The McPherson Tape (aka U.F.O. Abduction) [Blu-ray]

I only just found out about this movie when I purchased it but it was 8/10 and very watchable for the genre

The media could not be loaded.  I've never seen any other form of this movie but I have to say that the blu ray restoration of it is actually pretty good. It could've been cleaned up more (such as more noise reduction, full screen, and added saturation) but I understand that its filmed similarly to the Blair Witch Project where its purposely supposed to look old with black bars around the screen simulating a camera. The cast was good enough at making it seem believable with the isolated home setting being very creepy and atmospheric. My only complaint with the film is when the brothers were hiking and talking as it dragged on for more than it needed to.. but I give the rest of the lines credit as its done really well, especially when the camera first turns on and we are introduced to everyone. All in all I think this is a great film perfect for Halloween or on a cold chilly night. It certainly did its job at scaring me!Note: this film has 2 versions, original and directors cut. The original is presented the exact same way as it was on TV back in the 80s and the directors cut is a much more cleaned up version but still maintains that 80s look to it. The pictures that I took show the differences between the 2.

An important film for any fan of found footage horror, and great for such a micro-budget. But if you’re not a fan of the subgenre, I doubt you’d enjoy this.IMDB summary—“On a typical fall evening in 1983, a young man was videotaping his niece's 5th birthday party. As the night's strange occurrences took place, he kept his video camera running, recording the entire event.”After witnessing flashes of bright lights in the sky, the brothers search the woods to find a spaceship landing and several extraterrestrials on foot.The very premise of this film smacks of the scene in Signs (2002) when they capture footage of the shadowy alien figure during a children’s birthday party. And it seems Signs (2002) owes more to its predecessor—for example, the scene of the panicked family listening to the aliens on the roof trying to find a way inside the house.The acting largely feels very candid. When the aliens approach the house, the family yells and argues and makes quick erratic decisions. The power goes out, people go missing, there are hints of possible telepathy and mind control, and no one knows what to do.As we start seeing them up close, these aliens don’t look awesome. The budget is meager, so the creature effects feel no greater in quality than a mid-to-low-priced “grey” alien costume from the discount section at Walmart the day after Halloween.Honestly, director Dean Alioto (Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County, Portal) did alright. I mean, can we remind ourselves that this is a found footage movie from the 80s!?!?! I’m no expert, but I doubt there were any “true” found footage (i.e., 100% found footage) horror films before this—at least, very few anyway. Even Cannibal Holocaust (1980) was only perhaps 30-50% found footage despite being transformative for the subgenre.Much of the alien scene execution feels hokey even if purely by fault of the budget, and it may very well violate your suspension of belief. And some of the acting felt a bit forced (particularly the mother character). But, really, the overall frightened mania of this film works. And while I doubt I’ll ever feel the need to see this again, I’m glad I saw it.

What a lovely little gem. You get your regional low budget fix and simultaneously get a scary and very real film. The acting is perfect because it’s like a true home movie—that’s a feeling that can be so hard to capture. Very tense and fascinating.

I had heard about this video, and the word was correct. Very creepy!

This "found footage" film was ahead of it's time, and had it seen a wide release back when it was made it might have worked better, but there are a few things that hamper it's effectiveness today. I tried to keep in mind the limited budget while watching, but the aliens and their spacecraft were so obviously fake it was distracting. The spacecraft in particular, you can see it's just a wood or metal frame with some material stretched over it and some lights. A few more lights aimed towards the camera may have hidden some detail. Most horror movies work better because of what you don't see. Same for the Aliens, quick glimpses would have been much more effective. And the idea that the guy was filming these events almost continuously was just not believable. The Blair Witch Project did it right, filming events in bits and pieces, and from different viewpoints. Still you have to give credit where credit is due, they were pretty creative with the money they spent, and they did get my twenty dollars, so.... good on ya.

I've been searching for this film ever since I first saw it as a bootleg in the mid 1990s. It's probably the first found footage film made and still one of the best.

Great movie for aliens fan .. first found footage... pretty cool..

Buena opcion de terror y suspenso pero al ser una peli antigua, se ve algo borrosa.

Awesome