Around the turn of the 2010s, a young filmmaker named Scott Stewart directed two knowingly pulpy action-sci-fi hybrids starring Paul Bettany. In Legion, the future MCU star played the Archangel Michael, a buff, gun-toting angel who descends from Heaven to protect the infant savior of humanity from a vengeful God who has decided to wipe out humanity (His one great disappointment) once and for all. Then, in Priest, Bettany played a warrior trained by ‘The Church’ to battle the vampires that have waged war on humanity for centuries. Both of these movies were squarely aimed at audiences who couldn’t get enough of the Underworld and Resident Evil franchises, and they were moderate hits at the box office.
Instead of continuing down this effects-heavy, action-focused path with his third film, though, Stewart — who began his career as a visual effects artist on movies like Night at the Museum and Iron Man — took a left turn. Perhaps seeking a return to basics, Stewart teamed with legendary modern horror producer Jason Blum on 2013’s Dark Skies, a $3.5 million-budgeted sci-fi/horror flick that emphasized character dynamics, dread, and escalating tension, rather than visual pyrotechnics and relentless gunfire. Unfortunately, the movie wasn’t particularly well-received, meaning it can only be chalked up as one of the sci-fi genre’s biggest missed opportunities of recent decades.
Dark Skies Cleverly Presents Itself as a Haunted House Movie
A young boy sits under his blanket with a flashlight and a walkie-talkie in DARK SKIESImage via Matt Kennedy/©Dimension Films/Courtesy Everett Collection
If an audience member paid for a Dark Skies ticket on the strength of its unnerving poster, but hadn’t seen any trailers or pre-release reviews, the first act could have fooled them into thinking they were watching the next Paranormal Activity. Indeed, the early scenes unfold very much like a haunted house movie, with Keri Russell’s Lacy and Josh Hamilton’s Daniel growing increasingly spooked by the bizarre occurrences in their quiet suburban home.
First, they wake up in the morning to find their kitchen rearranged in an unnatural way, not unlike the chairs being placed on the kitchen table in Poltergeist. Then, their home security system goes haywire one night, blaring noisily and reporting that all entry points were tripped at the same time, much like a very similar scene in Insidious. Soon after, hundreds of birds slam into their house, a scene that would ironically play out pretty much verbatim later the same year in The Conjuring.
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So far, so ghostly, right? In fact, if other haunted house movies are to be believed, the logical thing for Lacy and Daniel to do after witnessing a mass bird suicide is to contact their local priest. However, Dark Skies soon tips its hand to reveal that the malevolent force oppressing the family isn’t a ghost or a demon; it’s something much more otherworldly. When their youngest son, Sammy, begins sleepwalking in the street, but can’t remember leaving the house, panic begins to build.
Then, when Daniel and his oldest son Jesse suffer horrifying episodes of catatonia, but have no memory of them, and both boys develop unusual geometric marks on their skin, Lacy begins to think outside the box. A quick Google search leads her to online cranks claiming the terrifying things her family has been experiencing can be laid at the feet of UFOs. Worst of all, though, they also claim the events are building toward an alien abduction.
J.K. Simmons Steals the Show as a UFO Expert
J.K Simmons wears a hat and glasses while looking on in conversation in Dark SkiesImage via Dimension Films
As the revelation that she’s actually dealing with shadowy extra-terrestrials entering her home in the dark of night hits Lacy, she reaches out to an expert in the matter. This is another tried-and-true trope of the haunted house movie, as there’s always an eccentric professor or kooky psychic who believes in what is happening and has dealt with it before, even if it has ruined their career and made them a laughingstock among their peers. Dark Skies’ expert in ‘the Greys (the same slim humanoid figures with oversized heads and big black eyes that abducted Fox Mulder’s sister) is played by none other than J.K. Simmons, though, which immediately lends credibility to whatever he says.
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Simmons, an expert in infusing something unique into genre material, plays Edwin Pollard with an unnerving mix of world-weariness and low-key menace, which prompts the audience to question his motivations. Chances are, he’s simply a melancholy guy who knows his efforts to find the missing abductees in newspaper clippings lining the walls of his office are futile, but Simmons’ mysterious performance still balances the scene on a knife-edge.
The movie transitions into its terrifying third act when Pollard tells Lacy that the Greys have likely chosen one of the family members for abduction. That candidate is usually the first one they have shown specific interest in. Given that she first saw a dark figure standing over Sammy’s bed earlier in the film, she assumes her youngest boy is the one the aliens are after, so the family battens down the hatches for the Fourth of July weekend, complete with a new guard dog and a newly purchased shotgun. Stewart then orchestrates a brilliant climax as the spindly alien beings, who are barely shown as anything other than tall, dark shapes looming in the background of shots, breach the house. It’s tense, nailbiting stuff, and testament to Stewart’s gamble that a science-fiction premise can be just as frightening as any supernatural horror idea, if it is crafted just right.
Dark Skies’ Spine-Chilling Twist Ending Should Have Led to a Sequel
A man talks to authorities while people in hazmat suits work in his yard in DARK SKIESImage via Matt Kennedy/Dimension Films/Courtesy Everett Collection
Before the credits roll on Dark Skies, Stewart doles out one final twist, and it ends the film on a devastatingly bleak note. When the Greys attack the family, Lacy and Daniel are so preoccupied with trying to protect Sammy that they don’t see what has been right in front of their eyes the whole time. Instead of Sammy vanishing in a flash of light, the spacefaring visitors abduct Jesse, with his helpless parents totally unable to stop them. They subsequently become suspects in the disappearance of their son, and are forced to move house to escape the relentless accusations from their neighbors.
Then, as one final gut punch, Stewart shows Lacy looking through a box of old memories, where she finds a picture Jesse drew as a young boy. In it, the Greys surround him, and Lacy suddenly realizes it was her older son the aliens wanted all along.
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For Stewart, Dark Skies was a much more personal film than either Legion or Priest, and its inspiration came from a harrowing real-life place. He was influenced by the countless missing persons cases he’d read about over the years, especially those involving children whose parents were later accused of doing something nefarious. It made him wonder how that parent would feel if something outside the realm of common understanding had happened to their child, but no one would ever believe them if they told the truth. It’s an unnerving thought, and one Stewart is perfectly content to leave the audience with, rather than giving them the easy way out of a happy ending.
Sadly, upon release, Dark Skies made less than $30 million at the box office and was dismissed by many critics as derivative. However, while it might be true that it touches on many familiar tropes of the haunted house genre, is it fair to call it derivative if those tropes are specifically employed to misdirect the audience? Whatever the case, even though the film’s low budget ensured the film was still massively profitable, the poor reception likely put paid to any chance of the sequel hinted at when Jesse’s disembodied voice comes through his little brother’s walkie-talkie in the final shot.
Over the years, however, the film has stood the test of time, with a dedicated fan base regularly discussing their love of the movie on social media and Reddit. Is there enough of a groundswell to get a belated sequel into production? Probably not, and that’s a shame, as Dark Skies could certainly have lent itself to multiple stories involving the Barrett family. After all, as Simmons’ ominous expert says in the film, “Sometimes they come back.”
Release Date
February 21, 2013
Runtime
95 minutes
Director
Scott Stewart
Writers
Scott Stewart