the audience applauded

Let's be realistic.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

DARKENING SKY is nothing more than an indie science fiction movie which spends its entire running time hanging around in a house with a couple of emo characters. Sure, the subject matter is aliens, but they're only discussed rather than shown. There's no FX, no incident, no plot, and absolutely nothing to see. It's incredibly boring as a result.

Rider Strong plays Eric Rainer, a weird and sullen individual who seems to live with his girlfriend and appears to be involved in some kind of ongoing research into UFOlogy, abductions and alien encounters.When his girlfriend disappears one night, Rainer teams up with 'goth girl next door' Beth (eye candy Danielle Keaton sporting a very annoying fringe) the niece of Rainer's neighbour, Harold, and learns that Beth's boyfriend has also disappeared. Like Rainer, her boyfriend had a scar on his stomach and suffered from strange nightly migraines.Beth's intense interest in Rainer raises his suspicions and he becomes increasingly paranoid, as do we as flies on the wall in his road accident of a life.Hard to describe much else without dropping some spoilers since this film is reliant upon the keeps-you-guessing format. Unfortunately the coming plot twists and surprises are far from unpredictable and if you're awake at all while you're watching, you'll probably guess where the story is going long before it gets there.There's a pedestrian quality to Darkening Sky that tested my patience. Director Victor Bornia is clearly a fan of the dramatic silence and pre-amble, but really the characters are too shallow and lack the charisma essential when presenting quiet, sullen personalities as protagonists.Production value is medium rare and the sets, special effects and makeup feel and look cheap. Acting from the youthful cast is stilted and a little forced, but nothing you wouldn't expect from ex members of Disney-esque teen dramas like 90210 and Boy Meets World. Performances from the older cast are frankly terrible for a medium budget production. Charley Rossman inappropriately hams it up as Raimer's 'King of the Hill' type neighbour and Suzanne Ford is so unsubtle as Raimer's college professor that she pretty much gives the entire plot away with the few lines that she has.Overall an average movie that will probably draw viewers who like UFO/alien abduction thrillers but ultimately leave them disappointed.

I just finished watching this and I honestly feel that it deserves a higher rating than it's current 4.3. I mean, MOST films rated that low here are SERIOUSLY horrible! But, I really enjoyed it and even though it was rather simple and clearly very low budget, still, I felt that they did a very good job not only in keeping one's interest but also in actually building some suspense as the story progresses.At first, I didn't really care for the main guy very much; but, as the story continued without giving too much away, I could see some logic in why he came across that way (heh... is that vague enough...?) As I usually mention in my reviews here, COMPARATIVELY, as far as the general competence, writing, direction, and particularly the acting, which is the usual weakness with lower budget films, I truly felt that they did a good job in putting across a good story with some good Thriller aspects and a good ending. I think the narration was a nice touch, especially considering the direction that the movie took ultimately. And even though the visual effects were pretty simple, they did well with what they had to work with. Some of the camera work / editing were done obviously to mask the low cost of the film and to simplify what normally might be a difficult 'action' scene; but again, all things considered, I felt that they did a good job.The overall true theme and direction of the film has certainly been done many, MANY times before. For me personally, again without giving too much away, I usually do not find this specific kind of story very satisfying because it indeed HAS been So overdone in recent years. So, the fact that it falls within that general category and I still enjoyed it, says a lot, at least from me. With the exception of a few films that do this well (and NO, I am not gonna ruin it by naming them : ) I normally find the way that this type of film is handled usually comes across as rather clichéd with the ending being sort of a cop-out to explain things. In this film they do it MUCH better than usual, although I do believe this is the first film that I have seen this done where the story has been based upon an Alien / Abduction type sub-theme. I also REALLY liked that the ending was done in such a way as to leave you a perfectly balanced choice as to what was really going on... (thus the refreshing lack of it 'necessarily' having the usual obvious, cop-out ending) So, FOR WHAT IT IS and as I have said almost in EVERY review that I have written here, compared to the literal TSUNAMI of crap that passes for entertainment these days, I am inclined to give a little low budget film like this a lot of slack where many others will simply dismiss it, as long as it is executed well, the actors don't drive me up the wall, the script is competent, and ABOVE ALL... a decent mood is set. Oh, btw, I really did like the sound design and I felt that it really added to the effectiveness of the film and made up quite a bit for it's low cost. I REALLY liked the closing song; I wish that it had lasted longer before they faded in the harder theme.Overall I definitely give it a 6-7; certainly more than it is rated here...

The movie was interesting from a total psychologist point of view. Having viewed the movie without the premise of knowing what it was truly about, I would have had a field day of DSM-IV diagnosis on this particular movie. Eric seemed to me, schizo type, level 2 and perhaps a bit paranoid delusional as well. Reality for him was a conceptual term at best while the good doctor continuously examined what appeared to be MRI or PET scans of Eric's brain. I still contend that schizophrenia can produce co-morbidity issues related to organic disorders that can lead to the a proficient Serial Killer, living two lives and totally unaware of also being or having a Dual Identity Disorder. Great flick though, he would have also been a great politician as well in today's society with the same disorders.