One of the Most Overlooked Horror Films of the Past Decade Just Arrived on Max

Some horror movies may not be the scariest when we watch them, yet they stick with us long after the film ends. 2013’s Dark Skies is one of those movies for me, and it just became available to stream on Max.

For a movie that’s only 97 minutes long, Dark Skies has lasting power. The movie follows the Barretts, an average family of four in an average suburban neighborhood, in an average American city. Nothing weird could happen here, right? Lacy (Keri Russell) and Daniel (Josh Hamilton) have two boys, Jesse (Dakota Goyo) and Sam (Kadan Rockett). Besides some economic strain, things seem okay in the Barrett household. Then strange things start to happen at night. They find the dining room furniture rearranged, all the family photos go missing, and the house alarm goes off, warning that all entry points were breached simultaneously.

Things escalate when members of the family begin experiencing missing time. A huge flock of birds flies into the house. Both boys find geometric marks all over their skin. When Lacy tries to seek answers online, her search leads her to think their problems are related to extraterrestrials. They meet with alien expert Edwin Pollard (J. K. Simmons), who explains that “the Greys” target certain families and that activity increases before an abduction takes place.

What makes Dark Skies so scary isn’t the movie itself (although it is creepy), but what it leaves you with. As unsettling as the aliens are—especially when odd noises happen in the middle of the night—it’s the family’s helplessness that haunts me. What Lacy and Daniel go through is every parent’s worst nightmare, and it’s terrifying. Although it probably won’t happen with aliens, parents in real life have so many things to worry about with their kids, much of which is beyond our control. As a kid, one of my biggest fears was aliens, and as a parent, I always worry about my children’s safety. This movie mixes those fears to terrifying effect.

Spoilers ahead for the rest of Dark Skies

Dark Skies haunts you

The parents do everything thing they can to protect their children, only to have the aliens invade and take one of the boys. The movie ends with the parents’ lives in shambles as they try to remain hopeful they’ll see their son again.

While the Barretts try to protect their kids from an unseen force invading their home night after night, they are pretty helpless to stop it. The biggest gut punch in Dark Skies is that everyone suspects the parents are abusing their children and are to blame for the missing child. Lacy and Daniel reach out for help, only to be dismissed as mentally unstable or liars. At one point, authorities call Child Protective Services on them. What could they have done differently? How could they have stopped something so beyond their control? How do you cope with such a failure? That is the real horror of Dark Skies.

(featured image: Dimension Films)