Review: Dark Skies (2013)

Dark Skies

IMDB rate: 6,2

Genre: Science-Fiction

Finally! Another 2013 movie! I'm finally catching up a bit with all these amazing movies made this year. And believe me, 2013 is a good horror year this far! Normally there is only one good -or reasonable- movie brought out in a year, but this year has brought us a lot more! Well, I won't continue talking about that, because this is only a review about one movie: Dark Skies. I saw the trailer of this movie in the beginning of the year and I've wanted to see it but I never got around watching it. The trailer looked cool, but well, from my experience when a trailer is cool, the movie most likely isn't. So I never really bothered watching it because I assumed it wasn't very good. 

Now, I finally saw it and I must say that I'm quite impressed by it!

As the Barret 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.

When I first saw the trailer I expected some sort of haunted house movie, perhaps with ghosts and stuff like that, I had no idea that it was about aliens! I'm not a big fan of Science-fiction movies but like I already said, I quite liked this one. 

Dark Skies is from the same producers as Insidious and Paranormal Activity, I quite liked the first and second PA but I disliked Insidious a lot, but now I've seen Dark Skies I'm convinced that this one is better than either of those movies.  

There are certainly a few elements from those movies in Dark Skies, for example the videocameras in the rooms, waking up in the middle of the night standing in the garden and some more stuff like that, but while it had similar stuff going on, it never looked too much like each other. 

The happenings started out really small, it seemed more like a prank than a treat. When days went by, these pranks turned a lot more serious. I actually got goosebumps while watching it, because there was so much tension in the movie. I loved it! 

We don't get to see these aliens until one of the last scenes. We didn't get a clear look but they looked quite scary from what I could see. In one scene we see one walking behind one of the characters, at first I didn't notice, but when I did... holy shit, I must admit that it did scare me for a second.

The acting is very good. I think Keri Russell is an amazing actress (I loved her so much in August Rush) and I wasn't sure how she would be in a horror movie, but again, she didn't fail to amaze me! I'm not really familiar with Josh Hamilton but he was excellent too. The kids acted reasonable, the little kid was adorable but I wasn't too sure of his acting. The older kid was decent too. 

The only thing that bothered me a lot was the same old horror mistake; people seem to forget that they have lamps in their homes. The alarm goes off, and those people ran downstairs to search the house, IN THE DARK. Some other weird stuff is going on, let's investigate again, IN THE DARK. I'm sorry but are all basic instincts lost when you're scared? Are we suddenly able to see incredibly good in the dark while we're in a rush? I'm sorry but it's so bothering that people in movies don't turn on the lights. 

Overall, I liked this movie quite a bit. It surprised me a lot! I really recommend watching this movie because I thought it was an amazing science-fiction/horror movie. Great acting, great scares and a great story! Honestly, I'm hoping for a sequel because the ending left me frightened!

My personal rate: 8/10