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Dark Skies | 2013 | PG-13 | - 4.6.4

When unusual things begin to happen in the home of a family and to each member of the family, suspicions arise about the cause. With Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo, Kadan Rockett and J.K. Simmons. Directed by Scott Stewart. [1:37]

SEX/NUDITY 4 - A husband and his wife kiss and caress each other while under a bed sheet; we see her bare shoulders and sex is implied. A husband and his wife kiss passionately and hug. A wife wearing a low-cut nightgown (cleavage, bare shoulders and part of her bare thigh are seen) sits in bed working when her husband wearing a T-shirt and boxers (part of his bare legs are seen) joins her and tries to seduce her (she dismisses his advances).
 We see a young boy walking outside at night and wearing only brief-style underwear (we see his bare chest, abdomen and back (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A woman wears low-cut tops and dresses that reveal cleavage and bare shoulders in a few scenes. A woman wears a tank top that reveals the outline of her nipples, bare shoulders and upper chest in a couple of scenes. A woman wears short pajamas and her bare legs and shoulders are visible. A woman is shown wearing only a T-shirt and her bare legs to the upper thigh are shown; when she walks in front of a window we can see through the fabric to the outline of her upper thighs and crotch. Many men and women and boys and girls wear swimsuits at a swimming pool.
 Two teenage boys watch pornography on TV; we see a man and a woman kissing, then the man caresses the woman's clothed breast and she moans sexually. We hear sexual moaning coming from behind a door; a teen boy opens the door and finds another teen boy and a teen girl sitting on a bed while watching pornography (we see a man and a woman on the TV and the woman's bare shoulders are visible).
 A teen boy touches a teen girl's clothed breast, and the girl yells at him and pushes him away. A teen girl kisses a teen boy tenderly.
 A woman talks about a married couple having an "open relationship." A teen boy talks to another teen boy about sexual activity and asks him what he has done and what he should do.


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VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - A teen boy finds his father holding a gun and sitting on the floor (blood splatter is shown on the cabinets behind him) next to the boy's mother, who's dead on the floor with a puddle of blood under her; the father puts the gun to his mouth and we hear a gunshot as the boy screams "No!" (it is implied that the man shot himself).
 A woman with a knife walks through a hallway and into a bedroom (she is followed by a being that looks humanoid, but has darkened flesh and features), the door slams and locks behind her and she screams for her husband. A man with a gun takes aim at a doorway that has been boarded up as the screws begin to pop out and the boards fall away; the man opens fire and yells (we do not see what was outside). A man shoots at something outside a room where he and his family are hiding (we do not see anything).
 A family sits around a dining table, the TV set is showing interference, the woman arms herself with a knife and takes her two sons upstairs; the man aims his shotgun at the door were there is now bright light shining through the cracks. A teen boy and his younger brother hide in a bedroom and are frightened while the door shakes and the hinges quiver; the door opens and they are grabbed and pulled to another room (they are OK).
 A man rushes to his young son's room and finds him sleeping; he tugs on the boy's shoulder and the boy rolls over to reveal that he is missing his eyes (we see slightly bloody and empty eye sockets) and the man backs away in terror (it was a dream). A woman wakes up in the night and walks into her young son's room where she sees a tall being standing over his bed; she screams and flicks on the light and we see neither the being nor the boy in the room, and she and her husband search frantically through the house for the boy (they find him and he is OK). A man watches surveillance videos that show beings standing over the beds of his sleeping family members (no one is shown being harmed).
 A man shoves a teen boy to the ground and yells at him until the boy's father tackles the attacker and punches him in the face. A wife shoves her husband and they argue bitterly.
 A bird crashes into a large window and we see it flopping briefly on a rooftop (blood is shown on the window); another bird crashes into the window, and then many birds crash into many windows (we see many dead birds and blood splatters on the windows and walls of the house as people wearing protective gear pick up the bodies).
 A woman gags and struggles to speak, her hand twitches as if she is having a seizure, and she walks toward a sliding glass door and pounds her head against it until the glass breaks (we see her later with a bloody bruise on her forehead). A wife searches a house at night for her husband: she walks toward an open door and calls to him, she touches his shoulder and sees him with his mouth wide open and blood gushes from his nose (we see blood on his shirt later); the man walks inside and asks why he is in the kitchen. We see a young boy walking outside at night and wearing only brief-style underwear; the boy's father runs after him and calls to him but the boy does not reply, but he awakens and asks why he is outside. A woman awakens with a start. A young boy stands in a park surrounded by other children who are laughing at him and pointing (we see that the boy has wet his pants) until his father comes to see what has happened; the boy begins to scream. Several alien beings surround a teen boy, he looks up with his mouth gaping open, he yells and he disappears.
 A teen boy shoots another teen boy several times with an air soft gun and the victim complains that it hurts and runs away; the armed boy chases him through woods to a spot where the first boy stops abruptly, appears to be hearing a high pitched sound and his eyes roll back in his head (we see a hospital scene and hear that the boys is recovering).
 We see a young boy with many bruises and marks all over his abdomen and back at a swimming pool and several people appear alarmed. We see photos of geometric patterns that are said to have been "branded" into a teen boy's skin and several people seem alarmed. We see a rash developing behind a man's ear and he scratches it in a few scenes (we see that it is more irritated in a later scene). A man shows a scar that he created behind his ear and says that he was digging for something that would just burrow deeper.
 A teen boy rides his bike home at night along dark streets. A young girl has an asthma attack (we hear her wheezing) and her mother gives her a squirt from her inhaler (she recovers).
 A house alarm blares in the middle of the night; a husband and his wife run downstairs to investigate and find no intruder but do find that items are missing. A woman is frightened when she walks through her house at night and finds food from the refrigerator strewn all over the kitchen and the back door open (no intruder is seen). A woman is alarmed when she walks through her house at night and finds food items stacked in intricate designs in her kitchen.
 We see a small lizard in a shoebox and a young boy talks about its tail having fallen off. We see a large shark leap out of water on a TV show. A woman finds a drawing that her young son made of a large being holding his hand outside their house. A cat hisses at a man when he tries to pick it up.
 A man pounds on the roof of his car with his portfolio in frustration after a job interview. A man roots through his young son's room looking for items that have gone missing suspecting that the boy took them, until his wife yells at him to stop. A husband and his wife argue in several scenes.
 A man talks about aliens and the fact that they "...are getting ready to take someone." A young boy tells his mother that he had a bad dream about "sand man" and that "sand man" had been in his room. A teen boy and a younger boy talk about the "sand man" and the older boy says that he steals people's eyes to feed them to his children. A man says of his teen son's friend, "There's something wrong with this kid." A young boy asks his older brother, "Do you think Dad's going to leave?" A teen boy teases another teen boy and says, "You're gonna get quarantined." A woman talks about birds being infected by avian flu. A teen boy and his younger brother talk about being watched and the younger boy says that he is scared. A woman says that she "lost six hours." People read about and discuss "mass bird deaths" and geo-magnetic disturbances. A doctor tells a husband and his wife that he will be calling child protective services because of the markings that were found on their teen son's body. A young boy hears a voice on his walkie-talkie and he appears scared.
 A woman is shown looking at dogs in a pound and decides on a very aggressive German Shepherd that barks and snarls its teeth. Young children set off fireworks in the street (people are startled by the noise).

LANGUAGE 4 - 6 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms (1 mild), 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (rat face, weird, brainiac, mutant lizard, the grays, dork, crazy, insane, psycho), exclamations (shut up), 3 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - Two teen boys and two teen girls meet at an empty house and we see one of the boys put a bong on the table with a bag presumably containing drugs (we do not see them smoke), and a woman takes a prescription pill. Men and women drink beer and wine at a cookout, and a man holds an unopened bottle of champagne and says that he and his wife should celebrate. A man smokes a cigarette in one scene.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Existence of aliens, alien abduction, fairy tales, fears, failures, unemployment, child abuse, child protective services, cataclysms, disappearance of a child, divorce, sleep walking, sleep eating, lying, allergies, emotional trauma.

MESSAGE - Families need to stick together.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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