White Sky

From Inseminoid to Xtro, I love how the raw grisliness of U.K. horror is spread across a broader spectrum of cosmic weirdness. Gore scenes utilize sci-fi elements to allow a dream-like freedom to conjure stranger scenes of nastiness. These films also tend to find structural ways to hide their low budgets, like a parent hiding vegetables in meals, so their kids won’t notice. White Sky is a worthy addition to this tradition, except this movie hides more than a low budget. Director Adam Wilson and screenwriter Philip Daay seem to invest a deeper subtext into their feature that may slink past genre audiences, but the arthouse crowd will savor it. Like the poster says, “Prepare to be altered.”

“…the spaceship drops clouds of white powder onto the buildings. Suddenly a shock wave knocks them all out.”

Sienna (Makenna Guyler) is kicking an opiate addiction. Her sister Hailey (Natalie Martins) and boyfriend Josh (Jordan McFarlane) take her out into the woods for a camping trip. While Sienna wanders among the trees, trying not to think about heroin, she sees a giant flying saucer hovering over the city in the distance. She calls over Hailey and Josh, and they all watch as the spaceship drops clouds of white powder onto the buildings. Suddenly a shock wave knocks them all out. The trio wakes up at night as the city in the distance starts getting bombed by the air force. 

Soon the woods starts filling with sinister figures referred to in the credits as the Altered. They are people with black eyes and veins that are covered in the powder from the spaceship. They stand still in the distance until one of them screams, and they all start running to attack. While trying to survive, our leads run into the mysterious Liam (Ade Dimberline), who has a hideout deep in the forest. It turns out the secret lair is because of drugs, and Sienna is back on the dope, because why not have some fun when the world is ending? Meanwhile, the Altered are closing in, from the outside and possibly the inside.