DARKENING SKY is nothing more than an indie science fiction movie which spends its entire running time hanging around in a house with a couple of emo characters. Sure, the subject matter is aliens, but they're only discussed rather than shown. There's no FX, no incident, no plot, and absolutely nothing to see. It's incredibly boring as a result.

Rider Strong plays Eric Rainer, a weird and sullen individual who seems to live with his girlfriend and appears to be involved in some kind of ongoing research into UFOlogy, abductions and alien encounters.When his girlfriend disappears one night, Rainer teams up with 'goth girl next door' Beth (eye candy Danielle Keaton sporting a very annoying fringe) the niece of Rainer's neighbour, Harold, and learns that Beth's boyfriend has also disappeared. Like Rainer, her boyfriend had a scar on his stomach and suffered from strange nightly migraines.Beth's intense interest in Rainer raises his suspicions and he becomes increasingly paranoid, as do we as flies on the wall in his road accident of a life.Hard to describe much else without dropping some spoilers since this film is reliant upon the keeps-you-guessing format. Unfortunately the coming plot twists and surprises are far from unpredictable and if you're awake at all while you're watching, you'll probably guess where the story is going long before it gets there.There's a pedestrian quality to Darkening Sky that tested my patience. Director Victor Bornia is clearly a fan of the dramatic silence and pre-amble, but really the characters are too shallow and lack the charisma essential when presenting quiet, sullen personalities as protagonists.Production value is medium rare and the sets, special effects and makeup feel and look cheap. Acting from the youthful cast is stilted and a little forced, but nothing you wouldn't expect from ex members of Disney-esque teen dramas like 90210 and Boy Meets World. Performances from the older cast are frankly terrible for a medium budget production. Charley Rossman inappropriately hams it up as Raimer's 'King of the Hill' type neighbour and Suzanne Ford is so unsubtle as Raimer's college professor that she pretty much gives the entire plot away with the few lines that she has.Overall an average movie that will probably draw viewers who like UFO/alien abduction thrillers but ultimately leave them disappointed.

Let me start off by saying I have seen many awful movies on this subject. This one was pretty good and deserved a better rating. It held my attention, piqued my interest, and had an interesting twist at the end.Is it about an alien abduction? Eric Rainer seems to think so. He has flashbacks of strange events which start off when he was a little boy, and have haunted him throughout his life. He's been collecting 'evidence' to try and put the pieces of this mystery together. His girlfriend Cindy thinks it is nonsense and is ready to leave him, until the night she disappears.Eric hooks up with the new neighbor's niece, Beth, who is also looking for her BF who mysteriously disappeared; and together they try to find out the truth about the aliens. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll stop here. Watch and enjoy the movie, so we can discuss the ending on the boards......

The movie was interesting from a total psychologist point of view. Having viewed the movie without the premise of knowing what it was truly about, I would have had a field day of DSM-IV diagnosis on this particular movie. Eric seemed to me, schizo type, level 2 and perhaps a bit paranoid delusional as well. Reality for him was a conceptual term at best while the good doctor continuously examined what appeared to be MRI or PET scans of Eric's brain. I still contend that schizophrenia can produce co-morbidity issues related to organic disorders that can lead to the a proficient Serial Killer, living two lives and totally unaware of also being or having a Dual Identity Disorder. Great flick though, he would have also been a great politician as well in today's society with the same disorders.