Skyline
Directed by Colin Strause, Greg Strause
- science fiction
- action
- thriller
The story
When strange lights descend on the city of Los Angeles, people are drawn outside like moths to a flame where an extraterrestrial force threatens to swallow the entire human population off the face of the Earth. Now the band of survivors must fight for their lives as the world unravels around them.
What it’s like
Blue-white light pours down from the sky and turns the Los Angeles night into a hard, glowing wash, with the bright, flat sheen of digital capture on everything: glassy high-rise windows, slick freeway asphalt, faces lit from below by the hovering alien glow. The Strause brothers, who came from visual effects, favour sweeping wide shots of skyline and shattered streets, tight handheld close-ups in cramped apartments, and a restless camera that stays in the chaos rather than stepping back. Much of the palette is cold blues and sodium oranges, broken by warm interior lamp light where the characters huddle together. The score is a driving, synthetic pulse with heavy low-end rumbles and sudden silences that let ambient city hum rise up. The mood is apocalyptic dread with a claustrophobic, interpersonal core: anxious and fast-paced, with the tension of a long night. Violence is frequent and visually intense, with explosions, creature attacks, and some bloody injuries, though gore is moderate. There is some sexual content and strong language. It suits a late-night watch alone or with friends who want big spectacle and a rough, unpolished thrill, and it will suit viewers who enjoy monster and invasion films built around ordinary people trapped in a bad night.
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