Writer: Dallas Morgan (Screenplay)
Starring: Dante Basco, Kevin Sizemore, Boo Arnold, Tahlia Morgan, Rawn Erickson, Jason J Lewis
Plot: A character-driven sci-fi mystery about a dysfunctional family living on a ranch in TX threatened by a cryptid in their woods. Ultimately, they must overcome their interpersonal conflict in order to unite and survive.
Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Great Twist on the Alien Theory
Story: Sightings starts as small town Sheriff Tom Mayfield (Arnold) on his last day gets yet another call from his local crazy believing they have seen something on their property, to make the matters worse Tom discovered butchered women on his property, but remains to retire.
The case brings down detective Brendan Pitney (Sizemore) who puts Tom as the main suspect, but we also have Akiro (Basco) and Rebecca Otis (Drapeau) who believe there is more supernatural motives behind what happened, could it be a man, alien or even bigfoot.
Thoughts on Sightings
Characters – Tom Mayfield is the former sheriff that has step down for a quiet life, but his property becomes a crime scene and he must face his former demons of his wife’s disappearance to rebuild his relationship with his daughter to protect her from the same fate. Hannah is the daughter of Tom’s she dreams of being a writer with this latest case being her chance to potential stop getting the constant rejection letters. Detective Brendan Pitney is the out of towner that comes believing that Tom is the man responsible for the killings on his land, he takes his time to come around to the truth, while hoping to get a job for the FBI.
Performances – Boo Arnold is good in this leading role as the conflicted father and former lawman, Kevin Sizemore is fun as the detective that wants more from his job and isn’t the nicest guy, while Tahlia Morgan does a good job as the daughter to Tom. We get solid performances from the whole cast in the long run of this movie.
Story – The story follows a family that must face the biggest divide they had to overcome a new threat which could finish them. We have the idea of a legendary threat which teases and plays into mixing a couple of theories which would make sense if certain elements are true. We have a mystery throw in as we see what happened to our family and as this unfolds we see this new threat.
Adventure/Sci-Fi – The adventure feels like we watching the family and friends are pulled together to take on the threat which is sci-fi threat.
Settings – The small town setting does work for the film because it shows how the people will work together against the unknown.
Special Effects – The effects are fine, we don’t see too much which does add to parts of the film as we don’t know the full look of the enemy.
Final Thoughts – This is a good spin on aliens and bigfoot that does work to plan into the theories that mix the two together.
Overall: Go for a bigfoot alien twist.