Night Skies (2007) User Reviews

Aliens hate windows.

[ElijahCSkuggs · 4/10 · 9 September 2008]

Lately, I've been on sort of an alien movie binge. I've been trying to watch as many real-life alien sort of flicks as I can. Some have been okay, and some have been just plain old weak. And I must say this one definitely belongs in the latter category.

Night Skies is the supposed true story of an alien encounter during the famous Phoenix Lights UFO phenomenon in 1996. Toss in a pretty much useless side-story with a bunch of young lovelies and you have the makings of a pretty weak movie.

How weak is up to you. Right from the get go, for me, the acting and writing, felt like a slap in the face. The back and forth between the young adults was eye-rollingly weak. Night Skies didn't deliver really anything note worthy besides in the special effects department. And that also still felt ScfI Originial-like. It honestly felt like the only real reason they made this movie was because of the gooey stuff you see ALL OVER THE PLACE at the end of the film. "Wow, this stuff is gross, doesn't it remind you of that stuff in Fire in the Sky?" Even though there's a crowd for everything, I still become surprised when people vote a movie like this a 10 and say nothing but good things about it. Maybe they're just overly optimistic people? Maybe I'm just a dude that sees the glass half empty. I think it's a combination of that and probably just not seeing that many flicks.

Night Skies isn't the worst movie in the world, but it's certainly nothing recommendable. I'd really only rec this flick out if there were other people out there who also want to see all the alien abduction movies there is. Lots of bad acting, really bad writing, weak directing, mixed with alright effects and loads of exploding windows, plus a moderately grim finale, you could do worse, but I'd recommend this as a party movie instead as a serious sit-down.

Makes you watch the night skies

[tyranid_slayer · 5/10 · 7 May 2007]

Last night there was absolutely nothing on TV but then there was this film on the horror channel. Night skies it was called i'd already read about it in fangoria once so i decided to watch it.

The film was about phoenix lights that were seen march 13th 1997. The film starts quite slow until the point were it starts to build up some excitement. The aliens were quite menacing looking and the special effects were all rather good. What was most interesting about this film is that this was apparently based on true events but obviously some parts were added for a certain amount of scares.

The film is not a must see but is quite unsettling and quite disturbing worth your time if you can be bothered.

Low budget crap

[siderite · 4/10 · 26 July 2007]

The only thing good about this movie was that it was not following a recipe plot, so you never sort of knew what was going to happen next. However, the bad thing is that the director and the screenwriter and the actors also seemed oblivious to what was supposed to happen. In these circumstances it is hard to identify with any of the characters, making the whole point of the film moot.

Bad acting, bad directing, low budget, silly rubbery monsters and so on and so on. Michael Dorn appears in a few seconds at the end and no, not as Worf, but as a policeman.

Bottom line: stay away from it. Whoever says good things about this movie must have money in it.

Women, love, guns... but where are visitors?

[linsux · 2/10 · 10 January 2007]

The movie has an interesting beginning, claiming it's based on a true story. Story, however, either isn't screen-played well, or, some big parts of "the story" were actually missing (or, shall I say too much dramatized). The story is about an event (some light spotting) in USA and some awkward chain of events that a man (Richard) has undergone.

More than half of the movie is NOT about the promised story; it's about a dramatic (!) events where people don't behave dramatic enough and you lose all your concentration. Acting was not reflecting chain of events in the movie and you see people behave in such a strange way as if they forgot about what has happened just a few seconds ago.

It all boils down to this; this screenplay makes the story groundless; I don't know whether it was real, but my impression is simply "waste of time".

Another bad ET movie

[shortwaveburst · 3/10 · 22 July 2010]

I love movies about ETs and the paranormal. Night Skies was reeeally hard to finish because it was so poorly made. Just when I got past the formula "cookie-cutter" characters and their less than believable actions -- the special effects started in. Oye vey.

This reminds of another Arizona alien movie, Fire in the Sky. It was a very good movie and I wondered how much of it was accurate. After some research, it turned out that the guy who inspired the story for Fire in the Sky had a very different version than what the movie portrayed.

That makes me wonder if there is any semblance of a "true story" that is portrayed in this train wreck of a movie, Night Skies.

Unanswered questions for me once I finally reached the end of this horror story:

1. Why would beings that are sophisticated enough to travel through space/dimensions need to blow out the windows of a vehicle/house to abduct the screaming actors?

2. Why in the hell did the aliens explode a cabin in the woods?

wtf

I've watched Night Skies, I can take ANYTHING!!!

[heroineworshipper · 1/10 · 30 October 2007]

Yes, this was pretty awful. It's somewhere between a Dubya economics essay and waterboard torture. Only watched it because Blockbuster is closing all their stores and this is one of the few movies still left in a store.

Low budget, horrible dialog, horrible plot, horrible acting, and extreme boredom combine forces with this one. It's so boring, could listen to any insurance seminar for days with a big smile on my face. When they'd say, "How can you stand it??" I'd say because I've watched Night Skies, I can take ANYTHING.

When the price of gas rises, less seems to happen in U Know Where. With this movie, gas must have been $8 because absolutely nothing happens.

Well.....once is good enough

[iamingozi · 9 December 2006]

I suppose it has been my enjoyment of previous movies in this genre; Fire in the Sky, and Communion being my favorites, together with my reluctant opinion that quality in movies is just not what it was even 10 years ago, that made me bring a certain amount of prejudice along as I watched this. The movie itself is supposed to be based on "fact" although in reality it was a series of regression sessions with 1 witness. If you've seen Fire in the Sky, it will be slightly familiar ground, except with a stark "B movie" feel.

The plot seems drawn out from the beginning with a group of 20 somethings traveling in a motor-home. They get lost, crash it while narrowly avoiding a person fixing his own truck out in the middle of nowhere. There is little to no chemistry between any of the characters to make one believe that 2 of the couples are even married. The aliens themselves bounce around like paranoid speed addicts eyeballing their neighbors, while appearing "evil". This stylized approach to making things look twisted, ugly, and menacing to depict evil is childish and phony. Real evil doesn't let itself be recognized. The creatures therefore cheapen the effect the could have been possible. SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! The last point I will make, and this could be considered the spoiler, is the scene at the beginning and it's appearance again toward the ending. If one were to just see the beginning, it would be natural to assume she is getting chased by an alien. This is almost obvious when the reflection in an out of place shiny hubcap shows a distorted alien creature standing behind her. Well, come to the second viewing of this scene at the end, it isn't an alien, and even the reflection shows that it isn't. Why did they have to fool the audience into thinking something completely different? Very cheap. Very cheap. If you have nothing else going on, and just feel like zoning out, watch this. Otherwise, i am sorry to say, this movie just isn't worth it.

Utterly, utterly, atrocious

[documentaryman · 1/10 · 3 September 2008]

Awful story, awful script, awful acting, awful editing, awful direction. What's good? Surprisingly it's not badly shot and the aliens were also well done, not so surprisingly because the director comes from a background of makeup and special effects. The film would be excusable if it was his first attempt. It wasn't. he should go back to makeup and special effects. As for the story, whichever extra-terrestrial visitors might actually be flying around this planet could, and probably should, sue the filmmakers for slander. Even in the most horrific of actual abduction accounts the aliens show more compassion for the humans than the shipboard dissections without anesthetic that are thrown at us here. The purpose throughout is to shock. If you like laughing at truly bad films with a lot of hokey jolts and multi-colored latex slime this film is for you.

Truly Silly

[steelmagnolia58 · 2/10 · 3 September 2018]

I guess you could say "fact-based" alien abduction flicks are a guilty pleasure for me. That being said. . .The story opens slowly, and with little of substance to keep viewers interested, unless those viewers are closet voyeurs, that is. Lots of cleavage shots and adolescent sexual references.

There's a knife injury that's overtly telegraphed, and is as unrealistic as the rest of this tale.

The alien visitors are able to travel across who-knows-how-many galaxies and cover an equally indeterminant number of light years to get to Middle of Nowhere, yet we are asked to believe a wooden table against a cabin door will keep them out. Okay.

Then we are asked to accept that they are able to perform ultrasounds and/or 3D medical scans with their naked eyes and perform "surgery" with their bare hands, all while their human subjects are suspend with what looks an awful lot like snot-covered silly string. The movie closed with those end-credit explanations that, I suppose, help to lend credibility.

Although The Arizona Lights were/are a documented phenomenon, this little picture did a really poor job of telling the stories of the individuals who witnessed them.

A Surprisingly good movie despite the bad ratings!!!!

[tovenaar-1 · 7/10 · 3 February 2007]

After seeing the low IMDb user rating for this movie I wasn't expecting too much. But I found comments about the bad the acting and such where a bit harsh. Compared to a lot of other movies out there this one was OK. The movie had me going from the start, trying to piece together the reality from fiction. I was so intrigued as to what part of the real story is true and what is just Hollywood hype, I am now following up the real story myself. The first half of the movie was full of suspense, and in my opinion the movie pulled it off quite well, while the later part of the movie had a very similar feel to Fire in the Sky.

Personally I really enjoyed it, but I am just a UFO buff to begin with. For those who like the intrigue of a true story, give this one a go.

Worst movie ever

[espenliland · 1/10 · 14 January 2007]

This movie sounded really intriguing to me. I love UFO movies, I especially love UFO documentaries and this had a documentary-ish plot, so I had high expectations before watching it.

I was disappointed.

I mean, I was reeeeally disappointed! Everything about this movie is horrible. The acting is beyond pathetic, the story is so unbelievable you have to wonder if this in fact is based upon a true story or whether it's just a gimmick to make more money, the textbook horror-tricks are all being used, everything is as predictable as it can get, the characters are SO STUPID I sat there hoping they would all die so the movie could finish.

Do yourself a favor and don't rent this movie, and more importantly, don't even think about buying it. I'd rather spend $20 buying an empty DVD.

great movie

[mastermaninblack · 10/10 · 25 January 2007]

This starts slow but builds tension gradually so you are wondering what is going to happen at the end. The girls alone are enough to hold your interest for a time. Some of the special effects were a bit cheesy, (pardon the pun), but unless you have actually been on an alien spacecraft how would you know what it would be like ! Use your imagination. It was better than using an old star trek set ! I must research this to see if there was an actual abduction reported. We have all heard of the Phoenix lights but I was not aware of any incidents pertaining to the event. The blurb states the story is based on hypno-therapy session transcripts which points to somebody having a pretty frightening experience either real or imagined. If you like UFO stuff then you will like this movie.

Hey I got $200, let's make a movie!

[kirupastuff · 1/10 · 23 March 2007]

Wow. I actually just went through the IMDb registration just to leave a note about this movie. Don't watch it! I actually wanted to scratch up the DVD so someone doesn't feel like I do when they rent the copy I have.

The characters are (written) so stupid that, like someone else commented here, I was totally rooting for the aliens! If people actually act like these people acted, I have to move out of Arizona. If you put them all together, they're as dumb as a box of hair.

I think the effects would have been better if they had more than a pan light, some dry ice, and a case of silly string (pink and yellow, it's for the end). If one girl can get sucked up by light, why do all the aliens follow them around the woods? These guys mastered space flight, right? FYI to filmmaker: blood, not translucent; superglue, not a truncate; and why would they not have first aid, but they have a block of about 8 knives? Errr!!

Had to get it off my chest. If you've seen it, you'll understand; if you haven't, don't.

OH PLEASE!

[nogodnomasters · 3/10 · 23 May 2019]

A guy, who looks like a young version of Brad Pitt is driving across Arizona at night and is not on I-40. He has 3 great looking babes with him as well as another dude. They see lights in the sky, crash into another guy's truck. People get killed and abducted. Once abducted we go through the classic womb images normally associated with regression memory plus tall grays (one of 5 alien types for you UFOs people.) Mild violence, cleavage, and language. Not at all believable. Based on actual events? Oh Please!

Bad characters, nothing original

[Al_Toro · 3/10 · 16 January 2007]

Don't thing there are spoilers in, but if you are very pedantic, there might be something mentioned, very little and that will not affect the inhuman joy of watching the movie. But however :

SPOILERS !!!11!

The characters reactions are very unnatural. It must be some kind of rare combination between terrible directing and bad acting to achieve it. Every scary-wannabe element in it is such a cliché, we laughed during the whole movie - you just know what will happen. It is not interesting, nor scary, nor it has any sense in it. When one of the guys went in the forest in the middle of nowhere (without even checking if she is back in the RV with the others, where she was of course) screaming the name of his girlfriend, looking for her, it was impossible not to remind me for the Pablo Francisco jokes about dumb horror movies : "Anybody home?" A man is obviously entering a house. Scary killer's music (in this movie it was the dumb scary creatures' sound ala Grudge) "Billy?" the scary sounds again "I'm gonna get naked and take a shower" They are so easy to kill you can strangle them with a wireless phone

All together, the movie sucks. Don't watch it. Go to youtube and watch some Pablo Francisco instead ;)

Not original at all

[argentinian_lady_20 · 4/10 · 1 February 2007]

The story is a bit repetitive, we all have seen alien's movies with plastic monsters and a group of friends whose car breaks in the middle of the nothing... This one isn't different (although it's based on the testimony of lots of witnesses who assure to have seen UFO's).

I think the movie is a cliché of all the first ET's movies but I have to admit that in some moments I was tense and the cameraman did an excellent job... It's a shame that the ending of the movie was so disappointing, but the real thing is we'll never know if the Phoenix lights they swear to have seen where actually aliens... Other alien movie to watch at midnight.

Okay, but the aliens behaved in a strange way

[planahath · 5/10 · 7 June 2021]

This movies was okay, and quite scary in parts. Clearly the aliens have malevolent intentions, and have the technology to abduct humans with a special beam of light/energy. They did this with the character Molly. But yet with the other humans the aliens prefer to skulk around the woods and then eventually launch a full on assault on the RV. The character Richard then shoots a couple of the aliens in a later scene, but yet at the end of the movie they choose to release him. But what did they do with Molly or June? The whole behavior of the aliens made little sense whatsoever.

fairly boring

[phenomynouss · 3/10 · 6 September 2020]

Probably not a good sign for the film that as I started watching it, about 5-10 minutes in, I realized I had already watched this film maybe 6 or 8 months earlier and remember almost nothing about it.

Using the 1997 Phoenix Lights incident as its setting, it proceeds to go about telling about five pages worth of a story. There's barely anything happening and barely any content. A bunch of jerk teens/young adults are out in an RV, get distracted by the lights, and crash into some guy's car on the road who is also distracted by the road out in the middle of nowhere. Jerk Teen Matt punches the guy, who proceeds to then help them as their friend Joe gets accidentally stabbed in the shoulder by a big knife during the crash.

The implication, as is obvious and always, is aliens involved, both in the light and presumably out in the darkness as well.

For the longest time, nothing really happens. The guy they ran into flirts with one of the jerk teen girls who is into him, he gives his tragic backstory as a POW in Iraq during the Gulf War, and by this time you realize it's been something like half an hour or so into the movie without much of anything happening.

It's truly unfortunate that they didn't have much of a script to do anything with, because for the low low budget they do have, their aliens look amazing and move realistically.

Michael Dorn is also given high billing and only shows up in a tiny cameo at the very end, thoroughly wasted casting.

"I hate just sitting here like this." Surprisingly decent.

[poolandrews · 7/10 · 12 March 2007]

Night Skies starts as Matt (George Stults) & his fiancé Lilly (A.J. Cook) along with his younger sister Molly (Ashley Peldon) plus two married friends Joe (Joseph Sikora) & June (Gwendoline Yeo) are driving across the Arizona desert in an attempt to get to Las Vegas, all seems fine until they notice some strange lights in the night sky flying in formation. However much to Matt's cost looking at lights in the sky & driving a large motor home don't mix & he loses control, almost hits another truck on the road & puts the motor home into a tree. In the aftermath of the accident it comes to light that Joe now has a huge kitchen knife stuck in his back & there seems to no way to get him to hospital, as the night draws on it becomes apparent that they are not alone as they are stalked & taken by alien beings...

Directed by Roy Knyrim I was rather surprised by Night Skies, sure it ain't Alien (1979) in the excitement department & it reminds heavily of an X-Files (1993 - 2003) episode which were airing over 10 years prior to this being made but as a stand alone film I found it quite impressive. The sci-fi/horror orientated script by Eric Miller which takes itself extremely seriously is apparently based on true events that happened in Arizona during 1997, living in the UK I really don't have a clue about these events, & is based the usual witness statements & the like. To be fair it's sort of predictable up to a point & it only goes as far as to dramatise one night seemingly based on one guy's recollection so it doesn't offer any of it's own answers up & it just ends abrupt without really trying to say anything about what happened, but then again I suppose it's just trying to relay the facts of the case & wants to let us, the audience, decide for ourselves. To be fair during the first 20 minutes of Night Skies nothing happens, it just introduces the character's, not that much happens after either but at least the film has now put them in position where the last 30 minutes are actually terrific, the stalking of the group by the aliens & what they finally do with them is pretty cool. The character's are OK as is the dialogue & if it wasn't for the coma inducing first half Night Skies could have a great film, as it is I'll say it's a good one.

Director Knyrim does a great job here, there's a decent atmosphere & the alien attack at the end is really good even if it's a bit rushed at times. The special effect are excellent & are very impressive, the aliens themselves look somewhat stereotypical with very thin pale bodies, elongated heads with bulbous black eyes & spindly fingers & most of the time they're shot in partial or complete shadow until the very end in they're spaceship where you can appreciate the excellent effects work. The very organic looking interior of the spaceship is cool with strands of what looks like melted cheese & slime hanging everywhere like huge cheesy spider webs! There's some gore, that knife in Joe's back looks painful as there are plenty of close-ups with blood spurting from the wound, someone is shot & there's some decent blood splatter.

Technically Night Skies is excellent, the cinematography is good even though it may be a bit bright considering the situation the film is trying to portray. The acting was pretty good, Sean Connery's son Jason gets abducted & experimented on by aliens. I wonder if his dad has seen Night Skies? If he has at least Jason can say something like 'well dad it could have been worse at least I didn't appear in The Avengers'....

Night Skies surprised me as I thought it was going to low budget crap, while the first half is a snooze-fest it picks up for an excellent climax with some highly impressive special effects which wouldn't look out of place in your local theatre & it's got Sean Connery's son in it, enough said. Certainly nothing original but I liked it a lot more than I thought I would all the same.

Another UFO movie...

[aldas_ma · 5/10 · 10 December 2006]

Really,i don't love movies with aliens,UFOs... But when i saw this,my opinion has changed, it is cruel movie,and know what? i enjoyed it very much!!

when i saw cover,i don't saw picture or title,but i saw " BASED ON A TRUE STORY " its sounds very mysterious. And i think this was a hook for me to watch it.

At the end of the movie,is telling the "true" story,which happened in 1997 03 17, and we can see these lights filmed by video cam...Mysterious...

So,if you have free time,watch it,i think you don't be chagrined.

Fantastic, horrific, overall great close encounter film...

[micahmatt · 9/10 · 11 May 2007]

Now, I am a very critical movie-watcher. I almost never give a movie a 9 unless it is box-office gold. But this film was something else.

"Night Skies" told about the events that occurred on March 13th, 1997, one of the largest and most famous UFO sightings in American history. This sighting led to many close encounter stories that night, but this one is definitely one of the most prominent.

Quality: This film is a B movie. Plain and simple. When I first sat down and started watching this, I began wondering if it was going to be any good. As I watched the film, it became more and more scary. The filming wasn't that bad and the acting was VERY good. The film progressively becomes more frightening and disturbing, which leads to my final verdict: "Night Skies" is an excellent movie as far as story is concerned. The effects aren't perfect, but it is definitely worth a viewing. Two thumbs up!

Quite good...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 1 January 2024]

I do think I have actually watched the 2007 sci-fi horror movie "Night Skies" once before, back in the day. However, I only remember the movie by its title, and thus I opted to sit down and watch it here as 2023 came to an end.

Odd that I have forgotten about the movie, because the storyline was quite enjoyable. Writers Eric Miller and Steve B. Harris put together a script and storyline that combined elements of traditional horror with elements of alien visitors. And it was actually a rather nice blend. The way that the script was written and the way that the narrative unfolded was quite good, especially because the audience are left to wonder where the lines of reality in the movie blur.

The cast ensemble in "Night Skies" was good, and there were some familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Jason Connery, Michael Dorn and Gwendoline Yeo.

It should definitely be noted that the alien design in the movie was good. It was a nice approach to the classic 'grey visitors', but they made them appear more menacing. I definitely liked the way that the aliens were portrayed in the movie.

"Night Skies" is a movie that most certainly is well-worth sitting down and spending 85 minutes on watching. I was genuinely and wholeheartedly entertained throughout the course of the movie.

My rating of director Roy Knyrim's 2007 movie "Night Skies" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Hideous...don't waste your time

[yosemitesam-1 · 1/10 · 26 January 2007]

This STORY had potential, but was ruined by bad writing and worse acting. It had one redeeming quality....the movie begins with US Senator John McCain expressing his interest in UFOs. The time I wasted on the movie was well worth that little tidbit of information about a potential Presidential candidate!! Thank you Director Roy Knyrim for that little heads-up! So, here we go -- group of 30 something actors, playing young people on their way to Vegas by way of a back road. After bashing into some guy who is working on his truck, chaos ensues. Soon they are under attack by aliens (which were not half-bad looking, as aliens go).The special affects were great, but so overshadowed by the terrible script and bad acting.

This film was terrible!

[conleche · 1/10 · 5 February 2007]

Terrible! I must admit that I was about to walk out on this film several times, but then thought "It must get better" --- IT DIDN'T!--- A complete and utter waste of time. I am an avid Sci-Fi buff, both film and books, but this takes the cake. I'm sorry that I wasted my time on it. The aliens were non-spectacular. the final scenes were amateurish. The way they got caught up in the whole thing was also pretty thin. Matt was not looking where he was driving, and nearly hit a truck that was pulled over with engine stop. There were flairs out on the road, but the idiot was not looking where he was going. Then strangely enough it was Matt that got all mad and tried to beat Jason Connery up. Jason Connery played an ex-Vietnam veteran, but that didn't shine through at all. See this film for yourself, and weep. I could have used 2 hours more constructively on the toilet. Sorry but that's the way I feel about it. This is my first review, but I just HAD to write about this flop.

Lights Out, Phoenix

[lenwej · 1/10 · 12 February 2007]

This film claims to be based on real events surrounding the now rather famous Phoenix lights. True or not, it comes off more like an excuse to make a rather poor teen horror flick. The story line and the characters fails to catch any real interest which makes the less than 90-minute film feel more like 3 hours. The acting is mediocre at best which makes whatever ambitions the filmmakers may have had of building any type of real connection with the viewer impossible. The special effects are less than special and feel quite dated even had this been a TV-production of the late 80's.

No, this certainly isn't worth buying, renting or spending 90 minutes of your life on.

Go watch the skies instead.