Darkening Sky

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Audience Member DARKENING SKY (2010 ) independent, AKA Darkening Skies WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY: Victor Bornia FEATURING: Rider Strong, Danielle Keaton, Danica Stewart, Charley Rossman, Daniel Kirschner GENRE: THRILLER TAGS: sci-fi, horror RATING: 7 PINTS OF BLOOD PLOT: In this severely underrated independent gem, reality spirals into the dangerously surreal for a young man and his companion hot on the trail of their UFO-abducted lovers. COMMENTS: What happens when our culture becomes disaffected and so intellectually irresponsible that it no longer provides reality checks to screen our darkest fantasies? Darkening Sky is an offbeat thriller about a man, Eric Ranier (Rider Strong), obsessed with logically dispelling the UFO myth. But when his girlfriend disappears in an apparent UFO abduction, Rainier falls headlong into the true-believer's world of alien horror. Writer/director Victor Bornia takes us on a claustrophobic journey of mounting uneasiness and dread which climaxes with an easily understandable, but ambiguous twist ending. The twist is a topper to this fresh treatment of a familiar plot device, and what makes Darkening Sky a real joy to watch is that Bornia tops the topper with an additional warp. The ending is more than appropriate because Darkening Sky is a movie that's all about ambiguity and it's frightening ramifications. Darkening Sky opens with an unsettling collage of UFO culture images -X-rays of bodies, old news clippings, Area-51 photos. But more significantly, to a background score which suggests government radio signals and ethereal static, there are microwave transmitting stations, suburban homes with their on-the-roof TV aerials, and overhead high tension lines. They're all suggestive of our modern, high-speed data transmission -the electronic hubris of our user-generated popular culture. It's strongly reminiscent of scenes from John Carpenter's 1987 sci-fi occult story, Prince Of Darkness, when researchers tap into shaky broadcasts from the future transmitted backwards in time on tachyon particles. The effect is disorienting and sets the stage for an ensuing psychological quandary of doubt and double meanings. Like the montage from Lost Weekend (1945), in which an alcoholic Don Birnam (Ray Milland) floats down Gin Lane, his consciousness reduced to a mere bleary-eyed acknowledgement of an endless cornucopia of swirling neon bar signs and martini glasses, Eric Rainier is similarly overcome. Forming an uneasy alliance with a tag-along companion named Beth (Danielle Keaton), a dangerously enabling Goth slacker whose boyfriend went missing under the same circumstances, Eric is now obsessed with finding the "truth." The pair plunges into a morass of conspiracy theories as they make the rounds of well-known UFO evangelists. The duo becomes not unlike a frustrated Harry Houdini on his serpentine sojourns to a succession of "psychics," dispelling each one's charlatanism in turn as he vainly struggled to find a genuine medium to channel the spirit of his dead mother. From eerie sightings, to ghastly probes, to bloody organ snatchings, Ranier and Beth run the gamut of weirdos and fakirs until their twisted quest leads them to a discredited researcher (Ezra Buzzington) who seems to know what's really going on. Or does he? Because by now, having surrounded themselves with characters subscribing to some very whacky belief systems in a post-modern culture which rejects qualified authority and objective reality, Eric and Beth see their world through a distorted window. They have long since abandoned any reliable reference points by which to triangulate the real from the unreal. The misguided duo is lost in a surreal hinterland in which the line between fantasy and reality blurs in an otherworldly nightmare as fetid as the steadily mounting pile of alien-mutilated bodies. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member poor production or should i say 'cheap" and not much happening kinda like 'blair witch project" Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Wait!..Is that my Harman/Kardon Soundstick II Speaker on that idiot's arm?..hahaha Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review jack z Ehh... It was pretty good, nice effects for a low budget movie. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie was a complete waste of time. I am just happy that I didnt see it in a theater and waste even more money on it. I like sci fi but this was just a story written by someone on drugs or just a complete lunitic or both. Dont waste your time on this one. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member Oh damn, wrong one. I'm damaged but finished it. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Darkening Sky

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