BEFORE: To make it through New York Comic-Con and only fall ONE day behind on my schedule, I think that's an accomplishment. Sure, I'd love to get two more movies crossed off the list before vacation, but I'll settle for one.
Keri Russell carries over again from "Antlers". Again, who knew Keri Russell was in three horror movies? I sure didn't. Then again, who remembers that Keri Russell was in a "Star Wars" movie? I'm a huge Star Wars fan, and I keep forgetting that. Maybe because we never saw her face, she had a blast helmet on the whole time, which is an odd choice perhaps - most actors just want to be seen, but I guess not always.
THE PLOT: As a family's peaceful suburban life is rocked by an escalating series of disturbing events, they come to learn that a terrifying and deadly force is after them, one which may have arrived from beyond the stars.
AFTER: This worked out well, in the weirdest of ways - watching two scary movies before I have to get up at 5 am and leave for the airport at 6 am to catch an 8:45 plane - who the heck can sleep after watching "Antlers" an "Dark Skies"? My dreams are only going to be about cannibalistic Native American spirits or aliens trying to suck my brains out - so, really, it's better if I stay up all night and sleep on the plane. Sure, it's a short trip to North Carolina, but sleeping on a plane is better than being awake on a plane, because then you can't think about the fact that you're miles up in the air, god knows what could happen, and does anybody really understand the principles of physics that allow a plane to stay in the air? No, I don't think they really do, I think they only work because nobody is really thinking about it, like how Wile E. Coyote can run off of a cliff in a cartoon, but he doesn't fall because he doesn't yet KNOW that he's suspended in mid-air over the canyon. Only when he LOOKS DOWN, and thinks about gravity does he fall to the ground far below. So, therefore, it's better to not think about it, and if I'm asleep, I can't think about it. Right?
So I just worked a shift at the movie theater, and I've got a few hours before the flight, so let's get into some aliens stuff. Many years ago, I remember going to a classmate's birthday party, I think, and they took everybody to the movies to watch "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", which came out shortly after the first "Star Wars" film, which took place in a galaxy far, far away - but "Close Encounters" had aliens coming to Earth, which was an exciting concept! And the aliens not only wanted to play music for us, but they also brought back some American pilots that they took away years ago, I guess they were finished with them or something. Anyway, it's nice that they returned them, their families died years ago but it's the thought that counts. These were GOOD aliens, they wanted to make contact, exchange ideas and also take Richard Dreyfuss off our hands and put him in the earthling exhibit in the intergalactic zoo or something.
Yeah, the aliens in "Dark Skies" are not that kind of alien. These "greys" want to short out all of our household security cameras so they can stand over us and watch us while we sleep, which just can't be good. Then when they've chosen their favorite member of the family - based on what, I don't know - they abduct one, usually a teenager, and then they examine them or probe them or maybe even eat them, while the teen's parents become the chief suspects in their son or daughter's disappearance. Well, it's not very comforting, but it could explain what happened to at least SOME of those missing kids seen on all those milk cartons over the years.
During the aliens' surveillance of this typical American family, the Barretts, a lot of strange things happen - waves of birds crash into their windows one day, leading to a massive disgusting clean-up the next day. Also, there's some kind of radiation or frequency that makes the family members act in strange ways - their younger son Sammy starts screaming and can't stop, and then later sleepwalks out of the house at night. They all have these sort of catatonic episodes, the mother walks repeatedly into a glass door while working as a real estate agent, then later wakes up in her own bed with a big bruise on her head. Also strange geometric shapes are discovered on the bodies of both sons, Sammy and Jesse, and the doctors can't explain them, but are also obligated to alert Child Protective Services because they suspect child abuse.
Mr. Barrett's response is to get their house's security system repaired and also to install cameras in every room - then as he obsessively scans through the footage, he notices that there are patterns of lapsed coverage, and a frame-by-frame analysis reveals the shadowy figures standing over each family member as they sleep. The logical thing to do would be to, I don't know, just leave town and start fresh somewhere the aliens don't know about, like Montana or something, but instead the family takes illogical actions, like staying in place and getting a guard dog and a shotgun. Because that always ends well.
They spend the Fourth of July holiday boarding up the house and then watching fireworks on TV and reminiscing about happier times - I approve this message because I never leave the house either on July 4, there are just too many illegal fireworks out there in NYC and if it sounds like downtown Fallujah in my neighborhood, I think I'll stay indoors, thank you so much. The aliens decide to double down on the holiday weekend, though, and move forward with the abduction plans. Oh, but how to choose which human to probe? Take the cutest one, of course - but isn't that subjective? I guess it all depends on what they're planning to do, study the human through dissection or put them in the intergalactic zoo, or just eat them. Nah, better not eat the Americans, most of them are way too fatty. Hey, if we can't kill the aliens with guns or knives, at least we can kill them by giving them heart disease and high cholesterol.
NITPICK POINT: I know they needed to set up a moment late in the film, but does it make sense for brothers Sammy and Jesse to communicate via walkie-talkie, when they live in the same house? Are their bedrooms on different floors or something? If they want to talk to each other late at night, why can't they just text each other, or one could just go into the other's bedroom and they could talk in person? Or they could share a room, just a thought.
"Dark Skies" was produced by Blumhouse Productions and I think I have to give some kind of shout-out here to Jason Blum, who was interviewed on one of the late-night talk shows last week. Over the last 20 years, I don't think there's been a more prolific producer in the horror genre - and beyond, but really, this guy built his career on horror films. The ones I've seen include the "Purge" films, "Get Out", "Glass" and "Split", "Us", "Ma", "Don't Let Go", "The Invisible Man", "The Hunt", "Fantasy Island", "The Gift" and the non-horror films "Whiplash", "Vengeance" and "BlacKkKlansman". And the ones I'm planning to see are "Freaky", "Black Christmas", the more recent "Halloween" movies, "The Black Phone", "Mr. Harrigan's Phone", "M3GAN", "Prey" and "They/Them". And then there are the franchises "Paranormal Activity", "Insidious" and "Happy Death Day" and the upcoming films "Exorcist: The Believer" and "Five Nights at Freddy's". Even if you ignore that last one because it seems to be a remake of "Willy's Wonderland", this guy sure knows how to keep cranking out the movies! When does this guy sleep - DOES this guy even sleep? I could probably devote an entire October to horror films produced by Jason Blum and not even come CLOSE to watching all of the films he's produced.
But that's a problem for another day - I don't even want to THINK about next year's horror chain if I'm not even done with this year's scary movies, OK? In the meantime I don't want to sleep tonight, or the aliens might abduct me just before my vacation, and that would really suck. The Movie Year will be on hold for the next five days, I'll be back to re-open in about a week and begin the final push toward Halloween, which I think is on October 31st this year.
Also starring Josh Hamilton (last seen in "Eighth Grade"), Dakota Goyo (last seen in "Noah"), Kadan Rockett, J.K. Simmons (last heard in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"), L.J. Benet (last seen in "You Again"), Rich Hutchman (last seen in "The Island"), Myndy Crist (last seen in "Gun Shy"), Annie Thurman (last seen in "The Hunger Games"), Jake Washburn, Ron Ostrow (last seen in "Being the Ricardos"), Tom Costello, Marion Kerr, Alyvia Alyn Lind (last seen in "Blended"), Josh Stamberg (last seen in "Home Again"), Tiffany Jeneen, Brian Stepanek (last seen in "Green Book"), Judith Moreland, Adam Schneider, Jessica Borden, Kenneth Meseroll, Trevor St. John (last seen in "Higher Learning"), Andy Umberger (last seen in "The Rum Diary"), Michael Patrick McGill (last seen in "Message from the King"), Josh Wingate.
RATING: 6 out of 10 newspaper clippings
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