PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Living in Arizona, I am no stranger to hearing about UFOs and stories of alien abduction. We’re almost as synonymous with aliens as New Mexico and Area 51 are. We’re home to Travis Walton, the subject of perhaps the most famous abduction story ever. If you’re not familiar with Travis Walton, then you should check out Fire in the Sky. While I’m sure it’s been embellished, it’s a great place to start. Then I would check out Beyond the Sky for a little something different. Plus, Walton has a cameo as himself!
Beyond the Sky stars Ryan Carnes (General Hospital, Desperate Housewives TV series) as documentary filmmaker Chris Norton who, with his filming partner, Brent (Claude Duhamel: Valentine 2001), descends onto a small town in New Mexico in the hopes of debunking alien abductees and their stories. While interviewing townspeople during the International UFO Conference and collecting their abduction stories, Chris and Brent encounter a young girl named Emily Reed (Jordan Hinson: Eureka TV series) who claims to be abducted every seven years on her birthday. With that very day fast approaching, Chris and Brent make themselves a fixture in Emily’s life by following her around, attending her abductee support group, and even hanging out at her house.
It becomes clear during the film that Chris harbors dark childhood memories of his parents and his father’s claims that his mother was abducted. It’s also clear that, while there under the guise of making a documentary, Chris is also looking for answers as to what really happened to his mother. They meet an eccentric cast of characters along the way, including Fargo’s Peter Stormare, Don Stark (That ’70s Show) as Bill Johnson, a staunch victim supporter and creator of the conference, and Dee Wallace (3 From Hell, Death House 2017) as an eccentric oddities store owner.
The first full length film by director Fulvio Sestito, Beyond the Sky is a fun take on the alien abduction subgenre, and it’s refreshing with its humor and quirky cast of characters. It also helps that it’s supported with a great soundtrack by Don Davis and phenomenal cinematography by Chris Saul. The script, written by Sestito with Rebecca Berrih, Marc Porterfield and Rob Warren Thomas, has its flaws and lags a bit at times, but it did keep me on my toes to see if Emily was really going to be taken again on her birthday. It’s a story of ‘Will it really happen?’ and ‘Are they telling the truth?’ After watching this movie, I want to believe.
Be sure to catch Beyond the Sky when RLJE Films releases it in the US in theaters and on VOD and Digital HD on September 21, 2018.
