Over the years we’ve seen so many alien home invasions in movies that we’ve grown to believe that visits from extraterrestrial beings aren’t necessarily a big deal. Maybe the alien who comes for a visit could even be a cute little friend who lives in your closet and develops an addiction to Reese’s Pieces! And heck, worst case scenario you get pulled out of your bed, anally probed up on the mothership, and then they drop you right back off like nothing happened, right? Maybe not. Scott Charles Stewart’s (Priest) new thriller Dark Skies asks what it would be like if the aliens stuck around for a while and tortured your family.
If the new trailer for this film is to be believed, an extended occupation of your home by extraterrestrial forces would not just include objects in your kitchen being mysteriously stacked and dazzling lights glimmering off of your ceiling, but it would also bring an unwelcome plague of birds, brandings and blackouts. Oh my. Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton are starring here as a suburban couple who get tormented by the little green menace, and watching them deal with flocks of birds mysteriously slamming into their windows, strange marks being burnt into their kids’ skin, and their minds getting repeatedly taken over by some mysterious force can be some pretty harrowing stuff.
Yeah, probably you’re saying that this movie is coming from the guy who made Priest and Legion, so there’s no reason to really give it a chance.. but not so fast. Did you also know that J.K. Simmons shows up here playing some sort of alien expert? Well, he does, and his presence alone would be enough to make this movie worth checking out, even if it didn’t also have Felicity repeatedly smacking her head against a plate glass window. Yeah, that’s pretty much the money shot right there.
Dark Skies is set to hit theaters on February 22, 2013. [Fandango]