Dark Skies Review (Robert Harding)

Dark Skies Poster

Dark Skies (2013)

Starring Keri Russell, Jake Brennan, Josh Hamilton

Directed by Scott Stewart

It is often said that what you can’t see is scarier than that which you can.  That thinking something might be lurking in the shadows brings about more fear than actually seeing the monster itself. Dark Skies takes this concept in hand and much like a ghost story attempts to craft a sci-fi film with horror elements.

The film revolves around the Barret family. They seem like your everyday normal suburban family. They aren’t without their problems but like most families, they’re dealing with them.  Unfortunately, as life becomes more and more stressful a series of disturbing events begins to escalate the tension. Are they the brunt of some juvenile pranks and a few  coincidental events or is there something more to what’s going on?

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Because the film concentrates on creating fear in order to entertain it’s unfortunate that it doesn’t do the best of jobs. Either the filmmakers weren’t skilled in creating tension and delivering scares or they were trying to make a film for a younger audience and toned down the horror on purpose.  Unfortunately I don’t think the later is the case as all the advertisements seem to point to a genuinely scary movie (which Dark Skies truly isn’t). Between the editing, music, directing, writing and camera work, the film has the right ideas but constantly fails to deliver. Sometimes the shot is ended too early or lasts too long. Other times it is framed improperly so as to fail to create the necessary tension. And it’s clear that they didn’t know how to create false scares or use them properly. Luckily the look of the aliens themselves is rather spooky so the CG work managed to succeed where the regular tricks of the trade failed.

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On the plus side, the film excels in creating a sense of lack of control. Thanks to some great performances from the actors you truly get a sense that they’ve lost all control of the situation. In fact, it is so well portrayed that the audience can easily emphasize and feel a little antsy themselves. There was more than a few times that I wanted to lash out at someone on screen for one reason or another.  At first, the characters are at a loss to explain what is happening to them and will latch on to any plausible explanation possible. When the plausibles don’t add up, they can’t bring themselves to believe in the unthinkable. Then, when they’ve finally come to terms with the implausible, they realise they are practically helpless. It is this constant sense of the unknown combined with the regular mysterious events and the film’s use of sound that help drive home this unnerving sense of helplessness.

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Dark Skies puts a lot of effort into building a frightening tale of alien abduction but doesn’t quite manage to create the scares necessary to elevate it beyond a mere encounter of the dull kind. Younger audiences might find that they manage to get something from the film as a good portion of the horror tropes used and the alien back stories might seem fresh and new to them. Hardcore horror fans would be better off steering clear as not only will they not likely get anything new from the film’s story but they’ll likely find the attempts at creating fear ineffective and possibly even boring.

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A Good Day to Die Hard Review (Robert Harding)

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A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)


Directed by John Moore



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Side Effects Review (Dustin SanVido)

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Side Effects (2013)


Written by Scott Burns

Music by Tomas Newman

Directed by Steven Soderbergh


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Netflix: The Imposter Review (Matt Hodgson)


The Imposter (2012)

Starring Adam O’Brian, Frédéric Bourdin, and Carey Gibson

Directed by Bart Layton

In between unsolicited screenwriting and job hunting (some of the hardest and yet most rewarding work I’ve ever done vs. the Maslovian requirements of food and shelter and the currency exchanged for them) I’ve been spending a lot of time with the slowly improving Canadian Netflix. While I still hear tales about the oasis that is American Netflix, the great white north version now boasts dozens of films and no less than ten different TV shows that I have earmarked for my own personal consumption. Today, based on a recommendation that my partner Heather received from a co-worker, we decided to check out The Imposter: a documentary that was promised to leave our heads spinning.

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While not necessarily a true documentary (more on this later) The Imposter is about real-life events, specifically, the disappearance of a 13-year old boy named Nicholas Barclay and the person who tried to take his place. After Nicholas had been missing for over three years, his family received a phone call saying that he had been found in Spain. Spain! Minds reeling, they followed the necessary steps to return Nicholas to Texas and reunite with the now 16-year old boy. Almost immediately we learn that this wasn’t Nicholas, but rather an adult male posing as a child. This immediately made me think of a recent horror movie that starts with ‘Or’ and ends with ‘phan’. However this unsettling revelation is only the first of many that will leave the viewer shaking their heads, for better or worse.

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While the subject matter of The Imposter is very real, the filmmakers chose a style that is somewhere between documentary and theatrical crime thriller. I understand the choice as it makes the movie a much more entertaining experience with the high-quality re-enactments, but I can’t help but feel that it was a decision that was unjust to both the viewers and the people in the film alike given the terrifyingly real story of Nicholas and the man who tried to take his place. I have always found true crime stories off-putting as they are essentially the misfortunes of some turned into entertainment for others. Also frustrating is the information temporarily withheld by the filmmakers and only used when it provides the ultimate shock value. These revelations would immediately flip how I felt about specific characters and caused be to groan as I realized I was being strung along like a puppet throughout the narrative.

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Criticisms aside, The Imposter is a remarkable experience for the absurdity of the events that took place after the disappearance of Nicholas, and as a piece of entertainment the film is incredible. However, it was impossible to forget that at the heart of this two-hour thrill was one of the most unfortunate accidents or horrendous crimes: the disappearance of a child. I’ll never feel comfortable with this subject matter as entertainment.

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Beautiful Creatures Review (Robert Harding)

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Directed by Richard LaGravenese

Starring Alice Englert, Viola Davis, Emma Thompson

Move over Sabrina, there’s a new teenage witch in the house.  But is she on the side of the dark or light? To find out, you’ll have to watch the movie. Beautiful Creatures is based on the novel of the same name written by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl which is the first book in the Caster Chronicles series.

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Ethan is much too intelligent for his small town and is looking forward to the day where he can leave its sheltered borders for something bigger. When a mysterious new girl named Lena moves to town he is immediately drawn to her despite her families sordid past. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their families, themselves and their town.

Beautiful Creatures is geared towards the young adult crowd with a heavy leaning towards the female gender so it’s very easily compared to Twilight.  Both films involve a supernatural love story but Beautiful Creatures does a much better job of selling the relationship. While still feeling a little rushed, Beautiful Creatures establishes a previous attraction between the two main characters. This allows them to be drawn to each other above and beyond the normal sense and when you add the fact that both are outsiders of a sort, it just makes the relationship all that more plausible.

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Where the story weakens is in the films “breakup.” When a movie devotes time to  bringing two characters together so that the audience believes in the relationship you would expect that when something tears them apart  there would be a big emotional reaction. But the most expected and recognised responses are not what we’re given. In fact, there isn’t much of a reaction at all. This eventually results in a climax that lacks the potential impact it could have otherwise had.

Aside from the breakup, the film does a decent job of telling the story. It could have been a little longer in length and fleshed out the subplots a little better but they weren’t exactly necessary to tell the overall story. The lack of explanation with regards to the various subplots meant that the film feels a little rushed and it tends to jump from one point to the next without a smooth transition.

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I did enjoy the casting in this film. Filled with mostly unknowns and giving almost everyone a down to earth look instead of trying to use sex to sell the film meant that it had a more realistic tone (at least for a supernatural witch movie). Of course this might seem odd for a film called Beautiful Creatures but all is not lost for those looking for a little sex appeal. Emmy Rossum playing the role of Ridley Duchannes not only looks fantastic but does her fair share of adding a little eroticism to an otherwise “Christian” film.

Beautiful Creatures isn’t perfect and is likely missing a great deal of detail from the novel but it was much better than expected. Learning from previous films aimed at the same audience, it has a more believable love story all while tossing some FX heavy scenes into the mix to add some thrills to the drama.  The film may not fulfill all expectations but it does justice to enough of them to entertain. And like all good films of this nature, Beautiful Creatures leaves a little something come the end. Just enough to tease the audience. Sequel? There are more novels to pull from aren’t there?

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