Hot on the heels of the success of the über creepy Sinister comes a trailer for one of the latest from Blumhouse Productions, Dark Skies. Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton lead the alien horror thriller as Lacey and Daniel Barret, parents living in a quaint suburban neighborhood. Trouble comes in the form of an “alien presence” that terrorizes their poor little boys. As the horror and violence escalate, friends and neighbors grow skeptical of Lacey and Daniel’s behavior, leaving the pair with no choice but to take care of the issue themselves.

Jason Blum and Blumhouse Productions are definitely ones to watch. Yes, the Paranormal Activity franchise has fallen into tiresome territory (just read our Paranormal Activity 4 review), but material like Insidious and Sinister suggest Blum knows how to open new doors within the genre, and so does this trailer for Dark Skies. We haven’t really had a horror alien crossover since 2009’s The Fourth Kind and while that one did offer up a few solid scares, there weren’t enough to elevate it from being downright boring.

Based on this trailer, Dark Skies is looking eerie to the max. It’s particularly well formatted, letting the viewer get all nice and cozy with the Barrets before unleashing one of the most horrifying things known to man – the house alarm going off in the middle of the night. (Yes, I can watch people get ripped limb from limb in the movies, but a middle-of-the-night wakeup call via house alarm totally freaks me out.) It’s going to take some legwork to sell the whole “sandman” and this-has-happened-to-other-people thing, but with outrageous and spooky imagery like the bird attack, nasty rashes and, for some odd reason, Daniel just standing in the yard mouth agape, it looks like Dark Skies has a good shot at crawling under your skin and keeping you up at night.

Dark Skies Movie Trailer Birds

Scott Charles Stewart’s directing credits may be limited to Priest and Legion, but at least that means he’s got the visuals down. Whether Blumhouse picked this one up because the script was in solid shape or they could help get it there, between that and Stewart’s typically sleek visuals, Dark Skies could be the whole package - at least until Insidious 2 hits theaters later on in 2013.

Dark Skies hits theaters on February 22, 2013.

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Source: Fandango

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