If one watches the Dark Skies trailer for the first time, they might be inclined to think Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs somehow hooked up and had a film baby. The previews have done a decent job of laying down a spooky atmosphere, but instead of keeping the frights on tight lockdown, they throw them at viewers, hoping to get them in theaters to see a handful of other jump scares that will probably lead to a disappointing ending. If this ends up being an incorrect assessment, the blame lays at my feet, next to a pile of dead birds.
Empire has released a new quad poster for Dark Skies, and aside from the fact that the skies are actually covered up by a bunch of clouds (not exactly dark), it appears the film's bird motif is too strong to be left behind. A giant flock surrounds the house of the film’s lead characters, the Barrett family, and judging from what the previews tell us, these birds are probably all ready to drop in a synchronized bird thunderstorm upon the house below. Considering this is a film about aliens, it’s unclear why they’re keeping the promotions so ornithological. What does the poster below say to you?
Dark Skies tells the doom-laden story of a suburban family, Daniel (Josh Hamilton) and Lacy (Keri Russell) Barrett and their children Sam (Kadan Rockett) and Jesse (Dakota Goyo), whose lives are disrupted by a series of horrifying events, and long the way they discover that a deadly force is after them. Since most of the promotional interviews tell us that the central conflict involves aliens haunting their kids, it’s unclear why these ads are so one-dimensional. See for yourself if a bird in the sky is worth a few hundred in your yard when Dark Skies opens nationwide on February 22, 2013.
