The latest horror from producer Jason Blum, Dark Skies is hoping to go for that same effect which Paranormal Activity managed to create, the absolute fear of your own home and family.
Marketing the horror as the latest from the producer of Insidious and Paranormal Activity might not be the best way to go about advertising this particular film. Although Insidious produced an amazing first hour with enough jumps to make you consider leaving the cinema, the second hour failed the film miserably, revealing the source of its scares too soon and making you feel like an idiot for being scared in the first place.
On the other hand, the first Paranormal Activity was a pretty terrifying piece of work with the second instalment not really doing anything to settle our nerves. However, the fact remains that this formula is becoming particularly tired at this stage and is not really pulling the shock value, much like its sister project Dark Skies.
Revolving around the Barret family and the weird occurrences that are beginning to happen in their daily lives, Dark Skies plays up on the idea of the child being a doorway to terror. Taking its inspiration from Insidious and perhaps to a lesser extent Poltergeist, Dark Skies throws up a different theory as to what could be haunting children. When the Barret family are unable to ignore strange events in their house and the frightening behaviour of their children, they go to an expert to discover what is going on with their family.
What is completely evident from the outset is that children are the definitely frightening presences in any horror film, crouched on the ground, catatonic in random places and developing interactions with certain other worldly presences, kids are petrifying. Dakota Goyo, who we tipped as one to watch in Real Steel, puts in a great performance as the haunted Jesse as does Kadan Rockett who plays the younger Sam. Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton also deliver reasonable but not brilliant turns as the parents but never really seem scared enough of everything that is going on to really convince the audience.
Frankly, there just are not enough scares and any that do occur are entirely predictable. If you enter your son’s room every night in the dark to check on him, we know the way this one will go in the later parts of the film. Horror is losing its element of surprise and without pure fear and the shock factor, there’s no enticement to watch any new releases. The horror industry has been in quite the rut over the years, latching on to any good ideas that occur like Scream and Saw and subsequently milking them for all they are worth…
Take it from us, there’s not really a lot to be scared of here.
