reelryerson

'Dark Skies' is a movie about embarrassment. The Barretts are a perfectly normal, loving middle-class family living in a perfectly normal suburban neighbourhood having perfectly run-of-the-mill conversations with their alike neighbours at the backyard BBQ. What they don't want you to know about are the awkward realities of their lives. Director/writer Scott Stewart sets up their world adroitly, with a gentle but knowing eye, all the better to smash it to smithereens when a hostile entity enters their domain. The genre cliches are there, but the film is so carefully crafted and the tension high enough that the jump scares don't have to be goosed with loud noises. I also think that the way in which the story plays out has a nice subtly subversive warp to it. The real horror is not the "monster" itself but the family's total loss of control, depicted in scenes that are very unnerving.

Well, you certainly walk away from this movie knowing you've seen something! I see it as a descendant of John Carpenter's 1982 The Thing, with it's outrageous body mutation horror, as well as a B-movie cousin to Annihilation, with its metamorphosis of the natural world, both movies also with alien contexts. I liked Color Out of Space mostly for two reasons: It plunges enthusiastically into its subject matter, offering up a movie that is wild, bonkers, and nerve-wracking. Also it's skillfully and beautifully filmed. The characters are distinctive and come to life (a rarity in this type of movie), and I found myself caring about each one of them. One thing you can say about Nicolas Cage is that he doesn't stint in his performances, and I hear he's a bit off-the-beam on set, but he really does give a well modulated turn in this, a movie that's worthy of his talents. Color Out of Space is unbridled and a bit shaggy around the edges, but I'd rather have that than tasteful and bland any day.

Many of the reviews posted here are giving away far too much of the plot, revealing too much of the mystery. It's best to watch this film cold, as I did, because most of the fun comes from the uncertainty surrounding the boy's accusations of malevolence against his loyal nanny, and the question of who's next to get knocked off. Whom are you to believe? Adding to the confusion, the movie is loaded with red herrings to throw us off track, and Bette Davis plays her part with such unblinking common-sense sincerity, it's hard to get a take on her. There are some clumsy bits, but the film held me in suspense all the way through. A good Hammer production, well-paced, perfect for a rainy afternoon. I have only one question - what's with Davis' weird Joan Crawford eyebrows?