I am not normally someone who even contemplates watching a horror movie.
While my housemate happily watches all manner of frightening films, sometimes before bed which even he admits is not the wisest course of action, I wisely steer away from them largely because (a) I hate being scared and (b) almost every cinema chain I have encountered won’t let you build a Blankets Of Safety Fort (or BSFs, much loved in my childhood when anything got even remotely scary) in their cinemas.
I know weird right? What kind of unsympathetic OH & S policy is that?
So since hiding behind BSFs isn’t an option, and I don’t want to go to bed fearing what may come crawling out from under my bed, I ignore these sort of films like the plague (also something I don’t like seeing in a movie thank you very much; especially if the plague-ridden body decides to rise up from the grave).
But there is something about Dark Skies (from the people who brought you Paranormal Activity and Insidious, two movies that, guess what, I didn’t watch), which releases in the US on 22 February and stars Keri Russell and John Hamilton, that has me contemplating the previously unthinkable.
Watching a scary movie.
In public.
Without a BSF.
Which means Dark Skies has to go to have that something extra, an angle so intriguing I am willingly to out aside my fear of, well pretty much everything (except for zombies) and go and watch it.
Well apparently by all accounts it does.
Moviefone.com, who exclusively revealed the new poster for the movie that heads this post, describe it as “part supernatural thriller, part sci-fi horror” and it’s the supernatural thriller element that has me well and truly enthralled (although if you watch the trailer you will realise that being enthralled may result in a lot of broken windows and copious application of bandages to the head).
What starts off as a street light dimming over one of the sons of happy suburban couple Daniela and Lucie Barret (John Hamilton and Keri Russell) as he rides home on his bike, escalates to weird sculptural arrangements in their home, flocks of birds crashing into their windows, corporeal possession, and a terrifying final confrontation with a malevolent otherworldly force.
Terrifying yes, but definitely intriguing, gripping and it seems, well worth watching.
Even without a BSF.