The McPherson Tape

The McPherson Tape (also known as UFO Abduction) follows an average family recording a little girls birthday party when all of a sudden a spacecraft lands near their remote Connecticut mountain house. This film has both pros and cons, but more cons for sure.

What it does right:

This movie is extremely cozy and nostalgic, as it really feels like an average 80s home video. Obviously it's clear to see that it's fake, but watching it on yours grandmothers TV set in 1989 could absolutely freak somebody out.

What it misses on:

This film is extremely slow, even with a 63 minute runtime, and tends to kill its tension almost instantly. Almost every time something "scary" happens (like seeing an alien outside the window) you can't actually see anything so you're just looking at nothing. Also, it's way too dark at times and an awfully shaky camera, but it's an 80s FF so who can really gripe at that.

Overall, it's cozy and entertaining enough for one watch, but loses most of its audience quickly.

I think when watching this you must be prepared to realise it is done on a micro budget so taking less notice of the somewhat shoddy alien costumes and special effects. Appreciate what was done with what they had. And onto this, what they did was create a piece that is edgy, creepy and realistic and the low budget approach actually aids the ending result. If made using state of the art camera, special effects and a big budget this film would lose its charm and character which is essential in this sort of film.

And for the people downgrading as they say its clearly fake footage.... yes it is..... WOW!

This could've been a totally OK 'found footage' movie, it's very naturalistic & they obviously had a ball making it, unfortunately it's very uncomfortable to watch.

It's so very, very dark & because of that the camera can't truly focus on anything, after a while, I felt slightly dizzy & nauseous, I just wanted to see something clearly, but it never improves.

So the lesson is - there's natural & life-like & unwatchably dark & blurry!

A really under appreciated film that really was a pioneer in the hyper-realistic found footage genre. Only 1 hour long, the film is shot as a home movie during a family gathering which takes a terrifying turning after the appearance of mysterious lights in the sky. It is ultra low budget: the effects are non-existent, and costumes almost laughable but the grainy recording does a lot of favours. The acting is decent during the moments of low key family banter but is less believable as the tension increases. There is not much of a story to be found; it really is just a camera pointed at some bizarre events but the low quality production succeeds in making this quite chilling.

Painful to watch, painful to listen to. Way too much dialogue, these people don't shut up the entire movie. I was rooting for the Aliens.