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Overall Rating : 3/10
Directed By : Roy Knyrim
Jason Connery (Hoboken Hollow)
A.J. Cook (Final Destination 2)
Ashley Peldon (Skin Walker)
George Stults (7th Heaven (TV) )
Supplied By : Sony Pictures
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Jan. 5, 2007
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| PLOT On March 13th, 1997 one of the largest UFO sightings ever recorded took place across the southwestern United States. The event became known as the 'Phoenix Lights' and was witnessed by community leaders, members of law enforcement, as well as thousands of everyday citizens. This true story, based on transcripts from actual hypnosis-therapy sessions, finally reveals what happened after the infamous incident ended and how six people, stranded by chance on a forgotten road, encountered more than just lights in the sky. |
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| THE REVIEW Supposedly based on true events based from transcripts recorded from an eye-witness/victims testimony, NIGHT SKIES chronicles the unworldly events that occurred one night in 1997 in Arizona and several other Southwestern states. The film follows a group of friends heading to Vegas in their RV. There is some fighting within the group, mainly over the driver Matt's seemingly poor driving choices that have made their arrival in Vegas a lot slower than expected, but soon they find that slow arrival to their destination would be the least of their problems this night. The suspicious happens begin once the friends spot a strange formation of lights in the ski, it's not long before they are mesmerized by the sight they see. Matt is distracted by the said lights, thus causing him to swerve the RV and crash into a truck stalled on the side of the road, owned by Richard, a war veteran. During the crash a passenger in the RV named Joe was impaled on a nearby knife, and without a first aid kit it is up to the vet Richard to work in make shift ways in order to save Joe until they can get him to a hospital. Following the sighting of the mysterious lights in the sky, the group as well as Richard have been experiencing strange noises as well as unexplainable radio frequencies, but when the injure Joe's condition worsens their experiences would get that much more bizarre, While out looking for help for Joe, Matt and Richard encounter what they think is something in the woods - Matt suddenly disappears and Richard shoots at what he appears to be an alien. Richard frightened by the happenings in the woods, returns to the RV and is in panic and cannot bring himself to explain of Matt's whereabouts, not ever to his Sister Molly or his secretly pregnant Girlfriend Lilly. It is then the remaining, more particular, Molly see and hear whom they believe to be Matt, and in a hurry Molly races out to him - which in the end proves to be a mistake... Molly is approached by an equally mysterious green hued light that literally sucks her into the awaiting sky.... and she vanishes, the attacks would continue and most would disappear in the same fashion, but Lilly and Richard would remain. The to as we think, survivors run off to a remote cabin in the woods Richard had spotted earlier, but soon that would not be safe... bombarded by the life forms they soon find themselves in the clutches of torture courtesy of the aliens in their spaceship(I guess). Soon Richard is found in the desert 100 miles from where his truck was found...beaten and traumatized. Just like any modern Horror film these days, NIGHT SKIES starts with your typical "group in a vehicle headed somewhere, but later get hopelessly stranded with no help in sight" formula, but this time, instead of being stalked and slashed by a killer, they find themselves at the mercy of aliens....yes aliens. Based on an eyewitness's "true" recollection of the events, because he was there( it is based on the real Richard's testimony apparently) it is just like any of the other UFO films to ever come out, and nothing more than that. People that were "there" or claim to be, always say what they experience to be truth, but can you really and truly actually believe them? I can't. Just as George Lutz'z account of The Amityville case, he always claimed it happened but there had been no proof....such as the case with all of these alien sightings. With the factual hoopla aside the film starts off rather entertaining, because as I mentioned it gives off the feel of a slasher film, albeit a TV movie type feel, but it is not long before a semi-promising film turns into a film that of somewhat unbelievable, laughable epic proportions. I imagine some of the things this eye witness claims he saw on that night are so out there that once the director tried to translate them on film, he did the best he could, but in the end it makes the film one big hokey viewing experience. As if the effects and the story wasn't outlandish enough, it didn't help NIGHT SKIES, that it had 6 cast members that had to work with an outrageous script, but only two of them could really handle it and make their characters relatively believable - Those to being A.J. Cook and the son of Sean, Jason Connery. I have always liked A.J. Cook from the very first role I had seen her appear in, that being the comedy OUT COLD, she later starred in FINAL DESTINATION 2, Cook is a great actress and this role manages to show her versatility as she seems to be able to portray any type of character. Admittingly so, this is actually my first time seeing Jason Connery in any film, and I must say I was impressed, his reactions to his surroundings seemed genuine and real - the only thing I disliked about his character Richard, is that he was supposed to be a Texas native, yet his accent reeked of Connery's own English dialect (I'm from Texas, and there is no way the filmmaker's were doing to make a believer out of me). With this said, there is not much more to say of NIGHT SKIES. The film sports nothing new in the form of originality, films like these are beginning to make the phrase (once you've seen one, you've seen them all" ring true. When you set off to write and create an alien picture nothing is set in stone....it is basically up to one writer's vivid imagination....and the only films that seemed to ever work (for me at least) are films like ALIEN SPECIES or even a BODY SNATCHERS. In the end, if NIGHT SKIES was aiming to make me a believer that UFOs exist, well, I am still not sold. | ||||
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| GORE
METER 3/10 The only real blood comes in the form of Joe's knife wound...and later there are removing of organs and a baby by the aliens....not all that gory. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4/10 The score is the typical generic atmospheric ambience for an alien film...but hey if it works then use it. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Starts off rather promising but slowly turns into something a lot less serious than it should be, After seeing this, I am surprised that this did not premiere on the Sci-Fi Channel as an original movie as it has the feel of the films you are accustomed of seeing on there, usually cheesy and tame). To close, after seeing the trailer for the first time, I had high hopes for this one as I love a good suspenseful Sci-Fi film, but like many of them I was disappointed. I wouldn't recommend NIGHT SKIES unless you are interested in seeing something you more than likely have seen before....not even A.J. Cook's beautiful blue eyes could save this for me... This DVD will be released on January 23, 2007 |
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