constantly arguing parents, the older son exploring the joys of being a teenager, and the younger one disturbed by nightmares. For the first 20 minutes or so, everything that happens in their home seems normal for a family like theirs until a certain “Sandman” comes into existence and weird occurrences start taking place.
First it’s the grand monuments and juggling of food items in the kitchen and the wiping out of family photos. Then it’s the house alarm going off for no apparent reasons and the “black out”s experienced by several members of the family. Coupled with possessions, strange allergies, unexplainable markings on the kids’ bodies, and other strange phenomenon e.g. CCTVs around the house conveniently going static at late into the nights.
Yes, we’re well aware that at this point, it’s sounding a whole lot like something out of one or more of the “Paranormal Activity” film installments.
So like all thriller-type slightly disturbing movies, the family (namely, the parents) then set out to find out what it is that’s bothering them and their kids. At first, the father (played by Josh Hamilton) refuses to believe in the idea of aliens but after he “sees” the “Gray” with his own eyes, he’s inclined to take up his wife’s (played by Keri Russell) offer to seek advice from an “expert”. The expert tells them that they have an option to keep their family safe from these “Gray” thingamajigs who are known to take the first person (in the family) that they made contact with.
Do the parents succeed in nurturing togetherness in their vain attempts to keep their sons safe? More importantly, do you think you’ll ever believe that aliens exist? Find out when the movie is released in a cinema near you on 28th February 2013 (Thursday).
For more information, visit the movie’s official website.