Movie Review--Dark Skies

"I remember going in the grass to play with the other kids, then I wasn't me anymore."

--Sammy Barrett, Dark Skies

Before Blumhouse-produced horror films like The Purge, Halloween (2018), and The Invisible Man (2020) were released, with their emphasis on human antagonists instead of supernatural entities, the company backed an alien horror movie called Dark Skies.  The film still treats the alien threat like other horror movies treat demonic or otherwise explicitly supernatural forces, with J.K. Simmons even playing an alien expert that has similarities to the priest or paranormal investigator role in other stories.  Dark Skies is actually a better representation of the epistemology of alien life than it is a film with deep characterization.  Like in many other horror movies either focusing on alien or purely supernatural entities, multiple characters in Dark Skies pathetically assume at first that entirely possible explanations are automatically impossible, even though there is no logical contradiction in the idea of aliens being behind certain mysterious events.

Production Values

The aliens, one of which is first shown around half an hour into the runtime, are among the only things that actually require some kind of obvious special effect that goes beyond the more practical kind.  The creatures appear as slim, shadowy figures that can phase in and out of visibility if not teleport outright.  Contrasting with the superficial characterization (not that every character in a movie needs to be developed blatantly or have obvious depth of some kind), the cast performances of the family of main characters are the driving force of the film alongside the mystery of why the protagonists were targeted.  Keri Russel plays the mother, a saleswoman who explores the possibility of an extraterrestrial presence before her husband acknowledges such a thing is even possible.  She perhaps showcases the best acting next to J.K. Simmons himself.  Simmons has a smaller role as a man familiar with stories of extraterrestrial encounters.  Indeed, he claims he has experienced them tampering with his surroundings and calls them the Grays.  The other primary or significant members of the cast have their moments, but it is the youngest actor Kadan Rockett who stands out for his talented acting at such a young age.

Story

Some spoilers are below.

An American family faces an unusual set of difficulties when they find their food scattered on the floor one morning in strange patterns.  The youngest son says something called "the Sandman" appeared to him and rearranged the kitchen items, and every single sensor in the home's alarm system is triggered simultaneously one night shortly after.  Numerous photos from frames by the downstairs TV go missing around the same time.  Birds begin randomly and fatally flying into their windows en masse.  Even a new set of camera feeds all report static around the same time on a certain night when the father attempts to investigate what is happening.  As this is ongoing, members of the family act as if they have become overridden by some external force or lost their awareness of their own perceptions and location.

Intellectual Content

The Arthur C. Clarke quote shown at the beginning states that both the absence of extraterrestrial life and the existence of alien life have terrifying ramifications, but this is a very fallacious misrepresentation of the issue.  First of all, the statement merely expresses a subjective sentiment which is only objectively true when framed as if it merely is the personal perception of individuals like Clarke.  Second, if alien life does exist, it might not be dangerous or threatening in any way.  There are many logically possible variations of alien species that could exist, ranging from enormous cosmic beings with mystical or otherwise superhuman abilities to microbial organisms to mere plants.  Unsurprisingly, the epistemological approach to the concepts referenced in the Clarke quote is just as flawed as that of many characters in the movie.

Epistemology is naturally a very significant part of Dark Skies thanks to the story setup of a family dealing with alien-induced events while outsiders offer nothing more than assumption-based suggestions instead of rationalistic possibilities.  Daniel himself, the father in the Barrett family, dismisses the possibility of alien interference without even giving it a few moments of thought.  Indeed, almost everyone fails to react to the initial events with something that starts to resemble rationalistic skepticism of unproven things--that is, the realization that anything that cannot be disproven is possible.  Anything at all that does not inherently contradict itself or the laws of logic and has not been disproven is possible no matter how bizarre it might subjectively seem.  Mounting evidence brings Daniel to abandon his denial, but he still exemplifies the asinine kind of skepticism in cinema where people reject logically possible claims without understanding that they are indeed possible.

Conclusion

There was potential for Dark Skies to have deeper characterization and perhaps have certain characters verbalize a more prominent embrace of the difference between something being logically possible, true, and false, but the general restraint with the manner in which the aliens are portrayed and the appearance of J.K. Simmons all help counteract some of the mediocrities.  As far as alien movies of the horror type go, Dark Skies is not one of the worst, though it never reaches the more slow burn heights of films like the original Alien.  This leaves it with a mixture of clever and undeveloped aspects that together amount to a movie that misses some opportunities while exploiting others.

Content:

 1.  Violence:  Dark blood comes out of Daniel's nose in one scene.  Kerri Russel's character bangs her head against glass forcefully, and multiple birds fly into windows at the family's house so hard that they die.

 2.  Profanity:  Whatever overt profanity might be in the film is minor at best.

 3.  Sexuality:  A young character is shown watching sexual material online before any nudity has appeared.