History Film / DarkSkies

* MixAndMatch: The movie is basically ''{{Film/Poltergeist|1982}}'' with the haunted-house conventions re-appropriated in an alien-abduction setting.

* AdultFear: Something is after your children and there is NOTHING you can do to stop them.
** Also: you may be losing your mind, your memories, or control over your own body. Brr.
** [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Your teenage son going through puberty.]]

* TheGrays: When talking with Pollard, he mentions them by name as the most likely culprits on what's going on with the Barretts. Indeed, both the drawings and general appearance, once they show up, follow the trope very closely.

* HermitGuru: While not a hermit living in a cave ''per se'', Pollard, the SmartGuy who enlightens the parents before the PapaWolf[=/=]MamaBear turning point in the film, does have some things in common with Hermit Gurus in general; e.g. the crazy apartment he lives in, which the camera takes pains to show us extensively; the number of cats he has; and, most importantly, his social isolation.

%%* TheGrays: While the other pop-culture alien groups (e.g., [[ReptilianConspiracy the Reptilians]]) are alluded to, these bad boys are the villains.%%How are they examples? Talk about the trope, not ones that aren't used.

* MotherNatureFatherScience: Pretty gendered stuff here: The father tries to put the brakes on his wife's suspicions about something supernatural being at work, looks instead for a rational explanation (which leads him to several NotSoStoic moments).

* NotSoStoic: Daniel attempts on several occasions to be the intellectual and material "rock" in protecting the family, but it ends with his attacking Ratner and getting beat up by his father in front of the middle-class, suburban neighbors he's always tried to keep up a good masculine-family-guy facade for.

* ShoutOut: To E.T.A. Hoffmann's 19th-century gothic short-story ''The Sandman'', which the older son reads to the younger as a bedtime story. Both stories play with ThroughTheEyesOfMadness and UnreliableNarrator extensively. There's also some parallels in the RomanticismVersusEnlightenment of the mother and father (respectively) in ''Sandman'' to the MotherNatureFatherScience in ''Dark Skies''. More generally, both works operate on the fear of someone in the story being the unwitting subject of a strange and ghastly experiment by TheConspiracy.

* YouHaveToBelieveMe: The mother wants the cop and her husband to believe her that there's something going on in the house and they just play it off as one of the kids going off the deep end. The first three-quarters of the film is the mother against the father within the framework of the aforementioned MotherNatureFatherScience. [[spoiler: Even their lawyer doesn't believe them about what exactly happened to their son.]]

* TheGrays: While the other pop-culture alien groups (e.g., TheReptilians) are alluded to, these bad boys are the villains.

* ReptilianConspiracy: Alluded to.

* AllTheoriesAreTrue: Pop-culture notions of {{Alien Abduction}}s, CropCircles and other 'supernatural' occurrences are shown to be true in the context of the story. It's then subverted in that the "alien expert" the family talks to says he's doubtful of the existence of insectoid or reptilian aliens, and has to go through a quick Q&A with the parents to make sure they're not "nut jobs" pulling his leg.

* MixAndMatch: The movie is basically ''{{Film/Poltergeist}}'' with the haunted-house conventions re-appropriated in an alien-abduction setting.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Jesse's best friend Ratner, who is a jackals, but when the aliens cause Jesse to go into a seizure, he is immediately concerned and brings him to the hospital. [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished This results in Daniel beating the crap out of him out of the misguided belief he hurt his son.]]

''Dark Skies'' is a 2013 horror film starring Creator/KeriRussell, Josh Hamilton, and Creator/JKSimmons about a typical American suburban family suddenly beset by strange occurrences: things are stacked in odd and impossible ways, crop-circle designs appear, hundreds of birds smash into the house, and one of the children reports nightly visits from a strange figure he calls "the sandman." The story is deeply psychological, with much of the dramatic tension coming from the inability of the characters to prove to the world outside the family just what is happening to them.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: The protagonists fail to fight off the aliens and their eldest son is taken. And because nobody believes their insane story, they are now being investigated for his disappearance and could possibly have their other son taken away. The only bright spot is the very last scene which implies that the aliens may have decided to return the elder son. The alternate ending is even worse; ending with the remaining child's nose massively bleeding like the father's earlier which implies that after taking the elder son, the aliens might still come back to take the younger son, too.]]

* HermitGuru: While not a hermit living in a cave ''per se'', the SmartGuy who enlightens the parents before the PapaWolf[=/=]MamaBear turning point in the film, does have some things in common with Hermit Gurus in general; e.g. the crazy apartment he lives in, which the camera takes pains to show us extensively; the number of cats he has; and, most importantly, his social isolation.

* NotSoStoic: The father attempts on several occasions to be the intellectual and material "rock" in protecting the family, but it ends with his attacking the neighbor kid and getting beat up by his father in front of the middle-class, suburban neighbors he's always tried to keep up a good masculine-family-guy facade for.

''Dark Skies'' is a 2013 horror film about a typical American suburban family suddenly beset by strange occurrences: things are stacked in odd and impossible ways, crop-circle designs appear, hundreds of birds smash into the house, and one of the children reports nightly visits from a strange figure he calls "the sandman." The story is deeply psychological, with much of the dramatic tension coming from the inability of the characters to prove to the world outside the family just what is happening to them.

* AllTheoriesAreTrue: Pop-culture notions of {{Alien Abduction}}s, CropCircles and other 'supernatural' occurrences are shown to be true in the context of the story.
** In a partial subversion, the "alien expert" the family talks to says he's doubtful of the existence of insectoid or reptilian aliens, and has to go through a quick Q&A with the parents to make sure they're not "nut jobs" pulling his leg.

* EldritchAbomination: The aliens border on this, due to their many strange abilities. They can appear and disappear on a whim, manipulate people and objects at a distance, and can enter a building without any sign of forced entry (though if an alarm system is installed, they will still set it off) They also do not directly appear on a video camera.

* HermitGuru: While not a hermit living in a cave ''per se'', the SmartGuy who enlightens the parents before the PapaWolf[-/-]MamaBear turning point in the film, does have some things in common with Hermit Gurus in general; e.g. the crazy apartment he lives in, which the camera takes pains to show us extensively; the number of cats he has; and, most importantly, his social isolation.

* MixAndMatch: The movie is basically [[{{Film/Poltergeist}} Poltergeist]] with the haunted-house conventions re-appropriated in an alien-abduction setting.

** In a partial subversion, the "alien expert" the family talks to says he's doubtful of the existence of insectoid or reptilian aliens, and has to go through a quick Q&A with the parents to make sure their not "nut jobs" pulling his leg.

** In a partial subversion, the "alien expert" the family talks to says he's doubtful of the existence of insectoid or reptilian aliens.

* EldritchAbomination: The aliens border on this.

* AllTheoriesAreTrue: Pop-culture notions of alien abductions, crop circles and other 'supernatural' occurrences are shown to be true in the context of the story.

* GenreSavvy: The mother, Lacy, gets a better understanding of the crop circles, mass bird attractions, lost time, etc. via the internet.

* AnimalMetaphor: The injured lizard in the beginning. This constitutes a bit of {{foreshadowing}} here early in the game. Mother asks if the younger son's "nursing" it back to health is "compassion or torture," father jokingly replies, "I'll go with the latter."

* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler: The aliens have a secret plan that no mere mortal human can know and play mindgames with the family. Their mindgames serve to isolate them from people from the outside who could assist them or aid in reducing the psychological tension, which at least ''seems'' to be part of their plan.]]
* ClearTheirName: The family is suspected, at various points, of abuse and foul-play [[spoiler: in their son's abduction]]
* CosmicHorrorStory: [[spoiler: The world is pretty much controlled by godlike beings whose motivations and reasoning is beyond human comprehension. We are simply used as experiments by them and there's no way we're going to fight them off, because ''they already took over everything without us knowing''. Their plots can be thwarted but only on the off-chance that you make yourself such an annoyance that they decide to just start the experiment again with someone less irritating. The heroes fail to do so, just as expected.]]
* CreepyChild: The youngest son is this at times.
* [[spoiler: DownerEnding: The protagonists fail to fight off the aliens and their eldest son is taken. And because nobody believes their insane story, they are now being investigated for his disappearance and could possibly have their other son taken away. The only bright spot is the very last scene which implies that the aliens may have decided to return the elder son. The alternate ending is even worse; ending with the remaining child's nose massively bleeding like the father's earlier which implies that after taking the elder son, the aliens might still come back to take the younger son, too.]]

* GenreSavvy: The Mom gets a better understanding of the crop circles, mass bird attractions, lost time, etc. via the internet.
* HermitGuru: While not a hermit living in a cave ''per se'', the SmartGuy who enlightens the parents before the PapaWolf turning point in the film, does have some things in common with Hermit Gurus in general; e.g. the crazy apartment he lives in, which the camera takes pains to show us extensively; the number of cats he has; and, most importantly, his social isolation.
* InscrutableAliens: The narrative tells us outright that the advanced aliens' true motives cannot be known by mere humans.

* NightmareFuelColoringBook: Sam's drawings are either inspired by the works of Alberto Giacometti or he's having Close Encounters of the CGI Kind.

* TheSmartGuy: The expert on alien abductions who helps lead the parents to accept what's happening, [[spoiler: conveniently right before the aliens abduct the son.]]

* AnimalMetaphor: The creepy pet reptile at the beginning. This constitutes a bit of {{foreshadowing}} here early in the game. Mother asks if the younger son's "nursing" it back to health is "compassion or torture," father jokingly replies, "I'll go with the latter."

** Feeling like a lab rat, a part of an experiment that you have no idea even exists in the first place.

* YouHaveToBelieveMe: The mother wants the cop and her husband to believe her that there's something going on in the house and they just play it off as one of the kids going off the deep end. The first three-quarters of the film is the mother against the father within the framework of the aforementioned MotherNatureFatherScience. [[spoiler: Even the their lawyer doesn't believe them about what exactly happened to their son.]]

* CatapultNightmare: The mother has one after waking from a dream where she thought that she lost control of her body and harmed herself in public.

Dark Skies is a 2013 horror film about a typical American suburban family suddenly beset by strange occurrences: things are stacked in odd and impossible ways, crop-circle designs appear, hundreds of birds smash into the house, and one of the children reports nightly visits from a strange figure he calls "the sandman." The story is deeply psychological, with much of the dramatic tension coming from the inability of the characters to prove to the world outside the family just what is happening to them.

* ShoutOut: To E.T.A. Hoffmann's 19th-century gothic short-story ''TheSandman'', which the older son reads to the younger as a bedtime story. Both stories play with ThroughTheEyesOfMadness and UnreliableNarrator extensively. There's also some parallels in the RomanticismVersusEnlightenment of the mother and father (respectively) in ''Sandman'' to the MotherNatureFatherScience in ''Dark Skies''. More generally, both works operate on the fear of someone in the story being the unwitting subject of a strange and ghastly experiment by TheConspiracy.