Director Scott Stewart takes a break from working on big budgeted action/horror pics like Legion and Priest to focus on a more smaller-budgeted creepy alien abduction tale called Dark Skies. The flick is produced by Blumhouse Productions, which is no stranger to developing successful atmospheric creepers like the Paranormal Activity films and Sinister. Dark Skies basically takes your standard haunted house tale and replaces the pesky malevolent spirits with aliens. I personally like the idea, especially since it's been a while since a solid alien thriller has been released.

The story follows a struggling young family that are behind on their bills, but soon find that money will be the least of their worries once strange happenings begin to occur in their home, like objects suddenly being piled up, alarms going off despite no forced entry, long-limbed silhouettes in the dead of night, a swarm of crows kamikazing their house and their youngest son going into mysterious trancelike states. After a little late-night googling, the father determines that they may be getting visits from aliens, and the higher beings have set their sights on the family's youngest.

Like I said before, the flick basically follows the same formula seen in haunted house pics, so it's not necessarily new, but the alien concept offers different options to approach certain aspects that wouldn't necessarily be available for a typical haunted house fair. Despite the scares being fairly standard, the movie had a dark and foreboding atmosphere from the start, adding to much of the already creepy scenes. The movie was especially effective in the early bits when we didn't know what was going on and saw very little of the aliens. Unfortunately, we're shown more and more towards the end, leaving little to the imagination and displaying some mediocre CG.

Regardless of the overexposure of the aliens, I dug the flick for the most part. It held an eerie vibe from the beginning and offered a couple chilling scenes. I especially liked the climax, though wished it would've lasted a bit longer than it had.

Dark Skies takes your standard haunted house tale and replaces the ghosts with aliens, and it works for the most part. I dug the story and enjoyed the creepy atmospheric vibe it had going from the start. Although they could've handled the aliens themselves better, much of what occurs in the early bits of the flick were well done. Worth a look, especially for those seeking a slightly different kind of "haunting."