Dark Skies

Dark Skies tells the story of Lacy (Keri Russell) and Daniel Barrett (Josh Hamilton), a typical American couple living in the suburbs with their kids, Jesse (Dakota Goyo) and Sam (Kadan Rockett). But things begin to turn quite atypical for them when strange disturbances in the middle of the night quickly begin to escalate – from signs of an animal getting into their fridge, to their furniture being bizarrely arranged into an unbelievably balanced tower to family photos vanishing from inside frames. Is it a stalker? Is one of the children disturbed? Or, could it be… aliens?
Writer/director Scott Stewart (Legion, Priest) gives the film a recession-era bent by introducing us to the Barretts in the midst of some hard times. Daniel has been laid off and can’t seem to find a new job, leading to growing tension between him and Lacy. Russell (currently kicking ass, both dramatically and physically, on The Americans) and Hamilton (Louie fans may remember him as the obnoxious neighbor Louie got high with) are both very good here creating a believable relationship and the strain the two are already under before things get freaky.

But Dark Skies falters when it moves beyond that family unit. There are some notably cheesy moments involving the requisite skeptics in stories like this – the local cop or guy from the alarm company who are there to roll their eyes and give the “well, it must have been this” explanation for the crazy-ass stuff happening in this house. It doesn’t help matters that some of these peripheral characters are performed in particularly hammy ways.
It’s hard not to feel Stewart was heavily influenced by early Spielberg here, as Dark Skies feels very much like Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets Poltergeist – taking the former’s possible alien arrival and the latter’s suburban home setting, complete with the youngest member of the family the one to have the most direct early contact with the presence among them. (Yes, I know that, rumors aside, Spielberg, according to the credits, was “only” a writer and producer on Poltergeist, but still…)
The film often walks a very fine line as far as what is creepy and what is campy are concerned, especially as pretty much each family member begins to take a turn going to some very odd places and acting extremely strange – including making some uncharacteristic noises. I suspect mileage will vary among audiences as far as those who outright laugh at some of this and those who find it suitably unsettling. Ultimately, the creepy side slightly “wins,” but Stewart is unable to sustain Dark Skies’ tension for as long as he’s attempting.