Saturday 8 February 2014

Dark Skis

It's a horror movie! With a sci-fi take! It starts with a quote from Arthur C Clarke and has crop circles in it... oh dear, recent alien based movies are not filling me with hope...

In the Barrett household, strange things start happening. Someone eats the food in the fridge, and later stacks all the dishes on top of each other. The youngest son says that the Sandman is talking to him. Various family members start losing time and control of their body. And a large grey shape is seen in the home...

And this movie is far better done as a horror movie than most movies I've seen recently that rely on ghosts! Okay, so the alien explanation (as delivered by J K Simmons, who is in this for some reason) is pure conspiracy theory, and hard to digest, but the movie runs with it. Atmosphere is built up, and this is freaking key, as I've said before. Regardless of what the horror is, do it slowly! Strange things happen, but they aren't the stuff of jump scares, just 'what the hell was that?' and that's what works!

The family is well played enough, but the cast sounds like knock offs. Not Kurt Russell but Keri Russell. Dakota Fanning? We got Dakota Goyo. Instead of a Josh Holloway, I can do you a Josh Hamilton (who would go on to play other weird fathers in American Horror Story). The effects, because they are subtle, are well done, and the CGI moments are well done (indeed, they could be actual costumes, I couldn't tell!).

The alien aspect might make you think twice about this, but it is better than many paranormal hauntings.

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