Movie Review: "Holes in the Sky: The Sean Miller Story" (2023)

Holes in the Sky: The Sean Miller Story Movie Review

Written by Stuart D. Monroe

Released by Horror-Fix Films and Tubi

Directed by Ash Hamilton

Written by Ash Hamilton and Andrew J. Peevler

2023, 96 minutes, Not Rated

Starring:

Sean Ed as Sean Miller

Ash Hamilton as Ash Hamilton

Chanell Hamilton as Chanell Hamilton

Douglas McDonald as Douglas McDonald

Laura Richter as Laura Richter

Review:

This is one of those reviews that starts off with a full disclosure: I’m a card-carrying member of FFJA (Found Footage Junkies Anonymous). I’m also really into alien abduction stories. There’s a sweet spot to be found at the junction of those two genres for the filmmaker who’s patient and restrained enough to suss it out. Combining those with a meta approach to the writing (both for flexibility in the writing itself and budgetary purposes) piqued my interest in Holes in the Sky: The Sean Miller Story. And that was before I found through Ash Hamilton himself that the budget was a mere $700. Shit, my last grocery shop was $650!

Needless to say, Holes in the Sky jumped up my dance card by a couple of spots.

Holes in the Sky is a found footage documentary exploring the 2013 abduction of Sean Miller. Documentary filmmaker Ash Hamilton (playing himself) and his wife/assistant Chanell Hamilton travel to the rural Illinois home of the man who went missing for four days in 2013 when aliens took him straight from his car. What they encountered in his country home, pieced together through documentary footage, cell phone snippets, and a fateful 911 call, leaves a mystery that still has more questions than answers.

Holes in the Sky: The Sean Miller Story is a film that has clearly done its homework and followed the template set forth by films like The Blair Witch Project, The McPherson Tape, and The Fourth Kind. I mean that as a compliment. Let’s face it- if you are making a film of this ilk, then you are following that template. It’s THE template. The important part is the lessons you learned from those films, and Ash Hamilton paid attention. The tension builds with beats in just the right places. It’s also a film that understands that less is more in this subgenre. Remember what I said about patience and restraint? Bingo.

The pacing was still a bit slow at the halfway mark and lighter on the action, but is by no means ineffective. Holes in the Sky is smartly written, however, and the b-story with the cameraman’s grief/mental state is an appreciated layer of characterization and humanization that’s often missing in the found footage style. The second half, however, provides some memorable moments (like Drew’s encounter in the field with the blurry figure in broad daylight) that will stick in your brain for a hot minute. The first good look at the invaders is one of the best uses of pitch black shooting I’ve ever seen; relying on more than just freaky sound cues for the payoff.

Though different in subject matter, Holes in the Sky and it’s meta-documentary style reminds me strongly of the late Erik Kristopher Myers’ masterpiece, Butterfly Kisses. With virtually no budget by comparison, Holes in the Sky managed to evoke the same level of both polish and passion as that aforementioned gem. That’s a heck of an accomplishment.

I have minor gripes (I really wanted the tale of Sean’s abduction in detail with more freaky imagery), but that could also be chalked up to budget. A bit more of a prologue would’ve been nice, too…but again it doesn’t hurt the pacing, execution, or genuine creep factor of what you get in those 96 minutes.

Overall, Holes in the Sky: The Sean Miller Story is a strong entry into the found footage and aliens subgenre that also marks the feature debut of a writer/director that should be watched closely. I personally would be extremely curious to see what he could get done with an honest-to-goodness budget.

Grade:

4.0 out of 5.0 stars