Into the Sky Review | Fantastic Fest 2026
FANTASTIC FEST 2026 REVIEW
‘Into the Sky’ Review: Sam Richardson Finds Heart, Humor and Alien Abductions at Fantastic Fest
One of my favorite surprises at Fantastic Fest 2026 was Into the Sky, a sci-fi comedy thriller directed by Evan Boxbaum and Drew Mylrea that takes a bizarre alien-abduction premise and turns it into something unexpectedly funny, heartfelt and occasionally very strange.
Sam Richardson stars as Bobby, a man dealing with a problem that makes maintaining anything resembling a normal life nearly impossible. Every so often, Bobby disappears. When he returns, he wakes up completely naked in some unexplained part of the country with no real understanding of how he got there.
The explanation appears to be alien abduction.
Sometimes Bobby is gone for a couple of days. Other times, months pass before he returns. That unpredictability has essentially destroyed his ability to build a stable life because every time things begin approaching some definition of normal, he can disappear again without warning.
Richardson is perfect for that premise because Bobby isn’t approaching his situation like the protagonist of some massive science-fiction adventure. He’s a guy exhausted by something completely insane that has somehow become part of his everyday existence. He doesn’t necessarily want answers. He wants his life back.
That becomes even more complicated when Bobby returns home and discovers that life has continued without him. His wife has potentially moved on, and his former home is now being used as an Airbnb.
There he meets a young woman played by Sofia Black-D’Elia, and the strange circumstances surrounding their introduction eventually push the two into an unlikely partnership. What begins as another absurd complication in Bobby’s life gradually develops into one of the film’s most important relationships.
That’s where Into the Sky really started working for me.
For all the alien-abduction material surrounding these characters, Boxbaum and Mylrea understand that the people are more interesting than simply explaining what is happening in the sky. Bobby and his new companion are both dealing with issues involving family, relationships and the lives they thought they were supposed to have. Their journey gives the movie a genuine emotional center underneath all the science-fiction weirdness.
Then David Cross shows up.
His character is another person who has experienced the phenomenon, except he has responded very differently. A former professor, he has devoted himself to convincing the world that alien abductions are real, even creating videos about his experiences.
Finding Bobby gives him something he hasn’t had before: another person who can validate what he has been saying.
But there is a darker side to his obsession.
He believes he may have discovered a way to stop the abductions and wants Bobby involved in his experiments. Bobby, meanwhile, isn’t looking to become evidence in somebody else’s crusade. He’s still trying to salvage whatever remains of his normal life.
That conflict allows the movie to move between comedy, science fiction and thriller territory without losing the warmth that makes the characters so likable.
The alien material is also handled with surprising restraint.
Into the Sky could easily have become an effects-heavy movie constantly trying to show us extraterrestrials, spaceships and increasingly elaborate abduction sequences. Instead, the filmmakers give us enough. The effects used during the abduction material work, and the movie understands that leaving some things unexplained can be considerably more effective than trying to visualize every part of the mythology.
Would I have enjoyed seeing a little more interaction with the aliens? Absolutely. That’s probably my biggest criticism of the film.
But showing more might also have disrupted the balance that makes the movie work.
Eventually, I stopped caring as much about exactly who was abducting Bobby or why they were doing it because I cared more about what these disappearances were doing to the people in front of me.
That is a difficult trick for a movie about alien abduction to pull off.
The comedy helps tremendously. There is a genuine wholesomeness running through much of Into the Sky, with lovable characters and relationships that are easy to invest in. Then, just when the movie starts feeling comfortable, things can suddenly become sinister, gross or completely off-kilter.
When it decides to go there, it doesn’t hold back.
That tonal flexibility made this exactly the kind of movie I love discovering at Fantastic Fest.
After watching so many intense thrillers and big, bloody, gooey genre films, Into the Sky was a refreshing change of pace. It remains weird enough to belong at Fantastic Fest while also being accessible enough that I could easily see it connecting with audiences far beyond the festival circuit.
You don’t have to be obsessed with aliens or science fiction to enjoy this movie.
There is romance here. There is friendship. There is family. There is loss. There is the anxiety of watching life continue without you. And underneath all of it is a damn good, well-written comedy about people trying to maintain relationships while something completely outside their control repeatedly disrupts their lives.
Richardson’s natural comedic presence is a huge part of why that balance works, but the ensemble around him gives the movie its heart. These are characters I enjoyed spending time with and won’t forget anytime soon.
I hope Into the Sky finds the right platform and audience because this feels like one of those festival discoveries that could develop real legs once more people have the opportunity to see it.
It was easily one of my top 10 films of Fantastic Fest 2026 and close enough that I could make an argument for putting it in my top five.
More importantly, it accomplishes exactly what I wanted it to do. It takes an absurd science-fiction premise, surrounds it with characters worth caring about and knows precisely how much alien mythology it needs without allowing that mythology to overwhelm the human story.
Into the Sky is funny, strange, occasionally gross and surprisingly sincere. Whether you’re coming for alien abductions, romance or simply a well-made comedy, there is something here for you.
4.5 out of 5
Reviewed as part of Horror Movies Uncut's Fantastic Fest 2026 coverage in Austin, Texas.
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