20131226: SciFi Review--Grey Skies

Grey Skies

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2010, NR, 84 minutes, SciFi, horror.  Aspect 2.35
2. IMDB: 3.4/10.0 from 290 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 1.5 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet...' 0% liked it from 10 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.8/5.0 from 61,151 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Kai Blackwood.
6. Starring: Michael Cornacchia as Michael, Aaron McPherson as Robert, Stacy Jorgensen as Jenny, Jeff Lorch as Hayden, Anne Griffin as Annie, Shelley Dennis as Sandy, Scott Mullin as Glen, Jeff Schuetze as Brian.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Old friends get together for a weekend in the woods.  Sandy and Hayden hit it off immediately, sharing sex and drugs.  Michael brought his photographer friend Brian.  Robert and Jenny are together, but are bickering.  Annie and Glen seem to be unattached.  They look at the stars which are very clear out in the middle of nowhere.  There are also shooting stars.  One lands relatively nearby.  Some of them are high, and decide to go find it.


2. Hayden does not come back, so they go looking for him.  They find him, a bit worse for the wear.  Thing move back toward normal, somewhat, except for Jenny's telling Robert that she is pregnant.  Sandy disappears about the same time that the lights go out.  The search is on.  They find her, and she's a bit garbled in her responses.  They decide to leave, but none of their four vehicles will start.


3. Then the elimination derby is on.  One after another the aliens take over the minds and wills of the people in the party.


4. Will anyone survive the onslaught?




3. Conclusions
1. Michael Cornacchia also supplied the story.
2. One line summary: Bad SFX, bad acting, bad screenplay trump the reasonable camera work.
3. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Well done for a low budget film.


2. Sound: 8/10 Not too bad.


3. Acting: 0/10 Michael Cornacchia and Anne Griffin were absolutely terrible.  Stacy Jorgensen was also rather bad.  The others were unconvincing.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 There are lots of inconsistencies about what the aliens can do.  There was a large percentage of the film that was just plain boring.  The pointless yelling sequences were very irritating.


5. SFX: 2/10 Amateurish; special effects were laughably bad.