“Dark Skies” is a surprisingly disturbing sci-fi film that seemed to go under most people’s radars. It’s almost as unsettling as “Fire In The Sky”. Both films make the idea of alien encounters much more plausible than the majority of alien films. It’s certainly a lot better than the movie “Signs”.

A suburban family struggle to cope with a series of increasingly strange events. Everything from their image in the local community to the relationships they have with each other are affected as they search for answers. They eventually must come to the realisation that they are dealing with a dark presence that is not of this world.

The main characters in “Dark Skies” are not actually all that exciting but that’s sort of the point. They are a normal family they find their world turned into a living nightmare. Keri Russell (“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”) is good as Lacy and she probably gives the best performance. J.K. Simmons (“Spider-Man”, “La La Land”) appears briefly as an expert on dealing with the aliens. I enjoyed the scene where he explains the encounters. The aliens themselves are not seen very clearly. They don’t look amazing but their appearance is sinister.

“Dark Skies” is a movie that works really well because it knows how to keep the tension building and it has some really disturbing ideas in it. The twist at the end is brilliant as it some truly sinister implications and I love the fact that the clues were hiding in plain sight the whole time. I must warn people that this is a genuinely scary film and it is not some light sci-fi romp. It’s way better than I thought it would be. If you really want to give yourself a fright then why not watch “Fire In The Sky” and “Dark Skies” back-to-back?