Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: After many strange occurrences around their home, a family believes they may be receiving visits from aliens.
Review: I have to give this film some credit, it's extremely hard to make an effective horror movie using aliens, and they almost pulled it off. If you think about it, aliens should be a much scarier plot device than they are, but because we imagine how advanced a race would have to be to come to this planet, we simply assume they would want to take over so it always drifts into the sci-fi/action realm. Likewise, the look of an alien has to be a certain degree of intimidating, while unnerving at the same time, or it will appear as a monster-movie which is technically horror but instills a different impression on the audience. Balancing these factors is not an easy task by any means. This film decided to take a slightly different approach implying that the aliens are so advanced they do with humans as they please much in the way humans experiment on lab rats (and with the same lack of concern or consideration); I don't support such shit by the way! Furthermore, the aliens interact with the characters in such a way that it is more reminiscent of ghosts and demons with a focus on the dread the characters feel to create more of the scary scenes. Unfortunately, the main thing that holds this film down is ridiculous contrivances, illogical decisions by the characters, and stupid, unnecessary cliches. We are introduced to the typical Hollywood, suburban American family consisting of two arguing parents and two sons with one being the pain in the ass, as always, and the seemingly "different" one. Well, it shouldn't come as much of a shock that the family has lame drama with money issues and the one son being a teenager; I should probably note how annoyingly distracting this son's, named Jesse, stupid Beiber hairdo is! Apparently the aliens like to fuck with people a bit before abducting them as the family witnesses all manners of shenanigans. I get that they wanted there to be a gradual buildup to the scares, but let's face it, this was too similar to a haunting; in fact, why didn't the family ever suspect ghosts? I think this may have been a big problem for other viewers because of shit like the father setting up cameras around the house to record any (paranormal) activity. It just felt copied when they should have been setting themselves apart to show a differentiation between aliens. This isn't to say there weren't plenty of decent and even good scares. As you know, I'm a major fan of subtle scares which there are a few scattered about with the aliens lurking briefly in the background of a scenes. When a film can add little details like that, it at least offers an incentive in going back for a second viewing which is more successful than the many pieces of shit who fail to understand these tricks to movie-making. Eventually the mom, named Lacy, believes that whatever strange events are happening are due to aliens and wants to meet with some "expert." I'll give you one guess what the father's reaction was? Yup, you guessed it, deny anything is wrong and make up stupid excuses! Could his reaction have been any more stock?! At one point the dad, named Daniel, finally catches the aliens on camera after a night they visited the family. Overwhelmed by how the aliens could be doing this, Daniel finally agrees to meet with this so-called expert. For the sheer sake of exposition purposes, the wannabe expert lays out everything you need to know about what's going on except the "why" yet he contributes even more contrivances to the plot. Basically, the historic "Grays" that people have claimed to have encountered are the ones behind this, and they plan to abduct the member of the family they first made contact with. The family believes this to be the youngest son, Sammy, since throughout the film he has been shown to talk to the aliens, had been drawing them, and appears to be the one most affected. Well if you know jack shit about horror films, it is painfully obvious that Sammy is not the one they want, but it's in reality our beloved little Beiber bitch boy, Jesse! Come to think of it, the film mostly drops the ball in the last 20 minutes or so. You have a predictable twist followed by the huge contrivance that the aliens immediately abduct bitch boy right after they talk to the crazy expert further exasperated by the idiocy of how the family tries to combat the aliens with a shotgun and some plywood! So, the aliens show up, easily bypass the pathetic defenses as the family acts like imbeciles, takes Beiber bitch boy (probably to study his hair), and the film ends with Sammy hearing Jesse screaming on a walkie-talkie which apparently the aliens helped boost the signal to Earth at the convenient moment that Sammy picked up his battery powered radio 3 months after leaving it "on." Yeah, they didn't think that one through too well. But come on, you HAVE to end on a fucking zinger! Everyone knows that! You know, it's funny because I actually thought for a second that they might end the film with one of the ballsiest endings I had ever seen. Because when the aliens come they, for some reason, make Jesse imagine he's having like a LSD trip. Earlier in the film Jesse was getting high with a friend, and I thought, "Oh shit, are they going to say the whole movie was just a bad trip?!" That would have been beyond stupid, but it would have been pretty damn ballsy. Hmm, maybe I'm on drugs myself to even think this? Overall, this film has decent scares while trying it's hardest to make aliens feel creepy. The acting is good with some solid performances, and the pacing keeps you engaged. However, there were so many stupid moments and the film does fall apart at the end even though there were some decent final scares. This is definitely worth a view, but it helps to understand the writer followed a typical haunted house formula and merely inserted aliens to it. The film isn't too bad, but it could have been so much better.
Notable Moment: When Lacy hears Sammy talking to someone in his room only to find a large, dark figure lurking over the bed. Very effective scare.
Final Rating: 6/10
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