Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Grey Skies'

Written by Scott Edwards

Needing to spend time with friends before a life altering event could be a necessity for many people. When you are ready to take your life, relationship or career to the next step, checking in with your friends and getting their opinion on the matter could help you make sure that you are making the right decision. They are your friends of course and should always be willing to tell you if something seems off or not right and not have to worry about biting their tongues, but also as friends they want to see you happy and will stay quiet if that seems like the right thing to do.

Robert and Jenny are looking to start their life together and they can think of no better way to  celebrate their engagement than by renting a cabin and having their closest friends along for the trip. Knowing that their friends want nothing but the best for the happy couple, they know that they will be taken care of quite nicely for the weekend. So they share their time with Hayden and Sandy along with Michael and Brian and they are also joined by Annie. Even though Annie is an old friend of Robert’s, Jenny is holding back what she really thinks about Robert and Annie's past.

With plenty of alcohol, a bag of weed and just a little bit of cocaine, the group is ready for a wonderful night under the stars. Since everyone is from the big city, they have never seen a sky so full of light and wonder, and they were told by the landlady that it looks so much better when you are under the influence. The couples prepare for the night, and while everyone is trying to get the inside scoop about how Robert proposed to Jenny, they take solace in their vices and relax for the evening. When Jenny and Robert step out on the porch of the cabin, they see a barrage of shooting stars. Making sure that no one misses the show, they call everyone outside to watch. However the show ends with a distant explosion forcing Hayden and Sandy to go out and investigate.

When morning comes, everyone is fighting the worst of hangovers and they discover Hayden did not make it back to the house. Sandy is very concerned about her boyfriend’s whereabouts and gets the group to go out searching for their friend. Finding Hayden naked and unconscious in a field, the group believes that he just had too much fun and needs to sleep it off, but when he awakens, he is someone else. When the next night falls, the group is frightened by a mysterious power outage in the cabin and strange sounds coming out of the woods. Not knowing what it could possibly be, they try to investigate but another member of their group goes missing and returns just like Hayden did, changed. As the days and nights pass, the group stays together, but one by one they are becoming someone other than themselves without any explanation. 

Not bad for an alien movie that is dealing with abductions, along with trying to be a scare flick. Grey Skies brings enough humor and some solid scares even though some of the camera work gets a little too first person. As always in a horror flick, you have to focus on the personal relationships in the group dynamic to figure out who is going to get killed off first, but when you add an alien threat into the mix, all bets are off. Keeping the villains out of the light and not allowing anyone to get a good look at them is one of the greatest things any monster movie can do to keep the audience guessing and using their own imagination to picture what the real threat is and this movie does this just right. Although I would say this is more Sci-Fi then Horror, it does just fine delivering in either realm. Happy Viewing and Stay Scared.

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